![]() ![]() This strain of rap has bred loyal national followings for artists like Meek Mill and Boosie Badazz, so it's no coincidence they mourned Scoota's death on social media. This cold reality manifested itself in an even more chilling outlook: “I ain't worried about nothing, n-, as long as I'm living / I'm from Baltimore City, no love, no pity,” Scoota raps on “Only Life I Know.”īut he possessed a quality many lesser rappers lack: Scoota understood the importance of showing all sides of the street - not just highlighting the luxury brands and other riches he strove for, but underlining the consequences, loss and trauma prevalent in oft-ignored neighborhoods like his. ![]() That sense of paranoia - that a violent death here can come at any time - informed Scoota's music constantly, whether he was talking self-protection (“If I can't bring a pistol, I ain't coming in / Tell security don't check me, just let me in”) or recognizing that his success bred envy (“When you up, they don't treat you the same no more,” he raps over Future's “March Madness”). ![]() While we memorialize artists, the acute pain felt by so many right now is nothing new, in a city where Scoota's death is one of 136 homicides to date this year. The loss reverberates around Baltimore like the bass heard as passing cars blare Scoota anthems in his memory.īeyond a Baltimorean, a family member and a human being - what we lost was a captivating and uncompromising talent whose best work was surely ahead of him. On June 25, he was shot to death after speaking at a peace rally at Morgan State University. “They like, ‘How the f- this n- take over, get so high so quick? Probably because most of my fans know me on some private s- ‘Still in the Trenches,' I had the whole city rockin' it,” Scoota raps, lit blunt in hand, with confident ease in the video for his 2015 song, “King Me.” Paired with its casual visual, the track captures an artist aware he's on the verge of something greater.īut the West Baltimore native, born Tyriece Travon Watson, will never see where his talent and drive would eventually take him. He went by “Up Next,” and it wasn't false braggadocio. In rap, nicknames are common - and no one in Baltimore had a more apt moniker than Lor Scoota. I want y'all to know I'm in this s- for the long run. ![]() “This is my introduction to the motherf-ing world, man. ![]()
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