Lil Poppa has passed away. The Jacksonville, FL, rapper was only 25. The Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed the news to Billboard on Wednesday Feb. 18. He had just released a new single "Out Of Town Bae" on Friday. A cause of death was not immediately available.
Though he may not have been a household name, Poppa’s personal twist on pain rap set him apart from peers in the same lane of Southern melodic trap. His death has sparked an outpouring of grief from former collaborators DeJ Loaf, Rylo Rodriguez, and NoCap, as well as newer artists like Rob49, Raqbaby, and PLUTO.
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Former FADER columnist Brandon Callender once compared Poppa to a pointillist painter meticulously building up songs detail by detail, saying in part that the rapper’s “gravity” helped to “deepen the emotion in his songs.” That depth and detail are at the forefront of projects like ‘Blessed, I Guess,’ ‘Heavy is the Head,’ and last year’s ‘Almost Normal Again,’ which featured frequent collaborator Seddy Hendrinx and LA rapper Mozzy. I'm personally partial to Poppa's excellent guest verse on "X-Hausted," the outro to Rylo's 2023 album Been One, where the Florida rapper's falsetto offers a smooth counterpoint to his host's gravelly baritone.
