Takeoff, of the Atlanta Rap Trio Migos, was shot at 28 in Houston

Takeoff, whose real name is Kirsnick Khari Ball, was born on June 18, 1994, and grew up in Lawrenceville, Ga. He told The Fader, a music magazine: In an interview in 2013, and found his colleagues in his group near the house: Tikov and Quavo, his uncle, he was raised by Quavo’s mother, Edna, a hairdresser. She often yells “Mama!” in Migos songs.

Tykov was the first group to stumble heavily on rap while others were playing football, absorbing music on the Internet and buying from flea market, particularly southern rappers such as Gucci Mane, T.I., Lil Wayne and his early group The Hot Boys, which provided a chart for Migos’ later success.

As a duo initially called the Polo Club, Takeoff and Quavo began performing music as a teenager at a local skating rink, and released a mixtape when Takeoff was still in middle school. Offset began spending time at Edna’s house and considered Tykov and Quavo to be his cousins. Together, they began to make a phonemic map – repeated words, striking in the background – that was catchy and distinctive.

The trio came to the knowledge of local CEOs Pierre Thomas (known as P) and Kevin Lee (Coach K), who founded the company, Quality controlabout the trio in 2013. Already, Migos had fallen under the tutelage of local rapper and talent scout Gucci Mane, who had heard about the group’s early track “Bando”, and signed them to a cash deal.

With Gucci Mane in prison, P and Coach K became the group’s primary supporters. Musically speaking, Takeoff was the first to catch P’s attention with his triple bouncy songs that the CEO said reminded him of the ’90s group Bone Thugs-n-Harmony.

P said later, “The music was crazy, but what really made me want to put a lot of effort into them was that they packed up their clothes and moved into the studio—they lived there, sleeping on reclining chairs and composing music all day.”