Lil Snupe was one of the most promising young artists of the 2010s.
He was a talented freestyler
who secured a deal with Meek Mill’s Dream Chasers Entertainment.
But before he could reach his true potential,
he was shot and killed over a game of 2K.
This is the tragic true story of Lil Snupe.
Snupe was born and raised in Jonesboro, Louisiana.
His pops was locked up when he was around four-years-old,
so Snupe was mostly raised by his mom, who had him when she was just 15.
Growing up, Snupe was an active kid who could never sit still.
He started rapping when he was four,
and it was clear early on that he had something special.
Most toddlers are barely able to put a sentence together,
but Lil Snupe was making up rhymes off the top of his head.
According to his mom, Snupe freestyled so much as a kid that sometimes
she made him write his bars down just so she could have some peace of mind.
She told XXL Magazine:
“It was just natural for him.
It was surprising to me because he would always be around rapping
but I just never paid attention to how good he really was.
So sometimes I would just be like,
“Can you be quiet? Go write it down.”
Because he’d just be freestyling all around and it would get on my nerves.”
Snupe was a smart kid,
but he got in trouble all the time because he couldn’t focus.
Sometimes, he would run away and hide out in abandoned apartment complexes
to avoid going to school and his mom would call the police.
She reported him to the cops so many times that they eventually got tired of dealing with him.
One time she called to report him missing and the dispatcher told her
“Ma’am he’s not missing, he’s a runaway.”
When Snupe was eight,
he joined a rap crew in Texas and started recording tracks with them after school.
Unfortunately they kicked him out for some reason, but that ain’t hold him back.
According to his mom, it just made Snupe want to prove himself even more.
Even though he knew from an early age he wanted to be a rapper,
it was hard for Snupe to not get distracted by his surroundings.
His mom says he never got into any real trouble with the law,
but Snupe made references to juvie in his music.
Everyone around him knew Snupe had talent, but no one believed in him more than his mom.
After he got kicked out of the Texas crew,
she saved her money and started buying recording equipment piece by piece
to support her son.
She wanted him to focus on music
and avoid getting sucked into the street life that got his dad locked up.
The thing that really set Snupe apart from everyone else was his freestyles.
He could spit bars off the dome for over an hour and never run out of things to say.
But unlike most dudes who get great at freestyling,
his recorded verses were just as good
- if not better.
And when Snupe dropped his first project 16 & Runnin in 2012,
people started paying attention immediately.
People in the area knew Snupe was good,
but he wanted to be more than a hometown hero - he wanted to be a legend.
So, when his favorite rapper, Meek Mill,
announced a show at Grambling State University, Snupe ain’t hesitate to shoot his shot.
Snupe knew a girl working security at the show and convinced her to give him a pass.
When Meek was about to leave after the concert,
Snupe walked right up to his van, knocked on the window,
and slid his mixtape over.
He bounced without saying a word,
but it ain’t take long before he got the news that would change his life.
About twenty minutes after Snupe handed Meek his tape,
he was riding around with his homies laughing about the situation.
Then, another one of their friends called them and said Meek had shouted Snupe out on Twitter.
Snupe couldn’t believe it,
but he hopped on Twitter and saw Meek posting lyrics from his tape.
Then Meek reached out himself and talked to Snupe over the phone.
Snupe and the people around him knew he was skilled,
but no one expected things to take off so fast.
Established rappers get mixtapes from up and coming artists every day,
So for Meek to respond to Snupe’s tape so strongly said a lot about the quality of the music.
A couple of weeks later, Snupe told his mom not to get him anything for Christmas
because Meek wanted him to come out to Philadelphia.
She brushed him off at first,
then Snupe showed her a Greyhound ticket from Louisiana to Philly.
She still thought it was weird that a massive artist like Meek
would send a bus ticket instead of flying him out,
but she took Snupe to the station anyway.
Snupe’s mom was working two jobs at the time and couldn’t go with him,
so she sent her son on a 36 hour bus ride to chase his dreams.
Snupe was performing a rap battle for T.I.’s album release party.
It wasn’t until her son’s funeral that she learned the true story.
Meek Mill told her that he never actually asked Snupe to come out,
he just showed up out of nowhere to link up.
