ATLANTA — The community continues to mourn the loss of popular recording artist TakeOff. The Atlanta native and Migos member was shot and killed at a Houston area bowling alley early Tuesday.
TakeOff, whose real name is Kirshnik Ball, isn’t the first artist from Atlanta to be killed in the past few years. People involved in the industry are concerned about the violence taking the lives of young artists.
A long-time music industry executive Courtney “Bear“ Sills is feeling the loss of the tragic shooting death of the popular rapper.
“He was so calm and peaceful, there was just a warmth about him,” added Sills.
Sills believes the hip-hop music industry can sometimes bring out the bad in success leading to senseless acts of violence.
“Everyone doesn’t love these artists, a lot of people have deep rooted hate for their success, and it’s a difficult place to be when you want to spread love,” Sills said.
Georgia State University professor Dr. Lakeyta Bonnette-Bailey, who specializes in hip-hop culture and politics, feels the issue lies in societal gun policies.
“I think it’s more of a societal change issue. A lot of people have guns and are not thinking about humanity and human life when they’re pulling out these guns,” said Dr. Bonnette-Bailey.
As the debate about how to stop the violence continues those like Sills who knew the rapper personally believes more needs to be done to teach conflict resolution.