Fredo Santana, a popular rapper who originally made a name for himself as part of the Chicago music scene, was found dead on Friday night.
He was 27 years old.
According to TMZ, per close family members of the late musician, Santana was discovered by his girlfriend around 11:30 p.m. in Los Angeles.
He has recently been hospitalized for kidney and liver problems, allegedly due to an addiction to the substance known as “lean.”
(Lean is a mixture of prescription-strength cough syrup and codeine. It is typically mixed with other ingredients, such as lemon-lime soda and/or pieces of hard candy, like Jolly Ranchers.)
Santana had talked openly about this addiction.
Lean is also believed to cause seizures, which is likely what led to the rapper’s death.
In response to this sad piece of news, a number of artists have taken to social media in tribute of Fredo Santana.
“Rest In Peace Santana,” wrote Drake as a caption to the following image, for example.
“RIP Fredo Santana f–kkkk man, @ChiefKeef is going to need a lot of love and support, Fredo was his number 1,” Milonakis added.
After going to the hospital in October for his lean problem, Santana posted the following message on Instagram:
“Been in here since Friday doctor say a nigga had kidney failure an liver failure. Thanks for everyone who prayed for a nigga I wouldn’t wish this on my worse enemy.”
He later admitted that he was thinking of checking into rehab.
“Hopefully I can be the face to sho niggas to slow down an we got our whole life ahead of us fuck being rock stars gettin high I got ptsd,” he Tweeted, adding:
“I was running from my old life tryna get high didn’t want to face them demons…I’m getting help I might just go to rehab.”
Alas, Santana never followed through on this consideration.
Fredo Santana was the cousin of Chief Keef.
He burst on to the scene via collaborations with his famous relative, but eventually carved his own niche via such mixtapes as “Fredo Kruger,” “It’s a Scary Site and his “Trappin Ain’t Dead” album.
Santana was working on the second installment in his Walking Legend mixtape series before he passed.
The rapper also became a father for the first time eight months ago.
He is survived by his young son, Legend.
Strangely enough, Santana is the latest big name to pass away at the age of 27, as noted below:
May Fredo Santana rest in peace.
UPDATE: Lil The Based God has also weighed in on the tragedy as follows:
“Let one off in the air for fredo santana !!
“For life they cudnt stop that man SSR for life CHICAGO for life Chief Keef chop durk Reese Gino sd the whole Chicago what it do joe we living it up joe Chicago joe for life too fredo.”