Gangsta Boo, a pioneering Southern female rapper and former member of hip-hop group Three 6 Mafia, has died, according to Fox 13 in Memphis, Commercial Appeal and other reports. She was 43.
Boo, born Lola Mitchell, was reportedly found dead on Sunday (Jan. 1) at approximately 4 p.m. at a home in Memphis. The cause of her death had not been released at press time.
Shortly after the news of her passing, Three 6 Mafia’s DJ Paul and Juicy J shared tributes to their former bandmate on Instagram. DJ Paul shared an captionless photo of the late rapper, while Juicy J posted a snapshot of the pair accompanied by a broken heart emoji.
“Man we was jus together three weeks ago,” Lil Jon commented in DJ Paul’s post. “Rest well quenn.”
The Three 6 Mafia members’ tribute posts also garnered comments from Ludacris, Bun B, Outkast’s Big Boi, Ty Dolla $ign, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony’s Krayzie Bone, Cypress Hill’s B-Real, and others.
On New Year’s Eve, Boo shared a video on Instagram about her accomplishments from the past year. “Some of the things that I did in 2022! So fun and productive, climbed out my shell alot!! 2023 go be 23’n! #JORDAN #BOOPRINT #recap Happy New 2023 everyone!” she captioned the clip.
Boo was born in the Whitehaven section of Memphis, Tennessee, on Aug. 7, 1979. She joined local hip-hop collective Three 6 Mafia — founded by DJ Paul, Juicy J and Lord Infamous — at the age of 15 in 1994. That same year, she recorded her first solo song with the group, “Cheefa Da Reefa.” The track would set the tone for the Memphis femcee, who later unveiled her most popular hit “Where Dem Dollas At?” from her 1998 debut album, Enquiring Minds.
Boo went gone through a number of transformations during her career, renaming herself Lady Boo in 2001 and releasing numerous solo albums. In 2013, she joined Da Mafia 6ix before the passing of band member Lord Infamous in December of that year. In 2014, she and Da Mafia 6ix’s other femcee La Chat, also recorded Witch together.
In recent months, Boo was featured on GloRilla and Latto’s collaboration “F— The Club Up,” a play off Three 6 Mafia’s “Tear Da Club Up.”
Boo spoke with Billboard in December 2022, revealing that she was working on a new project called The BooPrint, which she hoped to release early this year. She also touched on her legacy as a rapper in the hip-hop scene.
“I would honestly say that I have to admit, respectfully and humbly, that I am the blueprint. I hear my cadence in a lot of men and female rappers,” Boo told Billboard. “My sound is a Memphis sound. It’s a Gangsta Boo sound, it’s a Three 6 Mafia sound. So, I am the blueprint and I wear that badge proudly as f—.”