YOLO Death: Rapper Dies In Car Crash After Tweeting #YOLO

YOLO (You Only Live Once) has become the rallying cry for teens, tweens, and people who are about to do something really stupid. Ervin McKinness, an aspiring rapper, used the hashtag #YOLO on several tweets before he died in a car crash.

Vibe Magazine reports that McKinness and four other men in their early 20s were killed in a drunk driving accident at about 1:40 am on Labor Day in Ontario, Canada.

Twenty minutes before the accident McKinness, who rapped under the names Jew’elz and Inkky, wrote on Twitter:

“Drunk af (as f*ck) going 120 drifting corners #F–kIt YOLO / Driving tweeting sipping the cup f–k yolo I’m turning it up.”

Marquell Bogan, 23, Dylan George, 20, Jonathan Watson, 21 and JaJuan Bennett, 23, were all killed in the crash.

Vibe reports that McKinness wasn’t driving at the time during the crash. Judging by the young rappers tweets, however, it seems like he was drinking in the car at the time of the accident.

“YOLO” was popularized by the Drake song “The Motto.” Drake sings:

“You only live once, that’s the motto, ni–a Yolo / We bout it every day, every day, every day / Like we sitting on the bench, ni–a we don’t really play.”

The term has, according to Urban Dictionary, has become “carpe diem” for stupid people. It’s used as an excuse to do something dangerous like driving drunk.

According to Vibe, McKinness and his friends decided to go partying over Labor Day weekend because Inkky had just signed a record deal. They decided to get in their car and drive around drunk because, well, you know, you only live once.

Here’s the video for the young rapper’s song “Dreams.”