It’s a sad fact that the long history of rap music is overrun with artists murdered in cold blood before their time. Everyone knows about the violent end of Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. but the epidemic of violence runs much deeper than those two names. Recently, XXL put together a gallery of over 50 different rappers who have been killed going nearly 30 years back, outlining the current status of the criminal investigations into each of their deaths.
Beginning with Scott La Rock, one of the founders of Boogie Down Productions alongside KRS-One who was shot in the neck and died on August 27, 1987, the gallery moves through the years in chronological order cataloging the sad and usually bloody end of each and every MC to come up through the ranks. The truly shocking part of the piece is how many of the cases listed remain unsolved to this day. More notable examples include:
Pimp Daddy: killed on April 18, 1994. Unsolved.
Stretch: killed on November 30, 1995. Unsolved.
Tupac Shakur: killed on September 13, 1996. Unsolved.
The Notorious B.I.G.: killed on March 9, 1997. Unsolved.
Big L: killed on February 15, 1999. Unsolved.
Jam Master Jay: killed on October 30, 2002. Unsolved.
Chinx: killed on May 17, 2005. Unsolved.
You can check out the full gallery here.