California rapper Chris King has died, and his loss is being mourned by his good friend and longtime collaborator Trippie Redd.
Taking to Instagram on Saturday (April 20), Trippie Redd confirmed the news to his followers.
“I am so hurt rn I can’t even think I love you bro come back!!!!!” he wrote. “@whoischrisking [heartbreak emoji] I can’t catch a break.”
Check out the full post below.
Details about Chris King’s passing are scarce and developing, but what is known is that he was scheduled to play a show on Friday (April 19) in Nashville, TN, put on by Significant Records. King’s last Instagram post confirmed that he was in Nashville on that day.
“i’m out in CASHVILLE, TENNESSEE celebrating @sincere_aob day at CANNAFEST right now and i’m performing + meeting all type of stoners & artist like myself. Appreciate @significantrecords for having me. pull up now!” he wrote in the caption, which you can see below.
WKRN is reporting that at 2:30 AM on Saturday morning, two people were shot, and one was killed, on Hayes Avenue in Nashville, which is about eight minutes away from the concert venue. However, details about the victims, and the alleged shooter, have not yet been released.
HipHopDX has reached out to the Metro Nashville Police Department to get more details about the shooting near Music Row, and whether it was tied to Chris King’s death in any way.
King (real name Christopher Stacy Cheeks Jr.) got his start in the music business as a member of 2Much, which was signed to Chris Stokes’ label The Ultimate Group (or TUG).
In an interview with Complex back in 2019, Chris King shared that he was drawn to Trippie Redd because of the nature of his music.
“It was the music, for one. The music was very high-end. The music was hella potent,” he said. “I ain’t never heard nobody screaming like that and melodically sounding like that on tracks. And not necessarily just that, but it was his subject matter, what he was talking about.”
After discovering Trippie on Instagram circa 2016, King invited the then-aspiring rapper to Los Angeles.
“I’m like, ‘You get to L.A., we go up. You come out here, we can make it make sense.’ He came out here, and the rest was history, pretty much.”
That same year as King’s Complex interview, Trippie Redd secured the No. 1 album in the country for the first time in his career. The Ten Thousand Projects artist’s release A Love Letter To You 4 debuted at the top spot on the Billboard 200 chart dated December 7 of that year, and the last track on the album featured Chris King.
HipHopDX sends its condolences to the family and friends of Chris King.