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Hip-hop artist Shawty Lo appears on MTV’s ‘Sucker Free’ at TRL Studios on Jan. 23, 2008, in New York City. Photo by Brad Barket/Getty Images
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Shawty Lo dies in car accident

Two others were hurt in the vehicle the Atlanta rapper was driving

Clinton Yates @clintonyates
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All Day Hip-Hop Rap Atlanta

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    4:35 PMIf you were anywhere near a dance floor in 2007, you are familiar with Shawty Lo’s Dey Know. Perhaps the best actual club banger of the “snap” era of Atlanta hip-hop, the man behind the song is dead, after a car crash in Fulton County. Née Carlos Walker, he was 40. He has been remembered all day around the hip-hop world by fans and contemporaries.

    Details of the incident are rather brutal. According to The Associated Press, the car flipped and hit several trees before Walker was ejected from the vehicle, which then burst into flames. Two other women who were passengers escaped the wreckage. On Tuesday night, he had been posting pictures on social media from the Atlanta gentlemen’s club, Blue Flame.

    Shawty Lo was a premier example of how to make it in a certain era of hip-hop without a ton of hit records. Dey Know was so much of a heat rock that it had a remix that was arguably a better song. It also went certified gold. That beat, produced by Balis Beats, is certainly one of the more memorable of its time.

    In 2012, he was supposed to star in a show called All My Babies’ Mamas on the Oxygen network, highlighting his life with his 11 children, and their 10 mothers. At the time, many panned it as stereotypical and offensive. I believe that only one episode aired before the show was canceled, but from what I recall, it was actually far less ridiculous that the premise assumed. I wrote as much at the time. Walker, who happened to live in fellow Atlanta rapper T.I.’s neighborhood, was a good dad.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhQDntv6SEM

    As an original member of rap group D4L and the founder of D4L Entertainment, Shawty Lo was a major player on the Atlanta scene. And his raspy drawl made his voice instantly recognizable on any track that he likely had all your favorite artists making guest appearances on. When it comes to the narrative of rappers who define the evolution and the importance of what the Atlanta sound is, Shawty Lo sits firmly on that timeline.

    Check out XXL‘s list of his 20 greatest songs. R.I.P. Shawty Lo.

    Clinton Yates is a tastemaker at Andscape. He likes rap, rock, reggae, R&B and remixes — in that order.