Before his death, Young Dolph had already secured a legacy in Memphis as an independent rapper who became one of the city’s biggest recent breakthroughs. So it’s fitting that the MC’s first posthumous single, “Hall of Fame,†takes stock of his success. “You can walk in any trap and I bet they know my name / Frank Matthews of the South, put me in the hall of fame,†he raps, comparing his hustle to the drug kingpin. He goes on to boast about meetings with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation (even shooting his shot at a verse with Jay) and earning his first million, over a victorious, strings-laden beat.
The song arrives on what would’ve been Dolph’s 37th birthday, July 27. It follows Dolph’s 2021 collaborative album with Key Glock, Dum and Dummer 2, and the rapper’s first posthumous feature, on Gucci Mane’s “Blood All on It,†from earlier this year. Dolph, born Adolph Thornton Jr., died last November after a shooting outside a Memphis cookie store. Two men, Justin Johnson and Cornelius Smith, have been charged with first-degree murder in the shooting, along with attempted murder for shooting at Dolph’s brother as well. Both pleaded not guilty.