An overdose or a bullet; sometimes it seems like only one of them ends the lives of young black American rappers. Takeoff was the umpteenth rapper to be killed by gun violence on Tuesday. In Houston, Texas, the member of Migos, the hip-hop formation from Atlanta that had been successful since 2013, was shot dead.
Kirshnik Khari Ball, Takeoff’s real name, didn’t live past the age of 28. And with Takeoff, Migos, one of the most influential crews of his generation, has come to a definitive end.
Together with acts such as Gucci Mane and Future, Migos represented the so-called Dirty South Sound from Atlanta. According to the US leading entertainment magazine billboard the group has “influenced pop culture and the English language by bringing their Atlanta heritage to the mainstream.”
In addition to Takeoff, Migos consisted of his uncle Quavo and his cousin Offset. In the United States they hit from 2013 and their debut single Versace increasingly popular. The second album culture from 2016 marked a real breakthrough into the mainstream and the single from that album Bad And Boujee reached number one on the US charts.
In the early days, however, Migos was already noticed by the pop media. Versace got a place in the annual lists of media in 2013 as Rolling Stone, spider and pitchfork. But Migos’ sound crystallized completely on the aforementioned album culture. That consisted of raps presented in an always staccato sequence of a few syllables to a beat of crackling hi hats and a deep bass: the well-known trap sound.
In fact, last year the trio claimed in the music magazine NME that they had popularized the trap genre worldwide but never received the recognition for it.
There are more examples of Migos features that have been picked up or stolen by others. Singer/rapper Drake needed the hit potential of Versace have sensed, because in the same year he made a remix of it and added a verse.
Drake also took off with the dance move The Dab that went viral and is now forever associated with the Canadian megastar. While that move—imagine an upcoming sneeze, turn your head and bury it in the elbow of one arm while saluting a good Caesar salute to the other—was invented by the Atlanta trio. In 2015 they already released the song Look At My Dab from.
That influence must also have been the reason that Takeoff, Quavo and Offset like themselves The Black Beatles called. The trio collaborated with well-known pop stars such as Cardi B, Nicki Minaj and Katy Perry. But in addition to all the successes, there was also a dark side to Migos. After a shortened appearance at Georgia Southern University in 2015, the three members of Migos were arrested and held for two days for, among other things, possession of marijuana and illegal possession of firearms.
Two years ago, Takeoff was charged in court with assault and deprivation of liberty. It was even unclear this year whether the crew still existed because Quavo’s ex-girlfriend had shared the bed with Offset. Quavo and Takeoff released an album without Offset this year.