MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Police confirmed rapper Young Dolph was shot and killed Wednesday afternoon along Airways Boulevard in Memphis, Tennessee. He was 36.
Officers were called to the scene in the 2300 block of Airways, outside of Makeda’s Cookies in southeast Memphis.
Investigators have not said what led to the shooting, but a source told WATN in Memphis that the rapper was killed in the shooting.
Adolph Thornton Jr., aka Young Dolph, was a Memphis native who started with mixtapes before emerging nationwide around 2014, according to his website bio. He has worked with 2 Chainz, Juicy J of Three 6 Mafia, Young Jeezy, and Rick Ross, among others. His debut studio album, King of Memphis, was released in 2016 and debuted at number 8 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Album Charts.
Less than a week ago, Makeda's Cookies posted a video to Instagram showing Young Dolph talking about his love of their cookies.
Young Dolph was shot in Los Angeles in September of 2017 but survived the incident. Detectives had looked into whether the shooting is connected to a rivalry with another hip-hop artist, the official said.
The LA shooting happened more than six months after he survived a hail of gunfire shot at his SUV in Charlotte. He escaped injury in that February shooting despite his SUV being barraged with bullets.
Investigators later recovered more than 100 shell casings that had been fired from various guns at several homes and vehicles, including Young Dolph’s SUV during that shooting. The rapper later said he had custom bulletproof panels in the SUV.
Dolph released an album in April 2017 titled Bulletproof that referenced the shooting in Charlotte and ranked number 36 on the Billboard 200 albums chart.
Three people, including rapper Blac Youngsta, were arrested in connection with the Charlotte shooting, but the charges were later dropped, according to the Commercial-Appeal.