LOS ANGELES — Drakeo the Ruler, whose surrealist slang made him one of the most original stylists in L.A. hip-hop, died Sunday morning from injuries after a stabbing at the Once Upon a Time in L.A festival. He was 28.
A representative for Drakeo did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The rapper, born Darrell Caldwell, was raised in South L.A. and attended Washington High in the Westmount neighborhood. He quickly developed an idiosyncratic but evocative palette of lyrics.
“I know how to code everything and I switch it up every time I get bored,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 2018. “People think I just make up words, but everything means something.”
After being discovered by local hip-hop production hero DJ Mustard, Drakeo helped define the region’s rap sound in the wake of imaginative, challenging superstar acts of the 2010’s like Tyler, the Creator and Kendrick Lamar.
Drakeo recorded several popular and acclaimed mixtapes, including 2018’s “Cold Devil” and 2020’s “Thank You For Using GTL.”
But his rap success arrived at a difficult time in his young life. Until last year, he was on trial in connection with the killing of a 24-year-old man in 2016.
He recorded his vocals for “Thank You For Using GTL” via telephone while at Men’s Central Jail in L.A.
Acquitted of felony murder and attempted murder charges, county prosecutors pursued a retrial on conspiracy charges around the murder. Caldwell ultimately accepted a plea deal and was released in November 2020.
“I live a nervous life. I gotta look around and watch my back from police and these other (people) out here,” he told the Times in 2018. “(People) want to kill me. I can’t be driving around in $100,000 cars on the run, listening to soft-ass (music).”
Drakeo released his ninth mixtape, “The Truth Hurts,” in February, with cameos from superstar Drake and Don Toliver.
The L.A. Fire Department responded to a call at 8:40 about an altercation at the Once Upon a Time in L.A. festival, held at the Banc of California Stadium in Exposition Park, where a source who was not authorized to speak publicly identified the victim as Drakeo. The festival’s remaining sets, which were to feature Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube and 50 Cent, were canceled that night.
