LOS ANGELES — Up-and-coming rapper Dolla was killed in a shooting at an upscale shopping mall, and a man was arrested for investigation of murder, police said Tuesday.
Los Angeles County Coroner’s spokesman Ed Winter said the man killed Monday afternoon at the Beverly Center was 21-year-old Roderick Anthony Burton II, the birth name of the rapper Dolla.
Police said in a statement Tuesday that Aubrey Louis Berry, 23, of Atlanta, was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport with a gun Monday night.
His bail was set at $1 million.
Burton is among a growing list of slain rappers, including Tupac Shakur in 1996, the Notorious B.I.G. in 1997, Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC in 2002 and Deshaun “Proof” Holton in 2006.
Burton was shot several times in a parking structure at the Beverly Center and was declared dead at a hospital, police said.
Police did not say what may have motivated the killing. Records in Georgia show that neither Burton nor Berry had served time in state prison.
Dolla, a protege of hip-hop artist Akon, worked on the soundtrack for the 2006 dance film Step Up and recently released two singles with Akon: Like This and She So Fine.
Burton was working on his second album, A Dolla and a Dream, which was due to be released on Akon’s Konvict Muzik label.
A song with T-Pain was titled Who in the (Expletive) Is That?
On one of his songs, Rainy Nights, Burton seemed to foreshadow his own death:
“Papa died at 25 so he must have been great, they say the good die young, I guess I’m on my way.”