Multi-platinum rapper and Migos member Takeoff was killed in Houston, TX in the early hours of November 1. The artist, born Kirshnik Khari Ball, was just 28 years old and he leaves behind a discography that helped re-shape not just the sound of southern hip-hop in the 2010s, but pop music as a whole. The news was confirmed by TMZ, with the fatal shooting reportedly taking place at a bowling alley. Reports indicate Takeoff and Quavo, their entourage, and a local Houston group were playing a dice game that got heated and quickly escalated into gunfire, which left Takeoff dead and two others wounded.
Migos, a trio of three family members from Lawrenceville, GA—Takeoff was Quavo’s nephew, Offset is their cousin—first gained national attention in 2013 with their singles “Versace” and “Hannah Montana.” On those records and dozens of others, Takeoff impressed with dextrous, elastic flows. The triplet style of rapping that he, Quavo, and Offset pioneered became a pillar of contemporary hip-hop, particularly when the group became A-listers after topping charts with 2017’s Culture. Migos became a staple act for the Quality Control record label, and the rappers quickly became in-demand collaborators, working with high-profile artists like Drake, Katy Perry, and Cardi B.
“Friendly metaphors just with what you talking about in real life, what’s going on in the streets, that’s the deadly combination that just go together. There’s something about it,” Takeoff recently told Rolling Stone when asked why the southern trap sound they helped popularize has become a kind of musical lingua franca.
The three rappers demonstrated an easy chemistry in their ad-libs and seamless spotlight sharing, which was a product of their shared upbringing. Takeoff and Quavo had been making music together since adolescence, when they recorded under the name Polo Club. Quavo has frequently cited Takeoff as the first member to take rapping seriously, and often happily conceded that Takeoff was the group’s strongest rapper. The last Migos album, Culture III, was released in June 2021, and since then there have been pervasive rumors about tension between the three parties leading to a breakup, although the trio never officially referred to it as such. “We always family, that ain’t gonna change,” Takeoff told the Big Facts Podcast in October when asked about the situation with Offset, and whether there would ever be more Migos music in the future.
The three Migos members each released solo albums, and Takeoff’s 2018 LP The Last Rocket was viewed by many as the finest of the bunch. Lean and focused, the record blended cosmic imagery with inventive boasts and off-kilter beat choices. Last month, Takeoff and Quavo released their first collaborative LP without Offset, Only Built for Infinity Links, which earned critical praise and debuted at no. 7 on the Billboard 200. The two appeared on the popular hip-hop podcast Drink Champs a little over a week ago, where Takeoff notably said that he viewed the new album as the time to step up and show off his skills to “get his flowers while he’s still here.”
Takeoff’s passing continues a disturbing trend of rapper deaths in the last year, which includes fellow Atlanta MCs Trouble and Lil Keed, Takeoff collaborator Young Dolph, and, most recently, PnB Rock.