2021 was a rough year for hip hop fans.
We lost a few legends, as well as some promising up-and-coming rappers.
Hip hop comes from the streets,
which means it’s always been surrounded by violence.
But right now it seems like we’re losing more artists than ever.
Today we’re honoring a few of the rappers who passed away in 2021.
Young Dolph
Young Dolph was a Memphis legend who achieved mainstream success
while staying independent and owning his masters.
But he also made some enemies along the way and unfortunately
Dolph was tragically killed last November.
He was picking up cookies from his favorite bakery in Memphis
when two men pulled up and shot him over 22 times.
Dolph was born in Chicago but moved to Memphis when he was two-years-old.
When he was young, both of his parents were addicted to crack
and he was mostly raised by his grandmother.
His grandma tried to discipline him
and keep him away from the crime in the neighborhood.
But Dolph jumped off the porch early and started hustling to get by.
He might have ended up just being another street dude who rapped on the side,
but in 2008 he got into a car accident that almost killed him.
That brush with death made him realize life was short
and he decided to take his music seriously.
So, he dropped his first mixtape that same year.
People in the city rocked with his music immediately,
but Dolph always had a bigger vision.
He started his own label Paper Route Empire in 2010
and started collaborating with massive artists like Gucci Mane.
At this point, he built a massive buzz,
and fellow Memphis icon Yo Gotti wanted to sign him to his CMG label.
But, Dolph turned Gotti down because he wanted to make his own lane.
This caused a split in the Memphis rap scene that continues to this day.
Even though his beef with Gotti never got patched up,
Dolph ain’t let it slow him down.
He was getting bigger and bigger with every project he dropped
and collab’d with everyone from Wiz Khalifa to the Migos.
He called himself the King of Memphis,
but Dolph never wanted all the shine for himself.
He always put on for the artists on his label,
and helped take his cousin Key Glock’s career to the next level.
Dolph was also respected in Memphis for everything he did for his community.
He donated $25,000 to his high school,
gave motivational speeches to kids in the city,
and handed out Thanksgiving dinners for struggling families.
Even though he was taken too soon, Dolph’s legacy will live on in the city he loved.
Rest in Peace Young Dolph.
Drakeo the Ruler
Drakeo the Ruler was one of the most unique and influential artists in the game.
But like Young Dolph, he was murdered in his hometown last year.
On December 18th, he was scheduled to perform
at the Once Upon a Time in LA Music Festival along with artists like 50 Cent,
YG, and The Game.
Backstage, Drakeo and his crew
were reportedly surrounded by a mob of around 50 people and a fight broke out.
During the chaos, Drakeo was stabbed in the neck and rushed to the hospital.
The festival was shut down immediately before the headliners even took the stage,
and the next morning it was confirmed
that the 28-year-old rapper died from his injuries.
Drakeo was born and raised in LA.
He started dropping projects in the mid-2010s.
But his career really took off when DJ Mustard remixed his track
Mr. Get Dough in 2015.
Later that year he released the mixtape I Am Mr. Moseley on Mustard’s label.
Mustard even wanted to sign Drakeo to his label,
but Drakeo turned him down so he could stay independent and make his own lane.
He followed up in 2016 with two more projects,
but then he was arrested in January 2017 for possession of a firearm by a felon.
When he was released from jail in November 2017,
he recorded the mixtape Cold Devil in ten days,
which Complex called “one of the most impressive California rap projects in years.”
In 2018 he got arrested for murder and was facing life in prison.
While his legal team fought the case,
Drakeo stayed busy behind bars.
He recorded the project Thank You for Using GTL
completely over the phone while he was locked up,
and critics called it one of the best albums ever recorded in jail.
After a new DA was elected in Los Angeles,
Drakeo was offered a deal and released at the end of 2020.
He ain’t waste no time
and dropped the album We Know the Truth in December of that year.
Then in 2021 he linked up with Drake for his biggest hit yet, Talk to Me.
By the end of 2021, Drakeo released four new projects
and took his career to a new level.
Performing at the Once Upon a Time in LA festival
should have been a celebration of his freedom and success,
but unfortunately, it ended with Drakeo being murdered in his hometown.
