Hundreds of friends, family members and fans filed into the red-carpeted entrance to the House of Hope Atlanta church Monday morning to pay their final respects to slain Atlanta rapper Trouble.
The artist, whose real name was Mariel Semonte Orr, was killed June 5 in Rockdale County. Investigators determined that Orr, who was also known as Skoob, was visiting a woman at a Conyers apartment complex when he was shot once in the chest, allegedly by the woman’s ex-boyfriend.
“I will never — I mean never — be the same. I don’t care what no one says. That was my heart. Don’t tell me how to feel. Don’t tell me when to pray. That was my heart, and he’s gone,” his sister, LaToya Orr, said tearfully, yet filled with grieving rage, at his funeral. “I know he’s still with me, but he’s gone physically. That was my heart, and I loved him so, so much.”
Amid a crowd of attendees wearing black and red, a gold crown was carefully carried in and placed atop his closed white casket by a family member who was given a single red rose from the arrangement on top. She then sat among family.
Rapper Boosie Badazz joined other close friends in sharing a few words to remember the late father of two.
“I ain’t get to tell my boy thank you, so I want to tell Trouble, ‘Thank you,’” he said, his voice cracking through tears. “He always supported me ... I just want to tell him thank you. That was my boy.”
Those closest to him described Orr as a leader, “a man of his word. A man who never left a room without empowering the next person,” his obituary read.
“I’ll never forget the look in your eyes when you gave mom the keys to our brand new home,” his brother, Marquez Orr, said. “I’ll keep the songs on my playlists and in my heart for as long as I possibly can.”
But, Marquez Orr said, he doesn’t have to mourn the loss of Trouble, the famous rapper. His family, his friends, his fans — they will never let his legend die.
It’s his brother, Mariel, who he will miss forever.
Orr participated in many charitable efforts throughout Atlanta over the years, including donating food and clothes to those in need. He also started his own record label — “Minding My Own Business,” better known as MMB — and had signed his first artist last year.
For Orr and his closest friends, MMB was more than just a record label. It was a mantra, a way of life, according to his obituary.
The day Orr died, Rockdale sheriff’s investigators quickly identified Jamichael Jones, 33, of Atlanta, as the suspect.
According to Jones’ arrest warrant, the woman Orr was visiting told deputies she and Orr were asleep in bed when she woke up to Jones, her ex-boyfriend, punching her in the face. The woman told deputies Jones then began fighting with Orr, pulled out a handgun and shot the rapper. Jones then ran away, the warrant states.
The woman explained to investigators that she and Jones dated for three years but broke up after he punched her in the nose about a week earlier following an argument, court records show. She hadn’t seen Jones since then.
Jones turned himself in the following day and faces multiple charges, including felony murder, home invasion and aggravated assault.
Trouble first broke onto the hip-hop scene in 2011 with his debut mixtape “December 17th,” a nod to the day he was released after being behind bars for two years, according to his obituary. The charges stemmed from a 2008 aggravated assault, MTV reported.
The 2011 album included the song “Bussin,” which later featured rappers Yo Gotti and Waka Flocka on the remix. He released his first major album, “Edgewood,” with producer Mike Will Made It, seven years later. The 21-track project “captured the soul of his east Atlanta neighborhood, but also the soul of the city,” his obituary read. With appearances by high-profile artists such as Offset, Quavo, Fetty Wap, The Weeknd and Drake, it was that album that garnered Trouble more recognition at the mainstream level.
His latest album, “Thug Luv,” was released in 2020 and featured collaborations with 2 Chainz, Jeezy, Boosie and City Girls. It was an homage to “his devotion and evolution as a father and man,” according to his obituary.
Just 10 days before his death, Trouble took to Instagram to express his frustration over the mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, that claimed the lives of 29 people.
“19 children & 10 OGs gunned down FOR NOTHING!!” he wrote. “As I’m sittin here thinkin dawg I have no answers, but I do feel as if we need to return to the BIG GOD ... Peace & Blessings to erbody #ThugLuv.”
In his closing statements, pastor E. Dewey Smith Jr. said, “Though a bullet may have hushed his mouth, a bullet can never silence his voice. ‘Cause he’s still speakin’.”
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