To commemorate the year-end of 2021, HipHopDX compiled a list of 35 Hip Hop figures who passed away during the year. More than 65 percent of the 35 deaths were violent - Young Dolph, who was gunned down in his hometown of Memphis last November, Drakeo The Ruler, who was killed by a stab wound in Los Angeles, and multiple aspiring local rappers were killed by gunfire.
Although Hip Hop has suffered its share of murders over the years - The Notorious B.I.G., Big L, Tupac Shakur, and Jam Master Jay, among others - the frequency of murders has increased in recent years. RZA spoke to the Financial Times about the troubling trend.
“Growing up in the golden age of Hip Hop, we lost maybe like a couple of artists but not a dozen artists or more,” the Wu-Tang Clan legend said. “Sometimes Hip Hop music glamorizes certain things. It glamorizes prison life, it glamorizes gangsters and thugs. I understand that, because I grew out of that."
“But it doesn’t give you the total tragedy of what that can end up being, nor are we being represented with a lot of alternatives. The point being made is there was more bounce, there was more substance. Hip Hop has become one-sided.”
When the Murdock and 12 O'Clock of Brooklyn Zu — and members of the Ol' Dirty Bastard-founded Wu-Tang Clan — were found shot to death last August, it struck close to the Wu-Tang Clan family.
A shooting occurred around 5:19 a.m. in Northeast Portland, according to Fox 12. Officers were called to the scene after reports of shots fired in the 3600 block of Northeast 82nd Avenue. No further details were available.
The new album will arrive on March 4 via 36 Chambers ALC / MNRK Music Group. To coincide with the announcement, RZA and Scratch released a video for the title track earlier this month. Watch it below.