Jesse Grant/Getty Images

Memphis rapper Gangsta Boo, real name Lola Mitchell, was found dead on her front porch around 4 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 1. She was 43.

Fox13 Memphis confirmed the news with three independent sources after Three 6 Mafia founder DJ Paul posted an image of her smoking weed on Twitter and Instagram.

Boo died of a suspected cardiac arrest hours after celebrating New Year’s Eve at a concert with her brother in Memphis on Dec. 31.

Her brother was later taken to a hospital after overdosing on a fentanyl-laced substance. He was discharged from the hospital on Sunday.

Chris McKay/Getty Images

Boo had a history of drug abuse. She appeared on the latest season of Marriage Boot Camp: Hip Hop Edition alongside her then-boyfriend Emmett Flores. During an episode that aired last May, a “white powdery substance” was discovered in their room. The couple denied it was cocaine. She later addressed the incident in a since-deleted Instagram post and trashed resident drug counselor Dr. Ish for his perceived lack of professionalism.

Boo was the second female member of the Memphis-based rap group Three 6 Mafia (rapper K-9 was the first). Boo featured on the group’s next four albums before going solo.

“Being in Three 6 Mafia did give me a lot of confidence,” she told Vibe magazine in 2016, per Variety. “I started noticing that not only am I hot, but that I’m talented… But you’d be surprised at how many motherf—ers don’t know that I was in Three 6 Mafia.”

Boo quit Three 6 Mafia amid money and business disputes in 2002. Her first solo album, Enquiring Minds, was released in 1998 and peaked at No. 15 on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and number 46 on the Billboard 200 chart.

Gangsta Boo was considered a pioneer of female rap music, alongside rap legends Lil Kim, Queen Latifah, Missy Elliott, and others who dominated female rap music.

Boo served as an inspiration for aspiring rappers in recent years.

The music video for “F— the Club Up”, her collaboration with aspiring rapper GloRilla and rapper Latto, was released in mid-December 2022.

“I have to admit, respectfully and humbly, that I am the blueprint. I hear my cadence in a lot of men and female rappers,” she told Billboard in December.
 

YouTube video