Rapper Young Dolph has been shot dead in his hometown of Memphis, according to police.
The 36-year-old rapper was best known for featuring in O.T. Genasis’ hit single Cut It and a slew of successful independent albums and singles.
FOX 13 Memphis, a local news station, confirmed the popular rapper’s death with three law enforcement sources. Several eyewitnesses also identified the Hip Hop artist on social media.
According to the store owner, Dolph, real name Adolph Robert Thornton, Jr., reportedly went into a store to buy cookies. He was then killed in a drive-by shooting at 1 pm on Wednesday.
The shooting occurred at Makeda’s Cookies, and crowds have gathered at the scene of the shooting.
Hip Hop personality DJ Akademiks writes that the Memphis rapper shot back at his killers.
“From what I’m hearing, Young Dolph went to pick up food and got ambushed, he returned fire but got hit several times and succumbed to the injuries he sustained,” he tweeted.
Akademiks adds that the shooters may have followed the well-known Memphis rapper after his luxury car was spotted.
“It’s quite possible that Young Dolph was followed to the cookie shop since he was driving his infamous & very noticeable camo vehicle, or someone who noticed him in the shop may have tipped his killers off. He was standing in the store when a car pulled up firing through the window,” he wrote in a follow-up tweet.
Dolph had released seven studio albums independently, along with at least 18 mixtapes. In addition, he has several collaborations with protégé Key Glock — they released a collaborative album Dum and Dummer in 2019.
One eyewitness can be heard saying the rapper was shot in the head. However, it is unclear how many times he was shot at the time of writing this report.
Young Dolph survived attempt on his life in 2017
The late rapper survived a shooting in Hollywood, Los Angeles, in 2017 after an argument with three men.
He was left in critical condition but survived and made a full recovery after being struck three times.
Yo Gotti, a fellow Memphis rapper, was named a person of interest in the shooting but was cleared. However, a friend of Gotti’s, Corey McClendon, was charged with attempted murder.
In February of the same year, Dolph’s SUV was targeted and hit with about 100 bullets in Charlotte, N.C.
The late Hip Hop star was unharmed in the shooting due to his bulletproof vehicle. Another associate of Yo Gotti, Blac Youngsta, turned himself in for the shooting, but the charges were later dropped.
Blac Youngsta is a rapper and social media personality signed to Yo Gotti’s record label.
Tributes pour in for Young Dolph
The 36-year-old rapper was a successful independent artist, a rarity in Hip Hop. He had 4.6 million followers on his Instagram account.
His music videos garner millions of views on YouTube and routinely have millions of streams of his music catalog.
Young Dolph is survived by his two children, a son, and a daughter.