It was on a late August night in New York City in 1987, when hip-hop may have first lost its innocence. Almost 14 years to the day after DJ Kool Herc spun the genre into existence with his first-ever block party in the Bronx, Scott La Rock of Boogie Down Productions was shot in the head and neck in the same borough, later dying of his wounds at Misericordia Hospital. He was 25 years old. La Rock is just one of the many murdered rappers in hip-hop.
Some high-profile murders, such as the cases of XXXTentacion and Jam Master Jay, have been solved and their killers convicted. Some others, like the 2022 murder of late Migos member Takeoff, have seen suspects arrested who are awaiting trial. For a genre of music that is no stranger to discussing the realities of the struggles in the inner cities, hip-hop artists have fallen victim to violence far too often over the years. Unfortunately, authorities have been largely ineffective in their efforts to find responsible parties. La Rock’s murder was the first, but certainly not the last hip-hop slaying that has gone unsolved by the police.
Consider some of the facts. In the 39 years since Scott La Rock’s shooting death in the Bronx in 1987, XXL has documented 93 more rappers who have been killed. That equates to about two per year and sometimes more. Of those murders, a little more than a handful have been solved, and others are still under investigation, which means there are more than 60 rappers’ lives that have ended before their time whose murders have never been solved by the police.
For context, the clearance rate for murder in the U.S. rose to 61.4% in 2024, which is a significant increase from 52.3% in 2022, according to the Murder Accountability Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating Americans about the critical need for accurate accounting of unsolved homicides across the U.S.
Although the overall clearance rate for murder cases in the U.S. are relatively high, it’s not reflective of the disproportionately low percentage of homicide cases being solved involving hip-hop artists. High-profile murders, such as those of late rappers The Notorious B.I.G., Big L and Mac Dre still remained unsolved despite each of them occurring decades ago.
And it’s led to insinuations and backlash against a segment of music that is still growing in influence. “In some respects, rap music and violence seem to go hand in hand,” La Rock’s manager Scotty Morris told The New York Times 38 years ago following his client’s murder. “But it’s not the music itself, it’s the environment. Violence was here long before hip-hop.”
XXL takes a look at the current status of the cases of 95 hip-hop murders that have occurred over the past 39 years.—Emmanuel C.M., Miranda J., Roger Krastz, Sidney Madden, Dan Rys and Vanessa Satten; Additional reporting by Paul Thompson
See the Current Status of Every Murdered Rapper’s Case
XXL takes a look at the current status of the cases of hip-hop murders that have occurred over the past 39 years.
