Popular Chicago drill rapper Andre Hamilton, a.k.a. “051 Drilla,” was shot multiple times while driving on the city’s South Side early Friday and remained hospitalized in critical condition, according to a Sandra Rose report published September 18. Chicago police say the 29-year-old was struck in the right eye, chest and left forearm by a lone gunman just after midnight near 89th Street and State Street on the South Side.
Officers responded to calls of a person shot and a car crash in the 8800 block of South State Street, the outlet reported. Hamilton was driving when an unknown male opened fire and fled on foot. Hamilton then lost control of his vehicle and crashed through a fence.
He was rushed to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where he was listed in critical condition. A firearm and magazine were recovered at the scene. Area Two detectives are investigating. No suspects have been identified and no arrests have been made.
Multiple outlets reported Hamilton remained alive at the University of Chicago Medical Center at the time of publication. His condition was not independently confirmed by Hypefresh. An Instagram story Hamilton is said to have posted hours after the shooting was not independently verified.
Hamilton is associated with the 051 Young Money set on Chicago’s South Side. He gained recognition in the drill scene with tracks including “51 Dead Opps,” released in 2018, which referenced numerous deceased individuals from rival groups and accumulated millions of views online.
The incident came five days after the fatal shooting of fellow Chicago drill rapper BloodHound Q50, whose real name was Mikquale T. Cooper. Cooper, 22, was killed shortly before 4:00 a.m. on September 13 in an ambush at a BP gas station in the 4200 block of South Wentworth Avenue in the Fuller Park neighborhood, according to People and the Chicago Sun-Times.
According to a preliminary Chicago Police Department report cited by Wikipedia and corroborated by Sandra Rose, two vehicles pulled alongside Cooper’s white Tesla and gunmen from both opened fire. Police counted more than fifty rounds discharged. Cooper was struck in the chest and shoulder and pronounced dead at the scene.
The Cook County Medical Examiner told People that Cooper was pronounced dead at 4:35 a.m. The cause of death was multiple gunshot wounds and the manner of death was homicide, People confirms. One witness told the Chicago Sun-Times he heard more than 100 shots. No arrests have been announced in his case.
Hypefresh tracked the earlier false St. Louis rumors that preceded Q50’s actual death in a separate report, and published a follow-up on the real shooting. The week before those rumors circulated, Hypefresh also covered an allegation that Q50 had stolen $60,000 from a man who was later seen trolling him on Instagram, an early thread in the chain of events that ended in the gas station ambush.
The pattern echoes an earlier South Side rapper carjacking-attempt shooting Hypefresh covered, and the drill scene’s earlier Lil Scoom shooting, both of which drew similar large-scale public attention to the South Side’s ongoing cycle of gun violence.
Q50 had recently performed at the Rolling Loud festival and released his second album, “Get Back or Die Trying,” in August 2026, per Wikipedia. He was on Signal Records.
Chicago police have not publicly linked the two recent shootings. Both remain under active investigation by detectives from separate areas of the department.
According to Reddit coverage of the case, the shooting was the fourth attempt on Hamilton’s life. Sandra Rose reported Hamilton had been “dubbed Chicago’s most dangerous drill rapper because of his lengthy criminal record.” That framing has not been independently corroborated by Hypefresh.
Drill rappers, including Hamilton and Cooper, are known to boast about violence in their lyrics, and both men’s songs reference rival groups. Chicago police said they had no additional details to release Friday afternoon.
Hip-hop aggregator account My Mixtapez (@mymixtapez) circulated a paraphrase of the breaking news the same afternoon, drawing nearly 2,000 likes.
