Shocker: Popular Up-And-Coming Rapper Gets Shot Dead On The Street (Photo)

According to a report by USA Today, an American rapper from Mississippi, Lonnie Taylor popularly known as "Lil Lonnie" was one of two people killed during a bloody night in the Mississippi capital. Two others were injured in three separate shooting incidents during a 24-hour period.

 

Hours after posting a picture of himself on Instagram and Snapchat, Taylor, 22, was dead Sunday night in Jackson, Miss., his hometown. He was shot multiple times as he drove his SUV. His car stopped when it crashed into a home. The female passenger in his car was not injured.

 

The Jackson Police Department said no suspects had been identified. There was no known motive either.

 

Taylor had big plans for the money he planned to make as an up-and-coming artist.

 

"Let's say you get a mega check, what would you purchase with that first mega check?" he was asked in a December interview. 

 

"I'd buy a house," said Taylor. "I'd buy a house for my family."

 

Taylor's 2015 song Colors put him on the map nationally. In that December interview, Taylor talked about the day he appeared in what the interviewer called a "big mega sit-down with two legends of the business." He spoke to Jack Thriller and 50 Cent. He said he followed the advice they gave him that pushed his career spiraling skyward. 

 

"Careerwise everything has been going, so I took that advice and I ran with it," he said. "Keep the ground consistent, keep moving around, make my face a presence everywhere."

 

During the interview, he was asked who he signed with to put a billboard up in Jackson, with the interviewer asking whether he was selling drugs.

 

"I don't do none of that," Taylor responded.

 

"I've got morals that I stand by," he said later in the interview when asked whether he could relate to some of the things going on among people his age today.

 

He wasn't interested in the game on the streets, he said in the December interview. He was taking care of his father, he said. His mother had died when he was young, and he was helping out his four siblings financially. The music made it possible.

 

Taylor said he was influenced by Baton Rouge rapper Lil Boosie, and that he had gotten similar advice from him as he received from 50 Cent — stay consistent with his music.

 

"I want to be the next icon people look up to. I want to motivate others around from where I'm from because not too many get the recognition I do, and I just want to bring that impact to where I'm from and help people out," he said. "I'm willing to open the door to everybody."

 

His advice to aspiring musicians?

 

"Keep running. Chase your dreams," he said.

 

His friends mourned him on social media as his followers and fans all over the country grieved with them. 

 

"(Taylor) was always 100% since them callaway days! The whole city hurt behind this one," posted Instagram user DukeSuave1. 

"RIP big bro," posted Instagram account dionn2o4. "can’t believe they took u like that g."