In America, you can always recognize when something tremendously awful has occurred by driving past any government building. Whether the death of a prominent public figure or a horrifying tragedy that cost several people their lives, the flags in front of these buildings are not flying at their usual height. Instead, the flag is flown at half-mast, as it is brought all the way to the top, where it usually stands, and then lowered back down to an eerie halfway point. It’s most often interpreted as a sign of distress or deep mourning – two feelings that the city of Atlanta has been forced to endure far too often this year.
If there was an official headquarters to physically represent the infamous Southern city’s claim as the Hip-Hop capital of the world, the flags there — likely adorned with 1017, Quality Control, Young Stoner Life, 4PF, Snowman, and So So Def logos — would have been flown at half-mast for damn-near the entirety of 2022. Tragedy after tragedy has struck Atlanta over the last six months. As a result of the slew of controversial arrests and the nonstop loss of precious lives, the once-sensational Atlanta Hip-Hop scene has slowly started to wane.
This week, rap fans across the globe are mourning the passing of Takeoff, an exceptionally gifted rapper who was the glue that melded Quavo and Offset’s flashy styles together to create one of the most iconic Hip-Hop trios of all time. While he was never typically the loudest or most showy member of Migos, he was by far the most consistent. On every Migos project, his contributions never went unnoticed, from his game-changing cadence and his exhilarating adlibs to the distinct timbre of his voice and his always clever bars. Outside of music, Takeoff was surprisingly a rather captivating person despite his reserved nature, as evidenced by the DJ Takeoff video that went viral after the release of Quavo’s Quavo Huncho solo album, his hilarious “Cap” moment during Migos’ 2018 Breakfast Club interview, and his unforgettable “Do it look like I’m left off ‘Bad and Boujee?” exchange with DJ Akademiks at the 2017 BET Awards.
Born Kirshnik Khari Ball in 1994, Takeoff was only 28 years old when he was shot and killed in Houston, Texas in the early hours of Tuesday, November 1. For anyone who fell in love with Migos over the last decade, fully embraced the Atlanta rap scene, or simply enjoyed the trio’s extensive list of hits, Takeoff’s passing truly hits hard. He was a rapper who refrained from the riff-raff that plagues the entertainment industry and regularly gave back to his community.
Decades from now, the Hip-Hop community was supposed to get the chance to honor Takeoff and his fellow Migos members with well-deserved Lifetime Achievement Awards. Together, the middle-aged trio would remind the world that they changed rap forever during their stint in the 2010s, and perform classic throwbacks like “Versace,” “Hannah Montana,” “Pipe It Up,” “Bad and Boujee,” “Slippery,” “Walk It Talk It,” “Motorsport,” and “Straightenin,” amongst countless other hits. It would have been a nostalgic, entertaining, and undoubtedly viral spectacle, but unfortunately, we’ll never get the opportunity to see that come to fruition.
Due to Takeoff’s passing, fans, friends, and, most importantly, his family, have all been robbed of the chance to see the young superstar grow old. It’s a horrible reality that we all must now accept. Sadly, it isn’t the first instance in which the Atlanta Hip-Hop community has had to face such bleak circumstances. Atlanta felt a pain like this back in 2016 when the city lost beloved newcomer Bankroll Fresh and D4L legend Shawty Lo within a matter of months. But considering everything that has happened since the spring, no year in recent memory has been as traumatic for the city’s Hip-Hop scene as 2022.
In April, news broke that Archie Eversole — the artist best known for his timeless Atlanta anthem “We Ready” — had been shot and killed at the age of 37.
Approximately one month after Eversole was pronounced dead, things got even worse. In May, Young Thug, Gunna, and several other YSL Records artists — including YSL Duke, Yak Gotti, and Thug’s brother Unfoonk — were named in a sweeping RICO indictment that shook Atlanta and the entire Hip-Hop community to the core. With countless felony charges being levied against the Slime Language crew, many people have already written the Atlanta record label off, predicting that they will all likely serve a substantial amount of time behind bars. While it cannot be stressed enough that jail time is incomparable to the finality of death, having one’s life claimed by the criminal justice system typically results in long-lasting and potentially lifelong repercussions. Thus, for all intents and purposes, Atlanta is at risk of losing Young Stoner Life Records and a slew of its signed acts, as well.
Unfortunately, the city’s fear of losing Young Thug and Gunna to the system was soon overpowered by the devastating news of Lil Keed’s passing.
One of the most beloved rising acts on YSL Records, Lil Keed, born Raqhid Jevon Render, had successfully managed to avoid being named in the sweeping Fulton County RICO indictment in May. However, days after several of his labelmates went behind bars, the eccentric artist — known for mixtapes like Long Live Mexico, and his uncanny sonic resemblance to his mentor, Young Thug — was pronounced dead at 24 years old. While violence didn’t lead to Keed’s passing, the news of the promising, off-the-wall artist’s death stung nevertheless. Even with notable songs, projects, and some impressive performances on 2021’s Slime Language 2, Lil Keed was still a rising artist who was coming into his own. The fact that his life was also cut short can be described as nothing less than devastating.
At that point, Atlanta was really hurting — for a life lost to violence, for lives lost to the system, and for a life that seemed to end so prematurely. Alas, the city’s suffering has continued and intensified multiple times since then.
Over the summer, another local legend met his end. This time, preventable and inexplicable violence was, once again, the cause of the artist’s death. On Sunday, June 5, 2022, Atlanta rapper Trouble, born Mariel Semonte Orr, was at the center of a shocking and horrifying news story.
According to several news outlets, the Edgewood artist was murdered during a home invasion in Rockdale County that was spurred by a toxic and deadly domestic dispute that didn’t even involve him. Nevertheless, Trouble was shot and killed, leaving another family without a loved one, Atlanta without a prominent community figure, and the local scene without another fan-favorite.
To have endured all of those tragedies and losses in one year has undoubtedly been tough for the A, so waking up to the news of Takeoff’s murder had to crush the souls of countless Atlanta fans, artists, and music industry professionals on Tuesday. A city that has spent the last decade winning over everyone – from the most hardcore Hip-Hop purists to fans from across the globe who never even thought about listening to rap prior to the 2010s – has spent the last ten months in a relentless state of grief.
Consequently, Atlanta is slowly losing its grip on the culture. Where many rap movements typically fizzle out due to factors like unfavorable releases and the aging of the area’s main players, the current rap capital — if it can even still firmly hold onto that title — is dwindling for all the wrong reasons. Practically all of the artists that Atlanta has lost this year are major players in the music industry; a majority of them played invaluable roles throughout the 2010s that helped shape the sound of contemporary Hip-Hop. A whole generation of game-changing artists is disappearing before our eyes, and it cannot be stressed how big of a role violence plays in this erasure.
If this trend continues, who will be left standing? What surviving artists will be around to commend for the historic Hip-Hop run that Atlanta went on throughout the last decade? It’s hard to even mention Atlanta rappers who are still around out of fear that they may be the next artist to have their life snatched away from them. This constant cycle of death, incarceration, and loss is overwhelming, and it desperately needs to come to an end.
So as we all mourn the loss of Takeoff and all of the artists mentioned throughout this article, please pray for Atlanta because it most certainly needs it.
