Shawty Lo

Born in Atlanta as Carlos Walker, trap rapper Shawty Lo first achieved national visibility not via his street-hustling rhymes but by spearheading the snap-dance phenomenon through the Billboard number-one single “Laffy Taffy,” which he recorded in 2005 as a member of the four-man Atlanta crew D4L. Two years earlier he had co-established both the group and its independent D4L Records imprint, serving as CEO with the original plan of remaining strictly behind the scenes and rarely appearing on the group’s tracks. D4L’s first single, “Betcha Can’t Do It Like Me,” became a major regional success across Georgia in 2004 and foreshadowed broader commercial prospects. Prior to any of those breakthroughs, Shawty Lo had been convicted on drug-related charges and completed a one-year prison term. Released in July 2005, he returned to find that “Laffy Taffy”—which would soon top the pop charts and shatter multiple digital-download and ringtone sales marks—had already exploded locally. Consequently D4L and the label secured a national distribution arrangement with Atlantic through Asylum Records, enabling the wide release of their debut album Down for Life later that year. Buoyed by newfound confidence in his own microphone skills, Shawty Lo extracted his solo track “I’m da Man” from the album and issued it independently in Atlanta in 2006. Following two solo mixtapes hosted by Atlanta’s DJ Scream, he signed a solo contract with Asylum in summer 2007 and released his first proper album, Units in the City, the next year; the project was led by the hip-hop/R&B-chart single “Dey Know.” Over the ensuing period he maintained a steady output of at least ten additional mixtapes while readying a sophomore studio effort ultimately titled Still Got Units. On 21 September 2016 Shawty Lo died at age 40 in a hit-and-run collision outside an Atlanta nightclub.