Young Dolph, who survived hail of 100 bullets in uptown Charlotte, killed in Memphis
Rapper Young Dolph, who survived a hail of 100 bullets in uptown Charlotte in 2017, was fatally shot Wednesday in his hometown of Memphis, Tenn, The Associated Press reported.
Young Dolph, whose real name is Adolph Thornton Jr., was killed at Makeda’s Cookie’s near Memphis International Airport, according to the AP. He was 36.
The star performer was on his way to his annual Thanksgiving giveaway when he stopped at the bakery, lawyer Scott Hall told NBC News.
“No suspect info is available at this time,” police said on Twitter just before 6 p.m.
Police called the shooting “another example of the senseless gun violence we are experiencing locally and nationwide. Our hearts go out to the Thornton family and all who are affected by this horrific act of violence.”
In his career, Young Dolph had three top 10 albums on the Billboard 200, and his 2020 “Rich Slave” project reached No. 4 on the chart, according to Billboard magazine.
He also made headlines in North Carolina for two very different situations.
In 2017, Young Dolph escaped a barrage of bullets during the CIAA college basketball tournament. The shootout then resulted from a feud with fellow Memphis rapper Blac Youngsta, The Charlotte Observer reported at the time.
Blac Youngsta was accused by police of firing shots that night, but prosecutors eventually dropped all charges against him, the Observer later reported. Blac Youngsta, whose real name is Sammie Benson, maintained his innocence throughout the case.
Just over a year after the Charlotte incident, Dolph was back in the headlines when two baristas were fired for playing one of his songs at the Joe Van Gogh coffee shop on Duke University’s campus in Durham, N.C., McClatchy News reported at the time.
He later helped out the baristas who lost their jobs.
2017 shootout in Charlotte
At the scene of the 2017 shootout in Charlotte police eventually recovered about 100 spent shell casings from the road, fired from various guns and a rifle. They also found two bullet-ridden SUVs on Parkwood Drive with tires blown out on both; the front and rear windows of one of them were shattered.
By the next morning, several national hip-hop music websites were reporting that one of the targets was Young Dolph, who was in town for an unofficial CIAA party/concert at Cameo Charlotte nightclub.
At the time, CIAA commissioner Jacqie McWilliams said the shootout was not connected to the tournament.
Sensational details quickly emerged: There was rampant social-media chatter speculating the shootout stemmed from animosity between Dolph and rival rapper Yo Gotti (nee Mario Mims), the Observer reported.
Dolph tweeted “U loose” next to an emoji less than 18 hours after the incident. And he would later say that the black SUV he was traveling in during the shooting had been custom-bulletproofed at a cost of $300,000.
Videos also surfaced of Blac Youngsta (one of Yo Gotti’s artists) and others taunting and making threats against Young Dolph while brandishing firearms, apparently made prior to the shootout.
When asked by hip-hop magazine XXL who he thought targeted him, Dolph said, “I got no clue. I really don’t even give a d---.”
“I’ve been a target ... to people that I intimidate, know what I’m saying?” he told XXL. “The more I live, the bigger and greater I’m (going to) get. ... The haters and the negativity, that s--- gonna get bigger too, you know what I mean? But, at the end of the day, man, I’m good.”
Later in 2017, Young Dolph was critically hurt after being shot multiple times in Los Angeles, the Observer reported.
Investigators looked into whether he was targeted as part of a hip-hop rivalry stoked by the incident in Charlotte, law enforcement officials said.
Young Dolph released an album containing a multitude of references to Charlotte, the shooting and both his SUV’s and his own impenetrability. The title: “Bulletproof.”
A few years later, at 2020’s CIAA tournament, Young Dolph and Blac Youngsta booked separate appearances at Charlotte venues but never crossed paths, The Observer reported. That was the last CIAA tournament at Spectrum Center in uptown before the tournament moved to Baltimore in 2021.
Dolph helps out baristas
After the story about the baristas went viral, Dolph responded on Twitter: “Whoever that VP is, he don’t give a dam about nobody but his self... I guess he was trying to teach the students how to be selfish I guess......... smh,” Dolph tweeted to his more than 500,000 followers.
Dolph was referring to Duke University Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta, who was a Joe Van Gogh customer on campus.
During a performance at the Rolling Loud hip-hop festival in Miami, Young Dolph gave $20,000 to the fired baristas after calling them up on stage, The Charlotte Observer reported.
This story was originally published November 17, 2021 at 7:40 PM.