Young Dolph saw the good in people
By all accounts, including his own, it's a miracle that Young Dolph lived to see 2021. "I've been targeted since I was 17, 18, 19," he told The Guardian in 2018. The rapper, whose real name was Adolph Robert Thornton Jr., was 36 when he was fatally shot at a cookie shop in his native Memphis last week. He left behind two kids, a longtime girlfriend and a city struggling to cope with the loss of one of its biggest rap stars. An artist known as much for his unflinching lyrics about his near-death experiences as he was for his sense of humor, and an altruistic relationship to collaborators and fans, Young Dolph understood people were not the sum of their good deeds or public beefs. He saw the full humanity in himself and others, and demanded listeners do the same.
Dolph, a flashy rapper who loved designer clothes, luxury cars and hilarious punchlines almost as much as he loved in 2016, although he'd already gained a following from his prolific mixtapes and collaborations with Southern rappers like 2 ChainzHe quickly emerged as a consistent, prominent voice in the lineage of Memphis rap.
