Lil Snupe Dead; Rapper, Meek Mill Protege Was 18

Lil Snupe is dead at the age of 18, according to multiple reports.

The emerging rapper from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who recently signed to Meek Mill's Dream Chasers label, passed away early this morning.

Some sources indicate that he was shot and killed, although no official details, including the location, have been released as of this posting.

No homicides with a similarly aged victim occurred in the Baton Rouge area overnight, though it's unclear if he still resides in that city or was there last night.

In any case, Lil Snupe's manager, DJ Smallz and Dream Chasers' Louie V Gutta both tweeted of the rapper's death this morning with heavy hearts.

Snupe repped his home state in his last tweet, writing simply:

"i Hold it Down 4 Louisiana."

Meek Mill signed Snupe to Dream Chasers last year after listening to his mixtape for 20 minutes, the late Louisiana rapper told MTV News in February.

"He was in a van, they was finna pull off," Snipe recalled.

"I went and knocked on the van, on the window. They let the window down, grabbed the mixtape and it was like 20 minutes later they called me."

"He was spittin' so much pain, he's from the south with a flow like an east coast guy," Meek Mill, who released Snupe's debut mixtape in April, told MTV.

RIP.