Jacksonville Rapper Lil Poppa Dies at 25

Lil Poppa has died. An official cause of death has not been announced. He was 25.

Born in 2000, Janarious Mykel Wheeler began rapping at 7 years old in his home city of Jacksonville, Florida. He later wrote music for his church before fully pivoting to secular music. When he broke through in 2018 with “Purple Hearts,” a song about surviving a shooting in his hometown, he was only 18. It was later featured on his beloved Under Investigation mixtape.

The virality of “Purple Hearts” led to Wheeler signing with Interscope Records. His 2021 debut LP on the label, Blessed, I Guess, dealt with his conflicting feelings of sudden fame. The rapper would later sign to Yo Gotti’s label Collective Music Group, which also houses Moneybagg Yo and GloRilla. His last album, the 16-track Almost Normal Again, came out in August 2025. The rapper’s latest song, “Out of Town Bae,” dropped last Friday.

Revisit the Pitchfork feature Lil Poppa, Legend Yae, and Why the Best Southern Pain Rap Is More Than Just Sad.