Migos rapper Takeoff dead after shooting in Houston, rep says | Media Pyro

HOUSTON (AP) — Rapper Takeoff, best known for his work with Grammy-nominated trio Migos, died early Tuesday in a shooting outside a bowling alley in Houston, a representative confirmed. He was 28 years old.

Kirsnick, also known as Takeoff, was part of Migos along with Khari Ball, Quavo and Offset. A representative for the members of Migos, who was not authorized to speak publicly, confirmed the death to The Associated Press.

Police responded to the shooting just after 2:30 a.m. at 810 Billiards & Bowling, where dozens of people had gathered on a balcony outside the third-floor bowling alley, police said. When officers arrived, they found a man dead. An AP reporter at the scene observed a body being loaded into a medical examiner’s van around 10 a.m., more than seven hours after the shooting.

A police spokesman said security personnel in the area heard the gunshots but did not see who did it. Two other injured persons were shifted to hospital in private vehicles.

No arrests have been announced and few details have been released about what led up to the shooting, but Houston police planned a news conference for Tuesday afternoon. Journalists at the scene Tuesday morning were stationed across the street, which was otherwise closed to the public.

On Tuesday morning, scores of fans gathered across the street from the bowling alley, a three-story downtown Houston retail complex that includes high-end restaurants, the House of Blues and the Four Seasons Hotel.

Isaiah Lopez, 24, said he ran out of his home in the Houston suburb of Humble after hearing that Takeoff had been killed.

“He was one of my and my brother’s favourites. That’s all we hear,” Lopez said as he carried a dozen roses near the scene of the shooting. “As soon as my brother called me and said ‘take off’, I had to come here and pay my respects.”

Thomas Moreno, 30, who lives about five minutes from the scene of the shooting, said he met Takeoff at an event at a Houston bar and restaurant in June and said he was a genuinely nice guy.

“I feel like it’s another good guy,” Moreno said. “It happens every day, but it hurts more when it’s someone who’s talented and young.”

Takeoff was the youngest member of Migos, a rap trio from suburban Atlanta that included his uncle Quavo and cousin Offset. She made her debut in 2013 with the smash hit “Versace”. The song was remixed by Drake, increasing its popularity.

The group had four top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, though the takeoff wasn’t with their multi-week No. 1 hit “Bad and Boujee,” featuring Lil Uzi Vert. They released a trilogy of albums, “Culture”, “Culture II” and “Culture III”, the first two albums reaching number one on the Billboard 200 album chart. She also won an ASCAP Vanguard Award in 2018 for 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 in an episode of the hit TV show “Atlanta,” but the group was not currently together.

Offset, who is married to Cardi B, released a solo album in 2019, and Takeoff and Quavo released a joint album called “Only Built for Infinity Links” last month. Quavo posted links to his and Takeoff’s Halloween-themed music video for “Messi” on his Instagram on Monday, along with a video of him and his friends driving around Houston.

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Landrum reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press writer Jill Bleed in Little Rock, Arkansas, contributed to this report.

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