Yo Gotti and Young Dolph
are two Memphis rap legends.
They had connections to each other in the streets,
and back in the day Gotti even wanted to sign Dolph to his label.
But instead of linking up in the studio
and putting on for the city together,
they sparked a wild beef that led to diss tracks,
death threats, and shootouts -
and today we’re breaking down the entire story.
Let’s get right into it.
Memphis is home to rap legends
like Three 6 Mafia, 8Ball&MJG, and more,
but it’s also one of the wildest cities in America.
Some sources say that the violent crime in Memphis
is five times higher than the national average.
Almost every rapper from the city
had to make it out of the streets,
and that’s allegedly where Dolph and Gotti first met.
Rumors say that Dolph was actually Gotti’s brother’s plug back in the day.
Dolph’s parents were both addicted to crack when he was growing up,
so he got active in the streets and made his own lane.
Back then he freestyled around his homies,
but he never took music seriously
until he almost died in a car crash.
After Dolph decided to switch up how he moved,
he went all-in with his rap career.
He started handing out free CDs all over the city,
and it didn’t take long for people to start paying attention.
In 2010 he dropped a project called Welcome 2 Dolph World
and picked up a lot of buzz in the city,
but Dolph had bigger plans than just popping off in his hometown.
That same year,
he started his own label called Paper Route Empire.
Every new project he dropped did bigger numbers than the last one,
and it was clear that Dolph had plans to take over the game.
In 2013 he released a collab project with Gucci Mane,
which ended up catching the attention of Yo Gotti.
Gotti is an icon in the Memphis rap scene.
He’s been in the game since ‘96,
and in 2012 he started his own label Collective Music Group,
aka CMG.
By 2014 he still didn’t have any artists on the roster though,
so he reached out to Dolph and offered him a deal.
Back then Dolph was buzzing but hadn’t really hit the mainstream yet.
Linking up with Gotti definitely would have boosted his career,
but that’s not how Dolph wanted to play it.
Even before he had a name in the industry,
Dolph knew he wanted to create his own lane.
He started a label before he even hit the charts,
so it was clear that he had big plans.
According to him,
that’s why he turned down Gotti’s offer.
Dolph told Sway
Only thing was gonna happen that
was people like 'oh he popped off because of Gotti'.
By the time Gotti tried to sign him in 2014,
Dolph had already put a ton of work and money into his own career,
and he didn’t want all that to go to waste by riding someone else's wave.
Sway told Dolph
I know Gotti respect that
‘cause he did the same thing.
but unfortunately that’s not how it turned out.
Dolph showed Gotti respect
when he talked about the situation in interviews,
but apparently there was already static behind the scenes.
Nothing happened between them for a couple of years though.
Dolph stayed on the grind and went double platinum with OT Genesis,
while Gotti decided to sign Blac Youngsta
and mentor him instead.
Blac Youngsta is another Memphis rapper
who survived the trenches before hopping in the booth.
He was raised by a single mom
and had to learn how to get by at an early age.
Youngsta got his first job at just 7 years old
stocking shelves at a grocery store,
but he was fired for stealing food and got active in the streets.
He was always in and out of jail on gun and drug charges,
and that’s where he first learned how to rap.
In 2012 he dropped two projects and started building some momentum,
and in 2014
he popped off with the track Heavy.
The song put him on the map in the Memphis rap scene,
and not before long Yo Gotti hopped on the remix
and signed Blac Youngsta to CMG.
Youngsta was later booked
for allegedly dumping a hundred rounds at Dolph,
but it all started with social media disses.
In February 2016,
Dolph dropped his debut album and called it King of Memphis.
Gotti had called himself the king of Memphis before,
and he was allegedly trippin over the album title.
Around the same time he released the album,
Dolph made the beef official and tweeted
“Bra went from bein my #1 fan
and wanting to sign me to being my biggest hater #Facts.”
Gotti had beef in the rap game before,
so fans expected him to clap back at Dolph.
But instead,
he just let his new artist do the dissing for him.
While Gotti stayed quiet, Blac Youngsta hopped into the beef
and called Dolph a b**** -
and on social media he wrote
“When I C dat n**** Dolph
I’ma smack the shit out of em, on my life.”
Blac Youngsta even rolled up to Dolph’s hood
with a bunch of his homies but nothing serious went down.
Then a few weeks later,
Dolph clapped back on IG and aired Gotti out
for hating on Memphis rappers
and sending Blac Youngsta to fight for him.
He also accused Gotti of putting the police on him.
H* Gotti you is a b**** ass n****
I just got back to the city
they said you tryna put charges on me and put the police on me.
