Young Dolph

Young Dolph transformed street savviness into hard-hitting rap backed by big bass and ominous production that matched his deep voice and Memphis upbringing. Born Adolph Thornton, Jr. in Chicago, 1985, Young Dolph debuted in 2008 with the Paper Route Campaign mixtape, and founded his own scrappily named label to distribute his music, Paper Route Empire. His 2014 breakthrough—from the equally menacing and motivational High Class Street Music 4—was “Preach”, a Zaytoven-blessed club anthem about not trusting anyone. 2017's Bulletproof, a minimal-yet-booming LP anchored by the enemy-taunting “100 Shots”, was a response to one of many attempts on his life. Ever shrewd and resourceful, he teamed with his trap-rapping cousin and signee Key Glock for 2019’s Dum and Dummer, an unflinching flex of a joint set that followed a string of solo albums documenting his against-all-odds success. In 2020, Dolph zoomed out for the moodily produced Rich Slave, which took shots at the intersection of American capitalism and racism while underlining his progress in spite of it all—the ruminative “I See $’s” explicitly lays out his wealth-driven path into pop culture. Dolph was shot and killed on November 17, 2021, at age 36.