Snupe made up the whole story so his mom would let him go.
All his homies told him dropping in on Meek without an invite was crazy,
but Snupe bet on himself and took the chance anyway.
It ended up paying off in a huge way, and Meek took him under his wing immediately.
Showing up at a massive artist’s doorstep looking for an opportunity
ain’t gonna work out 99% of the time,
but Snupe was so talented that Meek had no choice but to take him in.
He told Snupe about a rapper named Retro who wanted to battle him for 10K,
and Snupe accepted the challenge without hesitation.
Snupe stepped up and battled the dude in front of huge artists like T.I.,
Trae Tha Truth, and his new mentor Meek.
He easily dusted Retro and won the battle,
then a video of the whole thing went viral and put Snupe on the map.
From that first freestyle, everyone knew
they were watching something special.
Meek Mill signed Snupe to his Dream Chasers label
and started taking him around to show off his skills.
Snupe dropped his debut label project R.N.I.C.,
and everybody was convinced that he was the next to blow up.
With this tape
Snupe showed he wasn’t just a battle rapper who could freestyle off the dome,
but a talented artist with a clear sound and vision.
Everything happened so fast,
Snupe barely had time to enjoy his success.
He was on track to become a superstar,
but then tragedy struck and cut his life and career short.
Two months after he dropped R.N.I.C.,
Snupe was chilling at his friend’s apartment in Louisiana.
According to his friend Lil E, Snupe was playing 2K with a dude named Tony Holden.
Tony and Snupe were putting bets on the games, but the situation got heated when Tony lost,
so he pulled out a pistol and shot Snupe twice in the chest.
Tony Holden was already on bail at the time,
but he turned himself in and was charged with first-degree murder, armed robbery,
and illegal possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
Lil E was picked up for manslaughter,
but according to Snupe’s mom he was the one who actually pulled the trigger.
#1 Tony Holden did not kill Snupe,
it was Edrick Stewart.
Three years after Snupe’s death, his mom did an interview with XXL Magazine
and gave her side of the story.
She said that during the investigation it was discovered that the bullets that killed Snupe
ain’t match Tony’s gun, but they did match Lil E’s.
According to her,
Tony got 10 years for being a convicted felon with a firearm,
not killing Snupe.
The charge against Lil E was dropped
even though the authorities knew his bullet killed Snupe.
What makes the situation worse is that Snupe’s mom said Lil E
was involved in another homicide later that year,
which could have been prevented if the police did their job.
She told XXL that the police left the crime scene unguarded,
so people came through to rob the apartment and messed up evidence too.
From what Snupe’s mom says,
it seems like Lil E caused the whole issue.
Tony and Snupe weren’t even really heated with each other,
but then Lil E allegedly escalated the situation
and it ended with Snupe getting killed over nothing.
No one can say for sure what went down except the people who were there,
but it’s all definitely suspicious.
Ever since Snupe died,
his mom has tried to keep his name alive and get justice for his death.
She produced a documentary about his life
to inspire other kids like him to make it out of the streets and follow their dreams,
and also wrote a book about his story.
Meanwhile his dad got released from prison and started using his name to clout chase.
Snupe’s dad tried to air out his mom,
Meek Mill, and others for not putting a headstone on Snupe’s grave.
But Snupe’s mom said the whole thing was just a publicity stunt
because he wants to use his son’s name to get attention for himself.
Snupe's dad has caused, um,
it's all a show, it for a show, it's been rehearsed.
Basically he's having people to,
kinda coach him on what he thinks is gonna work,
because he's determined to be famous that's his main thing.
Lil Snupe was only 18 when he died,
and he had so much more talent that the world will never get to see.
He was only in the industry for a couple of months before his death,
but his impact was huge.
Not only was he skilled,
but everyone who met him only had positive things to say.
His mom told XXL that artists like Trae tha Truth, Yo Gotti, Boosie, and Meek Mill
still show her love and check up on her.
Snupe’s legacy lives on in the music he left behind
and the impression he made on people,
but unfortunately we only got to see the beginning.
Rest in peace to Lil Snupe,
one of the most promising artists of the 2010s who was taken way too soon.