MO3

Dallas rapper MO3 emerged from the city’s Northside with unflinching and honest snapshots of street life. His booming flows and slow-burning style met with streetwise lyrics on projects like 2017′s 4 Indictments and Shottaz 3.0. Following the 2020 release of his collaboration with Boosie Badazz, MO3 was shot and killed in November of that year, just as his career was on the upswing. A posthumous album, Shottaz 4Eva, was released early the following year.
MO3 was born Melvin Noble in 1992. His rap debut came in the form of his 2014 mixtape Shottaz. On the strength of that effort, he developed a local following and inked a deal with his idol, Texan rapper Boosie Badazz. The sequel to his debut, Shottaz Reloaded, arrived at the close of 2015. The album featured “Hold Ya Tongue,” which went on to become a moderate hit for MO3, notching nearly two million streaming views in the year after its release. Reloaded hit number 14 on the Billboard Rap chart, climbing to number two on the Heatseekers chart. His follow-up, 4 Indictments, appeared in late 2016 and topped the Heatseekers chart early the following year. He also issued the Gangsta Love, Pt. 1 mixtape in 2017.
MO3′s 2018 project Shottaz 3.0 would include one of his biggest hits yet, the cautionary “Errybody,” which also racked up millions in streaming numbers. The next year, he mainly released singles, including the Aaliyah-sampling “No Feelings” and the stormy “Too Much Pride.” In February 2020, he teamed with storied Louisiana rapper Boosie Badazz for the collaborative mixtape Badazz MO3. The project quickly entered the Billboard 200 chart at number 136. On November 11 of that year, MO3 was involved in a car chase on a major Dallas interstate. After being pursued by another car, he crashed his vehicle and was shot and killed by an unidentified gunman while attempting to flee. Early the following year, his label H$M/Empire, issued a posthumous MO3 album called Shottaz 4Eva. ~ Neil Z. Yeung