Young Dolph, a deeply skilled Memphis rapper with deadpan bravado and a fierce independent streak who emerged as one of hip-hop’s most promising new stars in recent years, was killed Wednesday in a shooting in his hometown.
Officers responded to the scene at 12:24 p.m.
The local Fox affiliate reported that the victim was Young Dolph, citing law enforcement sources and the owner of the shop, who said the rapper was buying cookies.
in Chicago, Young Dolph moved as a small child to Memphis, where he was raised mostly by his grandmother.
“Can you imagine a 77-year-old woman trying to raise three elementary kids in the middle of the hood, with all this gang activity and drug” infestation, Young Dolph said in a 2014 interview with Vice.
Some of his best releases were his collaborations with his protégé — and cousin — Key Glock, including the 2019 album “Dum and Dummer” and the album “Dum and Dummer 2,” released in March.
But it’s just, I see something else,” he said on the podcast “Drink Champs” later that year.
He was also an in-demand collaborator, releasing songs with Snoop Dogg, Gucci Mane, Megan Thee Stallion, Young Thug and many others.
He rapped crisply, as if delivering stern lectures to students not ready to hear them.
The authorities sought to tie the two 2017 shootings to a running feud between Young Dolph and another Memphis rapper, Yo Gotti, who was not charged in either incident.
Another Memphis rapper, Blac Youngsta, who is signed to Yo Gotti’s CMG label, was arrested in the Charlotte shooting, along with two other men, although charges against all three were eventually dropped.
“He was looking forward, from our conversation, to moving into that next stage of life — the lifestyle of somebody a little bit older,” Findling said in an interview.
In 2018, two employees of a coffee shop on the Duke University campus were fired after a school administrator objected to hearing Dolph’s “Get Paid” playing in the shop.
In what would be his final posts to Twitter last month, Young Dolph discussed a recent turn toward caring for his own mental health.