Rapper Young Dolph Dies at 36 in Memphis Shooting

LOS ANGELES —
Rapper Young Dolph, best known for his 2020 album “Rich Slave” and collaborations with his fellow Memphis rapper and cousin Key Glock, has died in a shooting in Memphis, Tennessee. He was 36.

The shooting took place at Makeda’s Homemade Butter Cookies in South Memphis on Wednesday afternoon, local station FOX News 13 reported. The owner of the store told the outlet that Young Dolph walked in to buy cookies when someone drove up, shot and killed him around 1:00 p.m.

Young Dolph, whose real name was Adolph Robert Thornton, Jr., was born in Chicago but moved to Memphis at a young age. He was cousins with rapper Juice Wrld, who died at 21 of a drug overdose at Chicago’s Midway International Airport on December 8, 2019.

Making his studio album debut, Young Dolph released “King of Memphis” in 2016, which reached No. 49 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. He dropped seven albums from 2016-2021, the most recent being “Dum and Dummer 2” with Key Glock, which peaked at No. 8.

He was signed to Paper Route Empire, and his most successful album was 2020’s “Rich Slave,” which debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and was his highest-charting release. From 2008-2017, he dropped more than a dozen mixtapes and EPs.

In September 2017, Young Dolph was shot outside a retail store in Hollywood and hospitalized in critical condition. He spent two weeks in the hospital recovering from three gunshot wounds.

Young Dolph was well known in the Memphis area and donated turkeys around Thanksgiving time, donated to Hamilton High School, which he attended, and spoke to students.

Following the news of his death, tributes for Young Dolph poured in on social media from fans and fellow artists.