Takeoff's Death / 2022 Shooting

Overview

Takeoff's Death, also known as the Shooting of Takeoff, is an event that took place in Houston, Texas on Halloween night in 2022, with the cause of death initially reported as a shooting. Takeoff, real name Kirshnik Khari Ball and part of the award-winning rap group Migos that was responsible for the Rain Drop, Drop Top meme trend, is succeeded by fellow group members Quavo and Offset. Following his death by shooting on October 31st, many online began speculating about the reason for his death, with some blaming a dice game altercation or rap culture in general. Reports the following morning on November 1st then confirmed the incident was caused by an altercation that broke out during the dice game when someone opened fire, shooting Takeoff in the head.

Background

Late on Halloween night on October 31st, 2022, it was reported by local news outlets^[5] that Quavo and Takeoff were at a dice game in Houston, Texas when the shooting occurred. Pictures posted to social media before and after the shooting happened appeared to confirm that it was Takeoff who was killed before it was officially confirmed online, with photos from the Twitter account @revengeworld_^[1] being used as evidence (shown below).

On November 1st, 2022, the Twitter account @jmoneygmy^[2] uploaded screenshots sent from a 512 area code (from Austin, Texas) detailing the events that led to the shooting, with it being posited that Takeoff was taken out by friendly fire after Quavo escalated things due to losing a lot of money at dice. The last screenshot has the POV of someone who was at the dice table right before the shooting happened, leading to social media believing the story was true despite no official confirmation initially taking place (shown below). Reports later published by TMZ^[6] confirmed that the death was a shooting to the head, which was spurned by an altercation over the dice game taking place at a bowling alley called 810 Billiards & Bowling Houston.

Online Reactions

As word spread late on October 31st, 2022, internet reactions were largely split into two parts, with those mourning Takeoff and posting their favorite moments from his career or interactions they had with him, and then people mad at Quavo and the culture of gambling and shooting that led to Takeoff's death. One prominent reaction came from the rap artist Desiigner, who broke down and cried in a livestream^[3] after hearing the news, in which he listed other rappers who have passed away, before announcing that he was quitting the rap game entirely (shown below).

On November 1st, 2022, the Twitter account @KingMosesDaGod^[4] uploaded a prevalent sentiment in those angry at the shooting event, reposting a clip from Fresh Prince of Bel Air in which Carlton Banks expresses anger for one of the only times in the show, absolutely mad at the situation in front of him, with the tweet being viewed over 2.2 million times in four hours (shown below).

Various Reactions

Search Interest

External References