In the early hours of Tuesday morning, hip-hop fans woke up to devastating news that rapper Kirshnik Khari Ball, best known as Takeoff and for his work with Migos, had been fatally shot after an altercation at a Houston bowling alley.
On this edition of “Closer Look,” Jocelyn Wilson, an assistant professor of hip-hop studies and digital humanities in the Black Media Studies cohort at Georgia Tech, discussed the legacy that the beloved artist left behind.
“Takeoff had some of the greatest ab-libs … (Migos) call and response sequences, I believe, just kind of elevated that type of component of Black music, particularly rap music”, said Wilson. “We didn’t hear a whole lot about his personal life. When he did talk, he seemed to have a sense of humor, a sense of wit that I found to be quite humorous.”
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