Wacko, the New Orleans rapper on UTP's Nolia Clap, has died

Wacko, the New Orleans rapper born Damon Grison, has died, AllHipHop reports. His cause of death has not been publicly disclosed, and while some accounts have put his age at 52, the outlet said it could not verify that independently.

He rose to prominence as one third of UTP alongside Juvenile and Skip. Juvenile formed the group after leaving Cash Money Records in 2001, and Young Buck, Soulja Slim and Corey Cee were among its early members before that three-man lineup became the one people knew.

"Nolia Clap" is what carried them. The 2004 single took the Magnolia Projects nickname far beyond Louisiana on a handclap rhythm and a set of commanding performances, reached No. 31 on the Billboard Hot 100, and remains the group's only top 40 appearance on that chart. Wacko shared the writing credit with Juvenile, Skip and producer Donald Robertson.

His contribution to it was an agile flow and cutting wordplay, in a period when New Orleans performers were widening the city's reach into mainstream rap. UTP put out The Compilation in 2002 and The Beginning of the End... in 2004, with the Nolia Clap EP later that year and Back Like We Left Something after it.

Tributes came quickly from the city. The former No Limit Records rapper Mia X wrote on Instagram that he was "one of those gifted sons with word plays and a unique cadence," that he loved hard, and that he had been working on new music at the time of his death.

His death lands in a year of losses across hip-hop and the wider industry, among them gospel singer Nikki Ross at 54 and Arlene Smith of the Chantels at 84.