Gangsta Boo.Photo:Chris McKay/Getty
Chris McKay/Getty
An autopsy report for Memphis rapper Gangsta Boo reportedly revealed that she died of an accidental overdose.
Boo, née Lola Chantrelle Mitchell, posted avideo on Instagramless than one day before she died about what she’d accomplished in 2022, writing: “Some of the things that I did in 2022! So fun and productive, climbed out my shell alot!! 2023 go be 23’n! #JORDAN #BOOPRINT #recap Happy New 2023 everyone!”
The “Stay Fly” performer, who grew up in the Whitehaven section of Memphis, began rapping at age 14, turning her poems into lyrics with a keyboard her father had given her.
Gangsta Boo.Al Pereira/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty
Al Pereira/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty
At 15, Boo joined the pioneering local hip-hop collective Three 6 Mafia as one of the group’s sole female members. “I’m from a middle-class family that kind of moved to the hood after my parents divorced, so I had the best of both worlds,” Boo toldi-Dmagazinein 2014.
The group put out a variety of albums throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. The Memphis rap group earned an Oscar for Best Original Song for their heavy-duty “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp” from the filmHustle & Flow.
Boo had a highly successful solo career beyond her work with Three 6 Mafia and a spin-off group called Da Mafia 6ix. Her debut solo record,Enquiring Minds, hit No. 15 on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop chart and her second solo album reached No. 8 on the same chart.
She also guest-appeared on tracks with artists likeGucci Mane,Eminem, OutKast,Lil Wayneand more.
In a DecemberBillboardinterview, Boo revealed that she was working on a new project calledThe BooPrintthat she planned to release this year. In the interview, she spoke up about her legacy in the male-dominated hip-hop scene, saying she “walked so a lot of people could run.”
She told the magazine, “I have to admit, respectfully and humbly, that I am the blueprint. I hear my cadence in a lot of men and female rappers. … My sound is a Memphis sound.”
source: people.com