And around the same time,
Dolph hopped on the remix of the track Ready by Trouble and said
“All of my n****s, they ready
Y’all some p*****s, you scared
All on the internet tellin’
Tryna have a real n**** jailin’
This shit ‘round my neck so heavy
I’ma keep drippin’ sauce, spaghetti.”
Fans linked the heavy line to Blac Youngsta’s track Heavy,
and Dolph took more shots at him and Gotti with the lines
“Any n**** that record when it’s time for gangster s***,
he the police
And I f***** your boss man baby mama
same hotel for four weeks
Never send a lil’ boy
to take care of grown man business
If I was you, I’d be mad at me too,
so I ain’t trippin’.”
Blac Youngsta clapped back with the track Shake Sum
where he called Dolph out by name and said
“Dolph Thorton, wanna play h*
I’m on tour with the K, h*
Mac 11, Smith & Wesson, extended clip,
100 rounds on draco
How the f*** you the king of Memphis,
you ain’t from the city, you from Chicago
F*** boy you better lay low
Killers move when I say so
My lil n**** rob and steady killin’
rappin’ n****s mama’s and s*** lil n****”
Dolph didn’t respond to the track,
but a few months later
he dropped the song Play Wit Yo B****
and took the beef with Gotti to the next level.
Play Wit Yo B**** is a wild diss track
where Dolph claimed he hooked up with Gotti’s baby mama and said
“Don’t play with me H* Gotti, you a h*, man
You went from my biggest fan to my biggest hater
Beggin’ me to sign with you, but I had too much paper
Still that same n****
that used to front your big brother
Found out he a b**** too,
now I call him your big sister.”
and
“They said them p**** n****s on your team
iron your drawers
They say you make them p**** ass n****s call you boss
But they can’t call you king, because that’s Dolph.”
But instead of coming back with his own song,
Gotti just tweeted
“I’m business partners wit La Reid N Jay Z.”
and “Blah blah blah.”
The beef cooled off for a while after this,
but then Dolph dropped the video for Play Wit Yo B****
and the situation got deadly.
The video for the track
shows Dolph stealing a girl from a Gotti look-alike,
which was so disrespectful that it almost got him killed.
A day after it dropped,
someone let off over 100 shots into Dolph’s SUV
when he was in North Carolina.
The situation got crazy,
but Dolph made it out alive because the whip was bulletproofed.
He still went on stage that night and performed Play Wit Yo B****,
which proved that he wasn’t backing down from anyone.
Blac Youngsta was charged with the shooting,
but the case was dropped a couple years later due to lack of evidence.
Dolph wasn’t going to let the shooting slow him down,
and in April 2017 he even used it to help his career.
He dropped an album called Bulletproof,
and the track titles were actually a message
to whoever tried to take him out.
When you put all the tracks in order it says
“100 Shots In Charlotte, But I’m Bulletproof,
So F*k ‘em.
That’s How I Feel, All Of Them.
I’m So Real, I Pray For My Enemies.
I’m Everything You Wanna Be, SMH”
The shooting in North Carolina wasn’t the end though.
Just a few months later,
Dolph allegedly found out where Gotti was staying in LA.
When he pulled up to press him,
a fight broke out between their crews
and Dolph ended up getting shot three times.
Gotti’s homie got booked for almost killing Dolph,
but his charges ended up getting dropped
because nobody would work with the cops.
Back then it seemed like
the beef would keep going until somebody got killed.
But after Dolph got shot,
both sides just kind of moved on
and focused on their own careers.
Dolph was blowing up more than ever,
plus he had just signed his cousin Key Glock
and was busy with all of his charity work too.
At the same time,
Gotti’s CMG label was picking up new artists
and he was still working on his own music.
But while the beef died down
and nobody was sending shots,
Dolph was tragically murdered
before they could officially squash it.
In November 2021,
Dolph was caught by two shooters
at Makeda’s Homemade Butter Cookies in Memphis.
While he was shopping in the bakery,
the gunmen pulled up and shot him over twenty times.
When the news broke,
rumors immediately started flying that Gotti was behind it -
but right now there’s no evidence that links him to the hit.
The cops have charged five dudes
who they believe were involved,
but nobody knows why they wanted to kill Dolph.
The way everything went down
makes it clear that Dolph was the target,
but we probably won’t have any concrete answers until the trial starts.
Dolph and Gotti linking up could have been huge for Memphis,
but unfortunately that’s just not how it went.
It’s still not clear if Gotti was pressed like that
over Dolph turning down his offer,
or if there was more going on behind the scenes
that we don’t know about.
But whatever the issue was,
it led to one of the craziest rap beefs in Memphis history
and helped turn Dolph into a legend in his hometown
and the entire rap game.
Rest in peace to Young Dolph.