YOUR FAVORITE MTV SHOWS ARE ON PARAMOUNT+

T-Pain Says He Was 'The Best Of Friends' With Dolla

'We just got our friendship straightened out, then all of this had to happen,' singer tells MTV News of late rapper.

[article id="1611728"]Dolla[/article] was a rapper on the rise, with a Show & Prove feature in XXL under his belt and an MTV Jams hit in "Who the F--- Is That," featuring [artist id="1998098"]T-Pain[/artist].

Tragedy struck, however, when [article id="1611675"]Dolla was fatally shot[/article] a week ago at a high-end shopping mall in Los Angeles. The rapper, only 21, was gunned down in the parking lot of the Beverly Center after allegedly engaging in a dispute with a man, Aubrey Louise Berry, 23, whom [article id="1611853"]police have charged[/article] in the incident.

T-Pain, a fellow [artist id="1240040"]Akon[/artist] signee, collaborated with [artist id="1673341"]Dolla[/artist] -- who was signed to Jive Records and working on his debut, Dolla & A Dream -- and expressed remorse over his fallen friend.

"Man," T-Pain sighed to MTV News. "It happens every day. It don't take nothing but time before it happens to someone you know. We had problems when I first got signed. [But] then we worked it out, and after that we was the best of friends. ... It kind of sucks. And we just got our friendship straightened out, then all of this had to happen."

Dolla was laid to rest over Memorial Day weekend in Georgia. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the memorial was held for the rapper in the East Point neighborhood of Atlanta at the Faith Love Center. Family and friends were present as Dolla was buried in a traditional Muslim funeral service, the AJC reported.

Berry, who fled the scene after his dispute with Dolla and was later captured at the airport in Los Angeles, had his bail lowered from $5 million to $2.1 million on Tuesday (May 26), according to The Associated Press.

Latest News