Rapper Wealthy Homie Quan performs in Hollywood, Calif. on April 1, 2015. That 12 months, he had his largest hit, “Flex (Ooh, Ooh, Ooh).”
Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Pictures
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Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Pictures
Wealthy Homie Quan, an Atlanta native who was instrumental in that metropolis’s takeover of hip-hop’s sound and angle within the mid 2010s, has died. The rapper’s speedy ascent, alongside friends like Younger Thug, with whom he partnered within the group Wealthy Gang, resulted in a string of hits that switched rap’s lingua franca from staccato rhythms to melodic flows. His demise was confirmed to NPR by his father, Corey Lamar, who didn’t present a explanation for demise. He was 34.
When a beloved artist dies, it’s nearly unattainable to boil their life all the way down to a handful of Billboard Scorching 100-charting hits. And Wealthy Homie stamped his imprint onto loads of them — seven to be precise — all inside a two-year blitz between 2013 and 2015 that took him from scrappy unknown to an inescapable pressure within the trade. They learn just like the roll name of an period when Atlanta rap overtook the sound of pop and made him the trade’s cleanup hitter: “Kind of Manner,” YG’s “My Hitta,” Wealthy Gang’s “Life-style,” “Stroll Via,” “Flex (Ooh, Ooh, Ooh),” the Quick and Livid franchise’s “Experience Out,” even Lil Dicky’s “Save Dat Cash.”
A son of East Atlanta, Quan quietly cultivated his expertise for years in his mom’s basement and even throughout a brief jail stint earlier than exploding onto the charts nearly in a single day. From the start, Quan fought to differentiate himself in a metropolis filled with younger hopefuls. He related with “Variations,” a music from his 2012 mixtape Nonetheless Going In, that showcased his starvation and made him one to look at. He rapidly grew to become a hitmaker, crafting plain road anthems. And he stood on the forefront of a wave that challenged and adjusted the sound of hip-hop and, by extension, American music.
Atlanta’s rap scene had been on the rise for a few many years earlier than Wealthy Homie Quan got here alongside. However his emergence coincided with town cementing its identification as an undisputed hip-hop mecca. Together with different Atlanta contemporaries, like Future and Thug, Quan got here to outline a brand new technology of post-OutKast ATLiens — equal components street-hardened, plaintive and psychedelic in sound and magnificence. Whereas regional rappers — West Coast stalwarts and early Southern disruptors alike — had all the time dabbled in sing-songy supply, Quan and his ilk captured an period through which technological advances in recording allowed them to freestyle or “punch in” their melodic flows, untethered by pad and pen. The ensuing sound reached new prominence with the discharge of Wealthy Gang Tha Tour Pt .1, a mixtape that coupled Quan and Thug along with Birdman of Money Cash/Younger Cash fame on songs akin to their 2014 opus, “Life-style,” which discovered them voicing their rawest wishes in voices so weak they nearly belied their specific intentions. The duo set a brand new blueprint for one-off pairings however success was short-lived, rapidly supplanted by clashing egos as cash and fame disrupted their magical bond.
Quan’s story is one in every of wild success and timeless affect, nevertheless it additionally displays how trade ups-and-downs can wring younger abilities dry as fast as they arrive up. His deadlock with Thug grew to become a harbinger of travails for Quan, who filed go well with towards his report label Assume It’s a Recreation Data over unpaid royalties in 2016. The authorized battles, although finally settled, sapped Quan of his artistic output on the peak of his profession. For 2 years he went silent earlier than returning in 2017 with a mixtape, adopted by a debut studio album, Wealthy As In Spirit, that signaled a change. Although the panorama Quan returned to had been formed largely by his sonic affect, he discovered himself modified, too, his street-hardened edge changed by a extra mature, reflective sound.
In Younger Thug’s ongoing gang conspiracy trial, Wealthy Homie Quan has been included within the prosecution’s authorized narrative as a consequence of a capturing that happened at a barbershop owned by Quan’s father. His father was reportedly injured within the capturing, although Quan had downplayed the occasion in current interviews.
Whereas selling his 2022 launch Household & Mula, he incessantly talked concerning the overwhelming stress that got here with balancing early success and the crash that got here with authorized pitfalls, rising drug use and the stalling of his artistic output. “I had a darkish cloud over my head,” he stated on Math Hoffa’s hip-hop podcast My Skilled Opinion. “I most likely was the bottom I used to be in my life.” Talking 5 years after that low level, with dependency behind him, he sounded clear-headed — each about his musical future and the way his absence had revealed his lasting affect on the sport. Although he by no means returned to his former glory, Wealthy Homie Quan crooned his method to the highest by placing on for the underside. No man can outlive a legacy that wealthy.
