The hip-hop community is mourning the loss of one of its own, Shawty Lo, who died on Wednesday in a car accident.
Shanty Lo who co-founded the Atlanta-based rap group D4L, perished at the age of 40. He is survived by 11 children from 10 different mothers.
A spokesperson for the Fulton County Police Department said authorities received a call around 2:20 AM alerting them of the accident. The “Laffy Taffy” rapper, real name Carlos Walker, was ejected from the driver’s seat of his 2016 Audi when he lost control of the vehicle, which overturned, hit two trees and caught fire. Shawty Lo was pronounced dead on the scene.
Two female passengers were transported to a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries. The exact cause of the accident is still unknown.
Explicit videos shared on the rapper’s Instagram page indicate he spent time prior to the crash at an Atlanta area strip club called Blue Flame Lounge.
News of Shawty Lo’s tragic passing began circulating when a tweet posted to his account read, “My brother has passed he is no longer here but his spirit, his kind heart , and his music will live on Long live Shawty Lo King of Bankhead.”
In 2013, Shawty Lo was set to star in an Oxygen reality series chronicling the 11 children he had with 10 different women. All My Babies’ Mamas, as it was to be called, ended up on the cutting room floor after a Change.org petition slamming the show’s “stereotypical” premise received more than 37,000 signatures.
Shawty Lo was a premier example of how to make it in a certain era of hip-hop without a ton of hit records. Dey Know was so much of a heat rock that it had a remix that was arguably a better song. It also went certified gold. That beat, produced by Balis Beats, is certainly one of the more memorable of its time.
In 2012, he was supposed to star in a show called All My Babies’ Mamas on the Oxygen network, highlighting his life with his 11 children, and their 10 mothers. At the time, many panned it as stereotypical and offensive. I believe that only one episode aired before the show was canceled, but from what I recall, it was actually far less ridiculous that the premise assumed. I wrote as much at the time. Walker, who happened to live in fellow Atlanta rapper T.I.’s neighborhood, was a good dad.
As an original member of rap group D4L and the founder of D4L Entertainment, Shawty Lo was a major player on the Atlanta scene. And his raspy drawl made his voice instantly recognizable on any track that he likely had all your favorite artists making guest appearances on. When it comes to the narrative of rappers who define the evolution and the importance of what the Atlanta sound is, Shawty Lo sits firmly on that timeline.