This past weekend, a surveillance footage surfaced online showing a mural of the late Young Dolph being vandalized in the rapper’s hometown. In the video, two individuals were seen throwing containers of paint onto the portrait at a shopping center in South Memphis near Norris Road. Officials say the incident happened in the early morning hours of Thursday (July 21). Dolph was targeted and killed on Nov. 17, 2021, while visiting a local bakery called Makeda’s Homemade Butter Cookies on Airways Boulevard.
Local artist Cameron Hill was a fan of the “Get Paid” rapper and was excited to be working on the mural. Hill spoke with Fox 13 Memphis about his admiration for the entertainer. “Young Dolph meant everything to me. I’m 26 years old, so I grew up looking [up to] and watching Young Dolph,” Hill said. He told the outlet he was working on the painting on Monday (July 18) and Tuesday (July 19) but took a break after receiving threats. “I started receiving hateful messages, hateful phone calls, so I paused for a day,” Hill said. While he shared that he thinks he knows the pair responsible for vandalizing the mural, he doesn’t plan to press any charges at this time.
Hill intended to have the mural ready in time for Dolph’s 37th birthday, which would have been on Wednesday (July 27). In a lengthy Instagram post, he expressed his sadness about that no longer being the case. “SMH. I was commissioned by the Ida Mae Foundation to create a mural in South Memphis of Young Dolph [where] he shot his most famous video ‘100 Shots’ in South Memphis to honor him for his birthday that’s coming up next week. The Ida Mae foundation and I have been talking about doing this project for the last 4 months. Money has been spent on the project from the foundation and everything just to have a group of hating individuals come and destroy what I was working on,” Hill said.
He continued, “The certain group of individuals [has] been trying to ruin my art career and tarnish my name since last year.” “I have been harassed and also threatened for the last two or three days for trying to do something for the foundation and to make the community look better. I have been getting calls and [texts] from different numbers from people trying to plot on me.” Hill ended his post with, “One thing y’all must understand is that y’all are not gone stop my shine nor are y’all going to try and [downplay] my [God-given] talent that I have been blessed with. I’m a king and I’m going to conduct myself as such. One thing for sure I don’t fear no man and I’m not going to tuck my tail and run. I stand on what I believe in.”