Three 6 Mafia’s Gangsta Boo Dead at 43

Lola Mitchell—the rapper better known as Gangsta Boo, an early member of Three 6 Mafia—died Sunday at age 43.

Sources told Fox 13 Memphis that the rapper was found dead at approximately 4 p.m. The cause of death was not immediately known.

Another member of the group, DJ Paul, posted a photo of her on Instagram Sunday night, to which rappers like Ludacris, Big Boi, and 2 Chainz responded with their condolences. “REST WELL QUEEN,” wrote rapper Lil Jon.

The artist joined Three 6 Mafia in 1995, at age 15, and stayed with the group for six years, putting out chart-toppers like “Sippin’ on Some Syrup” and “Who Run It.” The album When the Smoke Clears: Sixty 6, Sixty 1 went platinum shortly before Gangsta Boo left the group in 2001.

The artist recently collaborated with Atlanta rapper Latto on her song “FTCU” and put out two singles of her own. According to an interview with Billboard last month, she was planning to release a new album titled The BooPrint later this year.

In the Billboard interview, the Memphis native reflected on the influence she’d had on hip-hop, telling the magazine: “I would honestly say that I have to admit, respectfully and humbly, that I am the blueprint.”

“I hear my cadence in a lot of men and female rappers,” she said. “I’m not talking about anybody in particular, but my sound is a Memphis sound. It’s a Gangsta Boo sound, it’s a Three 6 Mafia sound. So, I am the blueprint and I wear that badge proudly as fuck.”

Reflecting on her own career, she added: “It just feels great to stand in yourself and look in the mirror and be like, ‘Wow, you did that.’ And not sell your soul and go to bed at night with a smile on your face.”

-DB