Slim 400
Slim 400 was a rapper from the West coast who was affiliated with YG.
Just as he was beginning to build a buzz,
Slim was gunned down on December 8th, 2021 in Inglewood, California.
Slim’s parents were in the military and stationed in Germany when he was born.
But they eventually moved to Compton when he was still a kid.
Slim was discovered by YG and the two of them dropped tracks together
like Piru and Word Is Bond.
Over the years they became real close,
and YG even got Slim’s face tatted on him after his tragic death.
Not much is known about his murder or who was behind it,
but it wasn’t the first time Slim got shot.
Back in 2019 he was hit nine times in an ambush in Compton.
After he recovered, he said in an interview “I hit the ground thinking it was over.
My family came out, kept me alive,
talking to me, dragging me in the house while they still shooting.”
After the 2019 hit, Slim went even harder on his music.
But unfortunately, he ain’t make it out the hood before the streets caught up to him.
Rest in peace to Slim 400,
he was a talented artist who had a lot of love from his peers and fans.
Hopefully his killers will be caught and his family can get closure.
Lil Loaded
The hip hop community lost a lot of great artists in 2021,
but Lil Loaded’s story is one of the saddest.
He was on his way to changing his life forever,
then a series of horrible events happened
that ended with him committing suicide at just 20-years-old.
Lil Loaded was from Dallas, Texas and blew up with his breakout hit 6locc 6a6y.
Growing up, his older brother taught him how to move in the streets
and he joined the Rollin 60’s Crips at a young age.
When the rapper was 15, his brother was shot and killed,
which made him turn up in the streets even more.
He got into shootouts, and at one point
got shot in the hand after he blocked a bullet that was headed for his face.
After getting shot, he decided he ain’t want to end up like his brother,
so he turned to music as his way out.
He dropped his first track B.O.S. in June 2019,
then he released the song that changed everything: 6locc 6a6y.
A YouTuber named Tommy Craze found the track when it had zero views on YouTube.
He loved the song, and his fanbase helped it go viral overnight by reviewing it on his channel.
The next day, Lil Loaded was on a plane to meet with managers.
Loaded capitalized on the success and dropped more music.
Then he signed to Epic Records and released his first mixtape at the end of 2019.
All of a sudden he was working with dudes like King Von and Hotboii,
and it looked like he was about to take over the rap game.
Then in October 2020, one of Loaded’s closest friends died from a gunshot wound.
According to Loaded, he, his friend Khalil Walker,
and a third dude were filming a music video with a gun.
The gun went off while Lil Loaded was holding it,
and Walker was tragically shot in the chest.
Loaded was indicted for manslaughter and later turned himself in to authorities.
But he was later released on house arrest and allowed to continue making music.
Everything happened so fast.
A year before he was living a pretty normal life,
then all of a sudden he was one of the hottest rappers in the industry,
his close friend was dead, and he was potentially facing years in prison.
Then, on May 31st, a relative found him dead from a self-inflicted gunshot.
Everyone was shocked at the news,
but apparently, the guilt of Walker’s death wasn’t the only thing weighing on his mind.
His last Instagram post said “Dear most high.
Please forgive me for my shortcomings
and all of the times I’ve fell short of making you proud
and being appreciative of all the blessings that have been put in my life.
Sometimes the lines are blurred between being solid and being heartless
I want to thank you for how far I've come and the people you've put in my life
to keep me grounded and humble through everything
and I love every single one of those people that are genuinely for me
I ask for entrance into your kingdom thru all of my mistakes
I know you love all of your children and I'm ready for my heart and soul to Join you.”
After his death, one of Loaded’s friends came forward
and claimed that he committed suicide because his girlfriend cheated on him.
No one will ever know the full reason why Lil Loaded took his own life,
but it’s one of the most tragic stories of 2021.
Rest in peace to Lil Loaded, another promising young artist we lost too soon.
KTS Dre
KTS Dre was a Chiraq demon who was known for his high-profile beef
with G Herbo’s gang No Limit.
In 2021 he was shot 64 times right outside of Cook County Jail.
His brother KTS Von was more well-known as a rapper,
but both of them put in work in the studio and the streets.
