Rapper Lil Poppa Dead at 25: The Tragic End of a Rising Star Who Gave Fans Hope
He dropped a new song five days before he died. Now, millions are mourning a voice that was just getting started.
Last Friday, Janarious Mykel Wheeler — known to the world as Lil Poppa — uploaded a track called “Out of Town Bae” to streaming platforms. His fans streamed it, shared it, commented on it. A few of them probably hit repeat, the way you do when a song catches something you couldn’t quite put into words yourself.
Five days later, on Wednesday, February 18, 2026, Lil Poppa was dead. He was 25 years old.
The Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed his death to multiple news outlets, including News4JAX and 11Alive. He was pronounced dead at 11:23 a.m. ET in Fulton County, Georgia. His cause and manner of death remain pending investigation — a detail that only deepens the silence that has fallen over a fan base already reeling from shock.
From Jacksonville to the World: The Story Behind the Name
Lil Poppa was born and raised in Jacksonville, Florida — a city that doesn’t always make the hip-hop headlines, but has consistently produced artists with something real to say. He was the kind of rapper who wore his emotions openly, who made music that felt less like performance and more like confession.
He first broke through in 2018 with an independently released single called “Purple Hearts.” No label machine behind him. No industry co-sign, at least not yet. Just a song, uploaded to the internet, that millions of people heard and felt. The track exploded on YouTube, not because of algorithms or paid promotion, but because it connected.
That connection became the foundation of everything that followed.
The Rise: CMG, the Charts, and a Career Built on Vulnerability
After “Purple Hearts” opened the door, Lil Poppa kept walking through it. He signed with Collective Music Group — CMG — the label founded by Memphis rapper Yo Gotti, a roster known for artists who don’t sugarcoat street life. On a label stacked with heavy hitters, Lil Poppa carved out his own lane: emotional, introspective, unflinching.
His debut studio album, Blessed, I Guess, dropped in 2021 and further cemented his reputation. Tracks like “Love & War” and “Mind Over Matter” became fan favorites — songs that people put on in their cars at night, songs that made it easier to breathe when everything else felt impossible.
Last August, he released Almost Normal Again, a title that in retrospect reads almost like a message. And just days before his death, “Out of Town Bae” arrived — the last song his fans would ever hear for the first time.
He was scheduled to perform in New Orleans next month. That show will never happen.
The Last Words His Fans Ever Got
In a 2021 interview with Audiomack, Lil Poppa was asked about what it meant to him that fans credited his music with getting them through hard times.
His answer said everything about who he was.
He spoke about realizing he had the power to change someone’s outlook on a situation — and said that realization made him want to be mature enough to handle his own struggles the same way. It was the response of someone who understood the weight of what he was doing. Not just making music. Making lifelines.
That interview circulates now with a new kind of weight.
The Internet Breaks Open
When the news broke, Lil Poppa’s Instagram account — the last post being “Out of Town Bae” — became a makeshift memorial. Comments poured in by the thousands.
One fan wrote that they were hurt like they knew him personally, even though they were just a listener. Another pointed out something quietly devastating: his follower count had sat at around 941,000 before the news. Within hours, it crossed one million.
“They only love you when you’re gone,” someone wrote.
It’s a sentiment as old as fame itself, and it never gets less painful to witness. Artists spend years building something, pouring themselves into songs that don’t always chart, videos that don’t always trend — and then the moment they’re gone, the algorithm suddenly finds them. The numbers climb. The streams spike.
Lil Poppa spent years earning every one of those followers the hard way. The surge after his death is a kind of tribute, but it’s also a reminder of how much he deserved to see it while he was alive.
A Generation Loses Another Voice
Lil Poppa’s death arrives at a moment when hip-hop has already absorbed too many early losses. Artists gone before 30, before they could evolve, before they could make the album they were building toward in their head. The genre keeps producing voices of extraordinary talent and almost unimaginable pain — and keeps losing them too soon.
What made Lil Poppa different wasn’t just his technical skill or his ear for melody. It was his willingness to be soft in a genre that doesn’t always reward softness. To talk about love and loss and uncertainty without flinching. To be, as one album title put it, almost normal again — still figuring things out, still healing, still showing up.
His fans recognized themselves in that. And now they’re grieving the person who made them feel less alone.
What Comes Next
The Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office has not yet released a cause or manner of death, and investigators have not made any public statements beyond confirming the death and noting that the investigation is ongoing. PEOPLE magazine and other outlets reached out to representatives for Lil Poppa and have not yet received responses.
What is certain: a 25-year-old man who dropped a new song on a Friday, who had a show booked for next month, who was at 941,000 followers and climbing — is gone.
The music remains. “Purple Hearts” still plays. “Love & War” still hits. “Out of Town Bae” still exists, frozen in time, uploaded just days before everything changed.
For a generation of fans who found comfort in his voice during their own toughest times, the task now is the hardest one of all: finding a way to grieve someone who, in a very real sense, helped them grieve everything else.
Rest in peace, Janarious Mykel Wheeler. 2000–2026.
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