Los Angeles, Jan 2 (IANS): Gangsta Boo, a rapper and former member of hip-hop group 'Three 6 Mafia', passed away. She was 43.
Her death was reported by Fox 13 Memphis and WREG Memphis.
According to Fox 13, Boo - whose birth name was Lola Mitchell - was found dead around 4 p.m. on Sunday afternoon. WREG reported that Boo's death was confirmed by a representative. The cause of her death has not been disclosed, reports Variety.
A product of the Dirty South school of hip-hop in the 1990s, Boo's edgy raps and frank sexuality made her an energetic Memphis counterpart to Philadelphia rapper Eve, Brooklyn's Lil Kim and Miami's Trina.
Like those female rappers, Boo's start came with a prominent regional crew - 'Three 6 Mafia', founded by DJ Paul, Juicy J and Lord Infamous - with whom she recorded a handful of studio albums until her departure in 2002.
But, along with a prominent solo career starting with 1998's 'Enquiring Minds' and its signature single, 'Where Dem Dollas At,' Boo guested on tracks with Eminem, Gucci Mane, Run the Jewels, OutKast, Lil Wayne, Blood Orange, Latto and more.
Born in the Whitehaven neighbourhood of Memphis, Tennesse. on August 7, 1979, Boo began rapping in her early teens. When Three 6 Mafia formed in 1991, they enlisted Boo early on, recording the group's 1995 debut album, 'Mystic Stylez,' with her as one of its featured rappers.
"Being in Three 6 Mafia did give me a lot of confidence," Gangsta Boo had told Vibe in 2016. "I started noticing that not only am I hot, but that I'm talented. But you'd be surprised at how many motherfuckers don't know that I was in Three 6 Mafia."
While Gangsta Boo stayed as part of Three 6 Mafia though 2001's 'Choices: The Album', she left the hip-hop unit in 2002 to pursue her solo career to the fullest - just several years shy of T6M's platinum success with its 'Most Known Unknown' album, and its 2006 Academy Award win for best original song with 'It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp' from the film 'Hustle & Flow'.
Along with recording solo albums such as 'Both Worlds *69' (2001), 'Enquiring Minds II: The Soap Opera' (2003) and 'The Memphis Queen Is Back' (2007) and mixtapes such as 'It's Game Involved' (2013) and 'Candy, Diamonds & Pills' (2016), Boo made her mark by lending her tart raps and taut flow to other artists.
Before she left Three 6 Mafia, Gangsta Boo recorded on Foxy Brown's 1999 'Chyna Doll' album and 2000's 'Stankonia' from OutKast. After 2002, Gangsta Boo dropped feature verses on Lil Jon's 'Crunk Juice' (2004), Yelawolf's 'Radioactive' album in duet with Eminem on 'Throw It Up', the Jeezy/T.I./Lil Wayne trio album 'Prime Time Players' (2013) and on Run the Jewels' song 'Walking in the Snow' from 'RTJ4' (2020).
In 2022, Boo appeared on WEtv's 'Marriage Boot Camp: The Hip Hop Edition' with her boyfriend, Emmet Flores. In December, she and GloRilla teamed up with Latto for the track 'Fuck the Club Up', the video for which was just released two weeks ago.
Members of the rap community took to social media to pay tribute to Boo including DJ Paul, who posted a photo of her DJing without a caption. In response to that post, fellow rappers such as 2 Chainz, Ty Dolla $ign, Ludacris, Outkast's Big Boi, Cypress Hill's B-Real, and Lil Jon chimed in with their own tributes on Paul's Instagram.