On Saturday, 23-year-old Los Angeles rapper and entrepreneur Kee Riches, was fatally shot near the 1500 block of South Chester Avenue in Compton, according to media reports and the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner.
Los Angeles Sheriff’s Deputies were reportedly responding to a report of a gunshot victim when they discovered Riches, a 29-year-old man named Robert Leflore Jr. and an unidentified woman all suffering from gunshot wounds near South Park in Compton. Riches and Leflore Jr. were both declared deceased at the scene at around 10 PM, a spokesperson for the coroner told L.A. TACO, while the woman was transported to a nearby hospital and was listed in stable condition, KTLA reported.
As of Sunday, there was no information available regarding any suspects.
Riches grew up on the westside of Compton playing sports and started rapping at the age of 15 or 16 years old, he said during a 2019 interview with former L.A. TACO Editor-In-Chief, Daniel Hernandez. By then, Riches had created a name for himself as a rapper and had also started a successful clothing brand and record label called Get Rich.
But it was Riches’ intent to give back to his community that made him stand out among his peers. “A lot of people always tell me like I set myself apart [by] helping my community, like you don’t really see a lot of artists and young men coming up really trying to give back or help their community when they don’t really have nothing. I have something so I want to give something.” During summers before the beginning of the school year, he handed out dozens of backpacks to kids and, when Christmas came around, toys.
Kee Riches was such a light to this world ..and his legacy will never be forgotten ..A fkn legend forever dog
— WESTSIDE BOOGIE (@WS_Boogie) September 25, 2022
Riches’ entrepreneurial and community mindset inspired comparisons to Nipsey Hussle, following Hussles death in 2019. “They sayin’ I’m the new Nip, I’m bussin on loose lips,” Riches rapped on his ‘From Broke to Rich’ album released the same year Hussle was killed. Even though they came from different ‘hoods, Riches still looked up to Hussle, so much so that after Hussle died, he said one of his biggest regrets in life was not getting a chance to meet the Crenshaw-rapper who he called his “only idol.”
“Nipsey Hussle was the embodiment of a street soldier, a real hustler,” he told L.A. TACO days after Hussle was murdered. “As a man, as a father, as a hustler he was that man.” Despite his admiration for Hussle, Riches discouraged people from attempting to retaliate against his killer. “It’s not worth it when it comes down to it,” he said. “It’s a bigger picture…the world is just bigger than Compton, the world is just bigger than Crenshaw.”
Riches’ killing comes just two weeks after 30-year-old PNB Rock was fatally shot during an alleged robbery at a Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles in South LA. In total, five prominent rappers in Los Angeles have been killed in less than a year. A previous analysis of data by L.A. TACO found that most rappers are killed in the cities where they were raised, and L.A. ranks as one of the deadliest cities in the nation for rap artists.
