Migos rapper Takeoff, 28, was shot and killed early Tuesday morning (Nov. 1) in Houston, Texas. According to a spokesperson for the Houston Police Department, the rapper (born Kirshnik Khari Ball) — who was one third of the Migos trio alongside his uncle, Quavo, and cousin, Offset — was at a private party at a bowling alley in downtown Houston with Quavo around 2:35 a.m. when investigators say shots rang out during an afterparty attended by around 40 people.
KHOU reported that police said someone started shooting, spurring guests to flee the area with one victim, Takeoff, shot in the head or neck. Two other unidentified victims were reportedly transported to a local hospital in private vehicles.
A spokesperson for Offset has not yet returned requests for comment on the incident, and a Houston PD spokesperson said there was no additional information on the injured and no suspects in custody.
According to TMZ, Takeoff and Quavo were at 810 Billiards & Bowling Houston playing dice at the afterparty when someone opened fire, with the site posting stills and video of Quavo and others gathered around Takeoff as Quavo yells for someone to help them. Quavo was not injured in the incident and at press time did not appear to have posted about the shooting.
The shocking death came just hours after Quavo and Takeoff, under their side project name Unc & Phew, released a new Halloween-themed video for their song “Messy” from their Built for Infinity Links duo album. Born in Lawrenceville, Ga., in 1994, Takeoff teamed with Quavo and Offset in 2008 to form Migos, whose debut mixtape, Juug Season, was released in 2011. The trio broke out two years later with their inescapable hit, “Versace,” which established their signature sound and led to a string of charts smashes, including their Billboard Hot 100 No. 1, “Bad and Boujee,” as well as other top 10 hits such as “Stir Fry” and “MotorSport.”
“Bad and Boujee” (featuring Lil Uzi Vert) topped the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks in January and February 2017, and received a Grammy nomination for best rap performance. The trio also reached the top 10 with “MotorSport” (a collab with Nicki Minaj and Cardi B), “Stir Fry” and “Walk It Talk It” (featuring Drake). Migos’ sophomore album, Culture, topped the Billboard 200 in 2017 and received a Grammy nod for best rap album. Their follow-up, Culture II (2018) also topped the Billboard 200. Culture III (2021) peaked at No. 2. Takeoff released his only solo album, The Last Rocket, in 2018.
As a group, Migos have 9.39 million equivalent album units earned in U.S. for catalog of albums as well as 14.09 billion on-demand official streams of Migos’ collected songs in the U.S. according to Luminate. Takeoff has 558,000 in equivalent album units for his solo albums (including the recent collab set with Quavo), as well as 821 million on-demand official streams for his solo songs (including the Quavo/Takeoff collabs on their latest album).
Rumors of the group’s possible dissolution have swirled for months as Offset focused on releasing solo material while Takeoff and Quavo teamed up for the Built for Infinity Links album.
Billboard will update this story as more information is available.