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Shawty Lo Killed: Atlanta Rapper Carlos Walker Dies In Car Crash, Fans Mourn His Death

By Nathan Francis
Published on: 00:02 PST, Sep 21, 2016

Shawty Lo, the Atlanta rapper whose real name is Carlos Walker, was killed early Wednesday morning in a what was described as a fiery car accident.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution noted that Shawty Lo was driving the car when he apparently lost control.

“According to police, a white Audi went over a guardrail, hit two trees and burst into flames,” the report noted. “The driver, described as a man about 40 years old, was ejected from the Audi and pronounced dead on the scene, Smith said. Two other people in the car were injured and taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, she said.”

The news of Walker’s death broke through Atlanta radio host Ryan Cameron, who informed fans in an announcement on Twitter.

The crash that killed Shawty Lo was initially described as a hit-and-run, but police later confirmed that it was a one-car accident.

Word of Shawty Lo’s death was confirmed early on Wednesday by the rapper’s manager, and someone posted a message to the rapper’s Twitter page.

“My brother has passed he is no longer here but his spirit, his kind heart, and his music will live on Long live Shawty Lo King of Bankhead,” the message read.

Walker was best known for his single “Dey Know,” which gained national attention. Shawty Lo was also honored in 2008 with BET’s “Rookie of the Year” award.

Shawty Lo leaves behind 11 children with 10 mothers, 11 Alive noted. The gained controversy for his large family, but told MTV’s Rob Markman that he took responsibility for his children.

“You can hate all you want to, I didn’t ask for it. It just happened. Now that it happened, I’m supposed to turn my back against it?”

Shawty Lo also gained a bit of notoriety for his feud with fellow Atlanta rapper T.I. in 2008. Walker’s song “Dunn Dunn” questioned T.I.’s claim to have grown up in Bankhead, and the two ended up getting into a clash at the November 2008 Dirty Awards, which forced the event to shut down.

The two buried the hatched and appeared the next year on stage at T.I.’s farewell concert at a club in Bankhead.

T.I. went on to say that the so-called “beef” was overblown by the media.

“See, I’m a grown man. These situations are not that major for me, you know? It’s always more blown up in the media than it is in my mind. That’s nothing to me. I never even considered it to be a big deal to begin with. So, something like that, I just didn’t do it for publicity,” he told MTV News. “I’m not doing it for the purposes of taking pictures, and for people online to talk about it and people on TV to talk about it. As a man, I don’t mean anybody no harm, I wish everybody the best, I ain’t never been a hater, I congratulate success, and I move on and keep doing what I’m doing.”

Shawty Lo almost reached a larger audience, with the Oxygen network developing a reality show about his large family called All My Babies’ Mamas. The show was in the production process in January 2013 when parent company Oxygen Media announced that it had scrapped the project.

Many fans took to the internet on Wednesday to mourn Shawty Lo’s death, and #RIPShawtyLo became the top trend on Twitter early in the morning.

The rapper’s manager also posted a heartfelt statement.

“I am so so so devastated that words can not describe how I feel right now,” he wrote. “Shawty Lo was not just my artist he was my Brother He was My Friend.”

Others have taken the chance to remember Shawty Lo’s music, with many sharing a Spotify playlist of his biggest hits.

[Featured Image by Carlos Walker/Instagram]

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