Baby CEO, a controversial rapper who first made headlines with gang-banging viral videos at the tender age of 14, is dead at 20.
The artist born Jonathon Brown died in a shooting Tuesday night in Frayser, Tennessee, a source confirmed to Memphis NBC outlet WMC Action News on Wednesday. He was reportedly pronounced dead at the scene.
News of the young rapper’s death was first reported by hip-hop news site My Mixtapez to its 406,000 followers overnight. Twitter was lit up by morning with trending memorial posts.
Baby CEO’s passing comes just three years after the death of Chicago-born hip-hop star Fredo Santana of Savage Squad Records fame. Baby CEO was often described by local media outlets as Santana’s “protégé” before the 27-year-old suffered a fatal seizure amid rumors of substance abuse in 2018.
“RIP Baby CEO, Fredo would be proud,” one Twitter user posted in tribute early Wednesday.
Baby CEO generated national attention at 14 when what was described by media outlets as a “disturbing video” started making rounds on social media. The young boy was featured pointing guns and rapping about drugs, gang signs and dreams of fame in his explicit lyrics.
J.R. Futrell, a youth mentor at Young Men University in Memphis, told NBC at the time that he was not surprised by the video.
“It’s a product of reap and sow, and we’ve sown things into our children’s lives,” Futrell told the outlet in 2015. “They live in a world that they did not choose and here we are with the results.”
Rumors spread online that Baby CEO’s death was the result of gun violence, but that fan theory appeared to be shot down in a quickly deleted tweet that read, “He Wasn’t Shot Or Killed By Anyone Please Stop Spreading False Rumors And Pray For Our Family,” Yahoo reported.
Meanwhile, NBC reports that police have not publicly identified the victim. Anyone with information is asked to call 901-528-CASH.
Baby CEO was arrested in 2015 for a probation violation, local NBC outlets reported. He has remained out of the headlines since that time but had recently started a family, according to social media posts.