Rapper Lil Poppa has died at the age of 25, just days after sharing new music with fans.
The Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed to TMZ that the artist was pronounced dead on Wednesday at 11:23 a.m. ET. A cause of death has not yet been revealed.
Lil Poppa — born Janarious Mykel Wheeler — had been building momentum in recent months.
On Friday, he released his new track, Out Of Town Bae, and shared a music video for the single on Instagram the same day.
He was best known for his breakout single Love & War, which helped cement his place as one of the most distinctive young voices in Southern rap.
Over the course of his career, he released more than 10 full-length albums and projects, steadily growing a devoted fanbase.
Signed to Collective Music Group, the label founded by Yo Gotti, Lil Poppa most recently dropped Almost Normal Again in August 2025, marking another prolific chapter in a career that began while he was still a teenager.
He had been scheduled to perform in New Orleans in March.
Tributes from fans have begun pouring in across social media, grieving the rapper.
In a 2021 interview with Audiomack, the rapper said: ‘A lot of people tell me I got them through their toughest times.
‘People say I got them through certain situations, or I stopped them from doing this or doing that. That means a lot. That makes me realize I got the power to change someone’s outlook on a certain situation. So I need to be mature enough to handle my own situations in a mature way.’
Lil Poppa’s journey into music began remarkably early. At just 12 years old, he built a makeshift studio inside the closet of his bedroom, recording tracks on a laptop with nothing more than a Radio Shack microphone.
His breakthrough arrived in 2018 with the independently released single Purple Hearts, which amassed 2.3 million views on YouTube and quickly put his name into wider circulation.
That same year, he further raised his profile with Nightmare on Elm St.
Purple Hearts was deeply personal, inspired by a drive-by shooting that claimed the life of one of his close friends. The video — which lays bare the real-life story behind the song — has since drawn a further eight million views.
Much of Lil Poppa’s work explores similar themes, with many of his songs reflecting exploring mental health, growing up, and grappling with one’s identity.
Further details surrounding his death have yet to be announced.
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