<\/p>\n
By Bethonie Butler<\/strong><\/p>\n At the 2017 BET Awards, Quavo, Offset and Takeoff \u2013 members of Atlanta rap trio Migos \u2013 were reflecting on their success in a red-carpet interview with rapper Joe Budden and DJ Akademiks. <\/p>\n But the exchange went sideways when Akademiks casually asked Takeoff about his lack of a feature on \u201cBad and Boujee\u201d, the ubiquitous lead single from the group\u2019s second studio album, \u201cCulture\u201d.<\/p>\n Takeoff\u2019s initial absence on the track, the first Migos song to hit No\u00a01 on the Billboard Hot\u00a0100, had been a source of internet memes. <\/p>\n \u201cI feel like it\u2019s just like a running joke with you left off of \u2018Bad and Boujee\u2019,\u201d Akademics prompted.<\/p>\n \u201cI ain\u2019t left off \u2018Bad and Boujee\u2019,\u201d Takeoff responded in his confident Southern drawl. \u201cYou think I\u2019m left off \u2018Bad and Boujee\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Watch video:<\/strong><\/p>\n Akademiks awkwardly asked Takeoff to repeat what he had said, several times, before Takeoff \u2013 looking every bit the star in white shades and a silk floral button-down left open to expose his chain-draped chest \u2013 ultimately shut down the question once and for all: \u201cDo it look like I\u2019m left off \u2018Bad and Boujee\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n The point was underscored when Migos performed the chart-topping song as part of a medley, with Takeoff \u2013 the group\u2019s youngest member \u2013 gamely providing backup vocals and hype in lieu of a featured verse.<\/p>\n Takeoff, who was shot dead in Houston on Tuesday, was never as visible a presence as Quavo, the trio\u2019s charismatic frontman, or Offset, one flashy half of a hip hop power couple as the husband of Cardi B. <\/p>\n But Takeoff was integral to Migos, which ushered in a new era of rap with their signature flow \u2013 full of crisply delivered triplets that begged to be on repeat \u2013 not least because he first tapped Quavo, his uncle, to rap on tracks with him.<\/p>\n \u201cMigos achieve restraint through the percussive power of their consonants. They have an acute awareness of the places of articulation in their respective mouths, and they play them like drums,\u201d Washington Post pop music critic Chris Richards wrote in a rave review of \u201cCulture\u201d in 2017.<\/p>\n Migos, which grew to include Quavo\u2019s cousin Offset, was still confined to the basement when the group caught the attention of Kevin \u201cCoach K\u201d Lee and Pierre \u201cP\u201d Thomas, co-founders of Quality Control, the Atlanta-based hip hop label and management company that signed Migos in 2013. <\/p>\n In a 2017 episode of \u201cTidal\u2019s Rap Radar\u201d podcast, Coach K recalled being drawn to the unique cadences and the sincerity and authenticity inherent in the trio\u2019s music: \u201cI was like, \u2018This s*** is special\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Thomas was particularly impressed by Takeoff\u2019s flow, which he first heard after rapper Gucci Mane, a mentor to Migos, urged him to listen to one of the group\u2019s songs. <\/p>\n \u201cI was like, \u2018Yo, that dude there \u2013 it\u2019s crazy the way he was spitting,\u201d Thomas told Rap Radar. \u201cIt reminded me of Bone Thugs, like how they used to be rapping back in the day.\u201d<\/p>\n Takeoff could be selective about projects, Coach K said. \u201cWe\u2019ve given him features and if he don\u2019t like it, if he don\u2019t feel like it, he won\u2019t even do it.\u201d His quiet demeanour, in the face of his immense talent, earned him the nickname Silent Killer.<\/p>\n \u201cTakeoff has always been like that. One thing about him, his personality, his character \u2013 it never changed since the day I met him,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cHe don\u2019t even talk a lot. He\u2019s just in his own zone. He do things the way he wants to do it and you just have to let him be who he is.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s the youngest of the group and he\u2019s going to grow into his own,\u201d Thomas added.<\/p>\n By all accounts, Takeoff, born Kirshnik Khari Ball, was doing just that before he was killed at the age of 28. <\/p>\n He made his solo debut with \u201cThe Last Rocket\u201d in 2018, prompting Pitchfork to declare him the trio\u2019s best rapper \u2013 a distinction Quavo co-signed in a \u201cGQ\u201d profile earlier this year. <\/p>\n Migos released their fourth album, \u201cCulture III\u201d, in 2021, rounding out a series of albums from a once-in-a-generation act. <\/p>\n In an interview with Billboard early last month, Takeoff called the series legendary.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been here a long time,\u201d he added. \u201cPeople don\u2019t even get to do it that long, and we\u2019re blessed to keep doing it.\u201c<\/p>\n Amid rumours the group had permanently disbanded, Takeoff and Quavo launched a new effort this year under the moniker Unc & Phew. <\/p>\n The duo\u2019s first album, \u201cOnly Built for Infinity Links\u201d, was released in October to enthusiastic reviews. <\/p>\n The video for their latest single \u201cMessy\u201d, which features Quavo and Takeoff trading verses about their meteoric come-up, dropped on Monday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Bethonie Butler At the 2017 BET Awards, Quavo, Offset and Takeoff \u2013 members of Atlanta rap trio Migos \u2013 were reflecting on their success in a red-carpet interview with rapper Joe Budden and DJ Akademiks. But the exchange went sideways when Akademiks casually asked Takeoff about his lack of a feature on \u201cBad and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1245107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-celebrity-gossip"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1245107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1245107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1245107\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1245107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1245107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1245107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}