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Young Dolph

Young Dolph was a prolific American rapper who released seven albums, including the Top 5 record Rich Slave, between his official debut in 2016 and his death in 2021. Born as Adolph Robert Thornton, Jr., in Chicago, Illinois, on July 27, 1985, he later relocated with his family to Memphis, Tennessee, where he became a hometown hero in the city's historic music scene before earning a national audience with rap hits like 2017's gold-certified "100 Shots" and 2018's Top 20 rap hit "Major." Prior to those successful releases, Young Dolph kickstarted his hip-hop career with a string of mixtapes, releasing 2008's Paper Route Campaign, 2010's Welcome 2 Dolph World, and 2011's High Class Street Music to an ever-increasing audience. One year after appearing on O.T. Genasis's double-platinum Top 40 hit "Cut It," he made his album debut with 2016's King of Memphis, which hit Number 5 on Billboard's Top Rap Albums chart and Number 49 on the Billboard 200. Follow-up albums like 2017's Bulletproof, 2017's Thinking Out Loud, and 2018's Role Model all found Young Dolph inching his way up the Billboard charts, while 2019's Dum and Dummer — a collaboration with fellow rapper Key Glock — marked his first time cracking the Top 10 of the Billboard 200. Meanwhile, he scored a pair of gold-certified singles with 2017's "Play with Yo Bitch" and "100 Shots," then earned another gold certification with 2018's "Major." Having graduated to the upper echelon of modern-day rap music, he peaked at Number 4 on the Billboard 200 with 2020's Rich Slave and Number 8 with 2021's Dum and Dummer 2, the latter of which found him rekindling his working relationship with Key Glock. The two also appeared on 2021's Paper Route Illuminati, a collaborative album featuring appearances by the rappers on Paper Route Empire's roster. Later that year, while in Memphis for the Thanksgiving holiday, Young Dolph was fatally shot by two gunmen while picking up cookies for his mother. He died on November 17, 2021, at age 36.