Takeoff, the Atlanta rapper best known as one third of Migos, has died, TMZ reports. The rapper, real name Kirshnik Khari Ball, was fatally shot in Houston while playing dice with Quavo at a bowling alley called Billiards & Bowling around 2:30 am today. Two other people on the premises were hospitalized, while Takeoff was pronounced dead on the scene. He was 28.
Born and raised in Lawrenceville, Georgia, in 1994, Takeoff began rapping with his uncle Quavo and first cousin once removed Offset in 2008, when they went by the name Polo Club. They released their debut mixtape as Migos, Juug Season, in 2011, following it up with No Label in 2012. They broke out with the 2013 single ‘Versace’, which has been credited with popularizing the triplet flow and was later remixed by Drake. Their 2015 debut album, Yung Rich Nation, featured guest spots from Chris Brown and Young Thug and peaked at No. 17 on the Billboard 200.
Migos scored their first No. 1 single in 2016 with the Lil Uzi Vert collaboration ‘Bad and Boujee’, and while Takeoff is featured in the song’s music video, he is not credited on the track itself. Migos’s second studio album, Culture, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 upon its release in 2017, achieving platinum certification in the US. Following Migos’ final album, 2021’s Culture III, Quavo and Takeoff parted ways with Offset earlier this year. As a solo artist, Takeoff issued one LP, 2018’s The Last Rocket, which debuted at No. 4 in the country. Last month, he and Quavo teamed up for the collaborative record Only Built for Infinity Links.
