HOUSTON — The rapper TakeOff, best known for his work with the Grammy-nominated trio Migos, is dead after a shooting early Tuesday outside a bowling alley in downtown Houston, a representative confirmed. He was 28.
Kirsnick Khari Ball, known as TakeOff, was part of Migos along with his uncle Quavo and cousin Offset. A representative for Migos, who was not authorized to speak publicly, confirmed his death to The Associated Press.
Isaiah Lopez, 24, said he rushed down from his home in Humble after hearing TakeOff had been killed.
“He was one of our favorites, mine and my brother’s. It’s all we would listen to,” Lopez said as he carried a dozen roses he hoped to place near the site of the shooting. “As soon as my brother called me and said, ‘TakeOff is gone,’ I had to come over here and pay my respects.”
Thomas Moreno, 30, who lives about five minutes away from the site of the shooting, said he had met TakeOff at an event at a Houston bar and restaurant in June and said he was “a real nice guy.”
“I feel it’s just another good person gone too soon,” Moreno said. “This happens every day but it hurts, even more, when it’s somebody so talented and so young.”
TakeOff was the youngest member of Migos, the rap trio from suburban Atlanta. They first broke through with the massive hit “Versace” in 2013. The song was remixed by Drake heightening its popularity.
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The group had four Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, though TakeOff was not on their multi-week No. 1 “Bad and Boujee,” featuring Lil Uzi Vert. They put out a trilogy of albums called “Culture,” “Culture II” and “Culture III,” with the first two albums hitting No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart. They also earned an ASCAP Vanguard Award in 2018, for their streaming success with multiplatinum songs like “Motorsport (featuring Cardi B and Nicki Minaj),” “Stir Fry,” and “Walk It Talk It.”
The trio also played a fictional version of themselves on an episode of the hit TV show “Atlanta,” but the group wasn’t together.
Offset, who is married to Cardi B, released a solo album in 2019, while TakeOff and Quavo released a joint album “Only Built for Infinity Links” last month.
Here is some of the social media reaction to news of the TakeOff's death: