CEO Grip, a business partner in Yo Gotti's CMG label, has died

CEO Grip has died. He was a business partner and close colleague of Yo Gotti at CMG, and the news reached most people through tributes posted by rappers rather than through any announcement from the label.

Those tributes came quickly and from people at the centre of the Memphis scene. Moneybagg Yo left a broken heart, open hands and a dove in the comments under Grip's last Instagram post. YFN Lucci wrote "Damn big dawg" with broken hearts and a dove of his own, and 42 Dugg posted three broken hearts and a short line of his own.

Boosie Badazz recorded a video. He said he wanted to pay his respects and that the two of them went back a long way, which is the sort of tribute that places a person in a scene more accurately than a job title does.

What has been reported about Grip is mostly what he did off the record rather than on it. He is described as a fixture in Memphis and a driving force behind CMG's success from behind the scenes, the kind of role that shapes a label's output without appearing on any of it.

No cause of death had been publicly announced at the time of reporting, despite rumours circulating online, and neither Yo Gotti nor CMG had released a statement. HotNewHipHop credited The Jasmine Brand with collecting the tributes.

CMG has lost people before, as have other rap labels and collectives, and the pattern each time is the same: the people who knew the person best post first, and the official confirmation follows later or not at all. More of our coverage sits on the hip-hop hub and the obituaries hub.