“You say I’m left off Bad and Boujee,” said rapper Takeoff, his hazy eyes trained towards DJ Akademiks. “Do it look like I’m left off Bad and Boujee?” This, and the ensuing back-and-forth with The Shade Room host in 2017, marked one of the most iconic refrains in the internet era of hip-hop history. This viral moment came in light of the runaway global success of Migos’ Bad and Boujee, which Takeoff was curiously absent from as rising Philadelphia star Lil Uzi Vert took to the mic alongside the group’s other members, Quavo and Offset.
The clip, which speaks to Takeoff’s affable manner, even in the face of confrontation, has been widely circulating on social media following his untimely death early on the morning of Tuesday 1 November after an altercation broke out during a game of dice at a Houston bowling alley, according to multiple reports. Two other unidentified people who were shot during the incident are expected to survive.
Takeoff and Quavo of Migos are seen outside Rick Owens during Paris Fashion Week – Menswear F/W 2020-2021 on January 16, 2020 in Paris, France. (Christian Vierig/Getty Images)
The 28-year-old rapper, real name Kirsnik Khari Ball, was with Quavo, who was unharmed, at the time of the shooting. Takeoff’s death is another tragic shooting death in the US hip-hop community after the deaths of the likes of XXXtentacion, Nipsey Hussle, King Von, Young Dolph and PnB Rock in recent years.
His death also underscores the scourge of bowling alley killings in the US. In eerily similar circumstances just a few months ago, CBS News reported on how one man was killed and two others injured after gunfire erupted at a bowling alley in California after a fight broke out between a group of people. They’ve become a hotbed of gun toting dice rollers looking for a quick buck.
Migos are inarguably the most impactful and recognisable rap group of the past decade (and one of the most successful ever). After releasing their debut mixtape, Juug Season in 2011, the Atlanta group went on to compile a resume that includes two Billboard number one albums, Culture and Culture II, and four Billboard Hot 100 top 10 entries: the aforementioned Bad and Boujee featuring Lil Uzi Vert, MotorSport with Nicki Minaj and Cardi B, Stir Fry and Walk It Talk It featuring Drake.
Offset, Takeoff and Quavo of Migos attend the Heavenly Bodies: Fashion & The Catholic Imagination Costume Institute Gala at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 7, 2018 in New York City. (Kevin Mazur/MG18/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue)
During that period they influenced the culture profoundly by popularising “the dab”, which became a global phenomenon, and spreading some of Atlanta’s most obscure slang phrases to the world through their music. Migos’ tight, stuttering “triplet flow”, which was often credited to Takeoff, was their definitive stylistic contribution to hip-hop and has been imitated by several other acts over the years. While they were not the originators of the rap flow they were known for, they certainly added their gloss and gave it a fresh new look.
Their 2017 magnum opus album Culture marked a high point for the talented, trendsetting trio and solidified their well-earned reputation as true game changers. The hype was so electric in the build up to Culture’s release that actor, writer and musician Donald Glover thanked Migos, whom he described as “the Beatles of this generation”, and described Bad and Boujee as the best song ever, while accepting a Golden Globe for his TV series Atlanta.
Takeoff also aptly compared the lead up to the album to Christmas Eve: “You just know that everything you asked for is going to be there up under that Christmas tree. It’s our time now.” And indeed it was their time as Migos swiftly became one of hip-hop’s most ubiquitous acts.
The late Takeoff of the music group Migos performing on stage at American Airlines Arena on November 13, 2018 in Miami, Florida. (Jason Koerner/Getty Images)
New York Times critic Jon Caramanica summed it up succinctly in an editorial on how Takeoff and the Migos flow changed Atlanta rap. “The prior wave of Atlanta stars like Gucci Mane and Young Jeezy captured ears with imagistic storytelling and signature vocal texture,” he wrote. “By comparison, Migos sounded addled, anxious, pugnacious. They were untethered from earlier rap conventions. As the rest of Atlanta rap leaned toward the psychedelic — beginning with Future, then pivoting to Young Thug, and eventually the more commercially minded Gunna and Lil Baby — Migos, and Takeoff especially, held fast to its mechanistic idiosyncrasies.”
Their most recent album, 2021’s eagerly anticipated Culture III, was met with generally positive reviews and was widely regarded as an improvement from the lukewarm second instalment of the Culture trilogy. Sadly, a few months ago, following Quavo and Takeoff’s announcement that they’d be releasing a new single together as a new duo dubbed Unc & Phew, rumours emerged that the group had disbanded. All but confirming the rumours, Offset unfollowed them both on Instagram and the duo went on to release their first album, Only Built for Infinity Links, in October.
The video for their latest single Messy released on Monday, just a few hours before Takeoff was shot and killed. In an October interview on DJ Scream’s Big Facts podcast, Takeoff addressed the group’s rumoured split and whether they’d ever make music together again.
“We don’t know all answers, God know,” he said. “So we pray a lot. And we tell him, ‘whatever ain’t right, however you supposed to see it fit, you put it back together or however you do it’. Only time will tell. We always family now, ain’t nothing gonna’ change.” Quavo was Takeoff’s uncle and Offset was his cousin.
(L-R) Quavo, Takeoff and Offset of Migos perform onstage at the BET Awards 2021 at Microsoft Theatre on June 27, 2021 in Los Angeles, California. (Bennett Raglin/Getty Images for BET)
Over the years, many observers and rap connoisseurs have lauded Takeoff as the most technically gifted of the Migos trio. While Quavo and Offset morphed into A-List celebrities over the years thanks in large part to shrewd solo features and their respective romantic relationships with Saweetie and Cardi B, Takeoff continued to keep a low profile. While he often expressed his disinterest in fame, Takeoff had recently started to be more open.
In an October interview on Drink Champs, after host N.O.R.E described Takeoff’s lyrical performance on the recent duo album as a coming out party of sorts and asked if that was in his mind while recording, Takeoff responded, hauntingly: “Oh, for sure… Enough is enough. I’m chilled, I’m laid back, but it’s time to pop it. It’s time to give me my flowers. I don’t want them when I ain’t here.”
While Takeoff largely refrained from making music outside of the group, he did release a solo album in 2018 titled The Last Rocket. The album was a critical success and Pitchfork commended him for his “rare combination of skills in that he’s both versatile and unmistakable; he can switch up his flow or register and remain instantly identifiable.”
They also added: “The solo debut from the least attention-hungry member of Migos proves what many have long suspected — he is the trio’s best rapper, with the most promising career prospects outside of the group.”
Quavo has admitted on several occasions that he believed Takeoff was the most gifted of the trio. In an interview with Ebro Darden for Apple Music in 2018, after the radio presenter suggested that Takeoff was starting to figure out how to use his voice effectively behind the mic, Quavo interjected, “My boy Take been spitting bars. In my opinion, he the best one out of all of us. He the youngest, he been like that. To me, he the best one out the group.”
Offset concurred.
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