KTS, or Kill To Survive, is a GD set that has beef with sets all over the city,
including NLMB and O’Block.
A war between NLMB and KTS was sparked in 2008
when 16-year-old Lil Pez got shot in the head.
Pez wasn’t officially KTS,
but he grew up in the neighborhood and everyone loved him.
No one was arrested for his death, but KTS thought NLMB was responsible,
so from that point on, it was on-sight.
Dre and Von went after NLMB hard.
Over the next few years, the sets went back and forth,
with bodies dropping on both sides.
Then in 2015, the opps caught Von lacking and shot him to death.
An NLMB affiliate named Choppa dissed Von in a video the same day he died,
which led many to believe they were behind the hit.
Dre was ready to take them all out,
but he ended up getting arrested before he had the chance to get back.
He spent three years in jail,
then got sent right back in April 2020 on a gun charge.
Dre was released on house arrest,
but he violated it by taking a trip to Wisconsin without telling his parole officer.
He was arrested again and his fiance posted bail,
but he still wasn’t released until the next day.
His fiance and grandmother met him at the jail to take him home.
As they were walking to the car,
two vehicles pulled up and a bunch of shooters hopped out.
They started letting off shots, aiming at Dre but not caring who they hit.
His grandma was shot in the knees, and a bystander got hit in the mouth.
Dre was hit 64 times in the face and chest, dying at just 31-years-old.
Dre’s death was the final nail in the coffin in the war between KTS and NLMB.
Dre and Von were two of the most savage dudes in Chicago,
but when you go to war there’s always a chance you won’t make it out alive.
Rest in peace to them and everyone else who died during this wild beef.
Edai
Edai was a Chicago artist who helped pioneer the drill sound.
He might not have been as popular as Chief Keef and Lil Durk,
but Edai was just as important to the movement.
He was from a BD set called 600,
which had other drill rappers like S Dot, LA Capone, and RondoNumbaNine.
Edai and his brother Cdai were well-known dudes in the street,
and Edai went after the opps in his music too.
His track War from 2014 was an infamous diss against the GDs.
He went after dudes from STL/EBT
and Bricksquad, and even dissed their dead homies.
Going after dead opps on tracks is common now, but Edai was one of the first rappers to do it.
Eventually things started falling apart around Edai.
His homie LA Capone was murdered,
then his brother Cdai was arrested with their friend Rondonumbanine
for allegedly killing an innocent cab driver.
Both of them were found guilty of murder and sentenced to over thirty years.
Instead of going harder into the beefs that resulted in being dead and locked up,
Edai decided to give it all up and become a truck driver.
It was a strange twist in his story,
but a lot of people were glad to see him make it out.
Unfortunately, his past still caught up to him.
On July 31st, 2021, he was shot several times in the back
and was pronounced dead the next day.
RIP Edai, he tried to make it out before it was too late.
But staying in Chicago, even as a truck driver, turned out to be a deadly mistake.
DMX
DMX was a hip hop legend.
When he dropped It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot in 1998,
it changed everything.
No one ever heard anything like it.
DMX laid down violent bars about his tragedy-filled life,
barking and growling like the stray dogs he used to befriend when he lived on the street.
The fact that he even had a career is a miracle.
There are plenty of artists in hip hop who went through hell to get to where they are today,
but DMX’s life would sound fake if you put it in a movie.
He grew up being beaten by his mom and her boyfriends,
sleeping on a floor crawling with mice and roaches.
When he was six, his mom knocked out two of his teeth with a broom.
Every day was like a nightmare,
but the terrible abuse he went through helped DMX become a certified icon.
Unfortunately, they also led to the addictions that eventually killed him.
DMX reached the highest highs and the lowest lows.
His third album ... And Then There Was X was certified six-times Platinum,
and the track Party Up was a top ten hit on the R&B charts.
But throughout his career, the issues from his past never left.
He turned to drugs to cover the pain, and on April 9th, 2021,
he died at 50-years-old from a cocaine-induced heart attack.
DMX’s legacy will live on in the iconic music he created.
But unfortunately he won’t be around to see just how much of an impact it truly had.
Rest in peace to the legend
and everyone else mentioned in this video.