Rappers Who Correctly Predicted Their Own Death

TUPAC

Lyrics: “I been shot and murdered, can tell you how it happened word for word /

But best believe n—-s gon’ get what they deserve,” raps Tupac on Richie Rich’s ‘N—-s Done Changed.’

This song was released two months before Tupac Shakur was gunned down in a drive-by shooting on that Las Vegas strip in 1996. His murder is still unsolved.

By his last album, ‘The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory,’ Shakur went by the name Makaveli, a reference to the famed Italian philosopher who advocated faking one’s own death, which some fans believe Pac did.

The West Coast MC also predicted his end in a recently released PBS interview. After he was asked where he saw himself in the next few years, he said, “Best case, in a cemetery. Not in a cemetery, sprinkled in ashes smoked up by my homies. I mean, that’s the worst case.”

B.I.G NOTORIOUS
Lyrics: “I swear to God I feel like death is f—ing calling me,” raps the Notorious B.I.G. on ‘Suicidal
Thoughts.’

Biggie Smalls has always told tales of excess with a distinctive frankness that was sometimes tongue-in-cheek. Death was still at the underbelly of most of his work though.

His debut album, ‘Ready to Die,’ featured many songs that touched on death — ‘Big Poppa,’ ‘Juicy,’ the self-titled track and the album-closing ‘Suicidal Thoughts.’ The latter was particularly eerie considering the way his life story happened.

Of course the Brooklyn, N.Y.-bred MC didn’t commit suicide, but death did find him when he was killed during a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles in 1997. His posthumous album title: ‘Life After Death.’

PROOF

Lyrics: “I’m in the club to beef, you gotta murder me there,” raps Proof on ’40 Oz.’

The crazy part about these lyrics from D12‘s ’40 Oz.’ is how they’re an accurate representation of how Proof passed away. There isn’t a definitive account of what exactly happened at that billiards table at the CCC Club on 8 Mile Rd., on April 11, 2006, but what’s known is the situation escalated between the intoxicated rapper (whose blood alcohol content read .32 at the autopsy — three times the legal limit) and Keith Bender.

Bouncer Mario Etheridge, Bender’s cousin, fired a warning shot into the air to stop the fight. Proof apparently fired shots in retaliation, killing Bender. He died from two shots in his back and another one to the back of his head.

The tragedy was also foretold in Eminem’s ‘Like Toy Soldiers’ video — a song that warned against the kind of activity that actually killed Em’s best friend. Proof played the rapper who’s gunned down in the video.

BIG L

Lyrics: “I watched all of them, run for they share / And all I can do was stare / I got weak and fell on my rear / Now I can hear the sirens, that means here comes the Jakes / But it’s too late, I’m knockin’ on the pearly gates,” raps Big L on ‘Casualties of a Dice Game.’

Big L’s murder was related to conflict, albeit it’s not the type rapped about on this track, ‘Casualties of a Dice Game,’ off his posthumous LP, ‘The Big Picture’ — the lyrics detail a dice game that ends in his death.

The NYPD believed the Harlem rapper was shot to death in response to something one of his two brothers did (they were in prison at the time).

The rapper is considered a legend, but had his life cut short at 24, when he was murdered in a 1999 drive-by shooting.

DOLLA

Lyrics: “You see the rain on my window pane / Waking up in cold sweats having dreams of going out with a bang / My poppa died by the gun, I’ll die by the gun / And if I ever have a son he’ll probably die by the same,” raps Dolla on ‘Georgia Nights.’

Dolla, born Roderick Anthony Burton II, was a promising act out of Decatur, Ga., who unfortunately never got to live to see his first album released. The lyrics from ’Georgia Nights’ stand out because they were tragically autobiographical.

The story is that Atlanta event promoter Aubrey Berry was assaulted by Dolla and his affiliates — who were part of the Mansfield Crips — in an Atlanta nightclub. Later that month, they taunted Berry at a PF Changs restaurant in Los Angeles before following him to his car. Berry then shot Dolla four times with a 9mm in self-defense, killing him. He was 21 when he died.