Florida rapper Lil Poppa has died, Georgia authorities said. He was 25.
The Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed the rapper’s death in a statement to NBC News, but did not provide further details. The cause and manner of death are under investigation, the office said.
The Jacksonville rapper, whose real name is Janarious Wheeler, was signed to rapper Yo Gotti’s Collective Music Group and released songs including “Love & War,” “Mind Over Matter,” and “HAPPY TEARS.” His most recent studio album was last year’s “Almost Normal Again.”
Days before his death, he released the new track “Out of Town Bae.”
A representative for Wheeler did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.
Music producer Scotty OTH told NBC affiliate WTLV of Jacksonville that Wheeler was a “very hard worker.”
“I ain’t never seen nobody outwork Poppa. Poppa is the last man standing in the studio,” he said.
The pair made their first song together over five years ago.
“I was making beats, then he was making music, and 2019, 2018, we ended up making our first track together, but outside it’s deeper than music,” he said. “That was family to me. We called each other cousins.”
Photographer Terrence Tyson, who said he documented Lil Poppa’s rise to fame, told WTLV that the death has stunned the Jacksonville community.
“I know how myself and a lot of other people, how hard we went for him to get where he needed to be. It was a shock and it was a big loss,” Tyson said.
“When he made it, it felt like everyone made it,” Tyson said. “He was a star.”
