Young Dolph was killed in a shooting in Memphis, Tennessee, at age 36, police say.
The rapper, whose real name is Adolph Robert Thornton, Jr., was reportedly buying cookies when someone drove up and shot him.
Daily Memphian reports that Memphis rapper and Billboard Top 10 artist Young Dolph died at a local cookie shop after being fatally shot Wednesday, Nov. 17, spurring an outpouring of grief.
Accoording to AP News, Young Dolph In his music, rapped about being a drug dealer and life on the streets in Memphis. He recently performed at a concert at the University of Memphis and has performed during the halftime of a Memphis Grizzlies game. He was admired in Memphis as a torchbearer of the city’s rap legends, Three 6 Mafia.
Young Dolph considered himself a workaholic and in recent years was focused on growing his business. “I’m a CEO first, then an artist,” he told the writer Gary Suarez in a 2020 interview for Forbes, saying he’d strategically held off on signing with a major label. “As long as I keep going up and keep working, my value is going to increase.”
“I know what the streets want to hear, I know what the street’s going through, the lingo, the fashion, everything. It ain’t nothing; it’s my real life,” he told Suarez.
Young Dolph had survived previous shootings. He was shot multiple times in September 2017 after a fight outside a Los Angeles hotel.
In February of that year, his SUV was shot at in Charlotte, North Carolina, more than 100 times.
The incident was the inspiration for the song “100 Shots.” He said he survived because he had bulletproof panels in his vehicle, The Commercial Appeal reported.
