Philadelphia rapper Phat Geez, a former collaborator with hip-hop star Meek Mill, was shot to death outside his home over the weekend, according to police.
The hip-hop world was reeling in the wake of the death of someone whose most recent release, just a few days before he was gunned down at age 28, called for peace in his city.
“Rip phat geez…..Philly is a terrible place for black people to live… you see too much death!!!! Smh,” Mill posted on X.
Police received a report at about 10:10 p.m. Sunday of a person with a gun, according to WPVI-TV. Officers arrived at the location in the city’s Brewerytown section to find the rapper, whose given name is Derrick Gant, lying in the street with multiple gunshot wounds.
He was taken to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, where he died soon after, cops said.
Police had no suspects as of Monday evening and appealed to the public for help in identifying Gant’s attacker, but they did have apparent video of the shooting, according to local CBS affiliate KYW-TV.
Gant seemed to have an interaction with someone inside a vehicle just before he was killed, police told KYW, and someone inside the car stuck an arm out the passenger side and fired a gun “multiple times.” The rapper was hit in the chest and the car sped off.
Multiple handgun cartridge casings were retrieved from the scene, police said.
Making his murder even more cruel was the fact that it occurred during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, KYW reported, noting that Gant was very public on social media about his faith.
Gant’s best-known song was a collaboration with Mill on the 2014 song “Life,” and the rapper was affiliated for a time with Mill’s Dream Chasers Records label, The Philadelphia Inquirer noted.
