Rapper Takeoff, one third of the group Migos, was killed in a shooting at a private party early Tuesday in Houston, his representative confirmed to the Associated Press.
Houston police said they would not be identifying the person killed in the shooting "until his family is notified & ID verified by Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences." Police said the victim was a Black male in his 20s. The shooting took place at a bowling alley, at 2:40 a.m., local news outlet Click2Houston reported.
A reporter for Fox 26 in Houston shared a clip of a news conference, with a spokesperson confirming police "were informed" that members of the hip-hop trio Migos - Takeoff, 28, and Quavo - were at the scene. It is not known whether Offset, the third member of the group, was at the private gathering. All three members of Migos are related; Takeoff, whose real name is Kirshnik Khari Ball, is the nephew of Quavo, born Quavious Keyate Marshall. Offset, whose name is Kiari Kendrell Cephus, is Quavo's cousin.
The police department tweeted that its officers responded to a shooting in downtown Houston and that one victim was found dead. It later added that two other victims were "taken in private vehicles to hospitals."
An agent and publicist representing Migos could not immediately be reached for comment early Tuesday.
The three Atlanta rappers broke out in 2013 with their debut single "Versace," which Washington Post critic Chris Richards at the time deemed "the real song of the summer" (despite the charts suggesting otherwise).
Other notable rappers, including Drake, Meek Mill and Soulja Boy, seized onto the sheer catchiness of "Versace," recording their own versions of the song. Richards described it as "some sort of playground."
"After hearing these guys enunciate the name of the Italian fashion house 158 times within 3 minutes 7 seconds," he wrote, "it becomes apparent that this three-syllable word - with its intoxicating combination of fricative consonants - is surprisingly fun to say out loud, over and over and over."
After releasing their debut album, "Yung Rich Nation," in 2015, Migos experienced another surge in popularity with the 2016 single "Bad and Boujee," which features Lil Uzi Vert and landed them a Grammy nomination.
While accepting a Golden Globe for his series "Atlanta," comedian Donald Glover, who raps as Childish Gambino, thanked Migos "not for being in the show, but for making 'Bad and Boujee' - that's the best song ever."
