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Soulja Slim
Birth name	James Tapp Jr.
Born	September 9, 1977(1977-09-09)
Origin	New Orleans, Louisiana
Died	November 26, 2003 (aged 26)
Genre(s)	Southern Rap
Occupation(s)	rapper
Years active	1994 - 2003
Label(s)	No Limit/Cut Throat Committee

James Tapp, Jr. (September 9, 1977 – November 26, 2003), better known by his stage name Soulja Slim, was an American rapper who achieved modest success on Master P's No Limit record label.

Contents 1 Life 2 Death 3 Discography 3.1 Albums 4 Trivia 5 Notes and references 6 External links

James Tapp was born in the Magnolia Projects of New Orleans, Louisiana. Tapp released his debut album, Soulja fa Lyfe, on Parkway Pumpin' Records in 1994 under the name Magnolia Slim. In 1995, he released the four-song e.p. The Dark Side on Hype Enough Records. In the same year, the song "The Dark Side" appeared on No Limit Records double-CD compilation Bouncin' and Swingin' . In 1998, Tapp, now calling himself Soulja Slim, released Give It 2 'Em Raw on No Limit Records with his single and video "From What I Was Told." Following a prison stint for armed robbery, Slim suffered addictions to heroin and cocaine. He reappeared three years later with Streets Made Me, which was again released on the No Limit label. From there, he started his own label, Cut Throat Records and released Years Later in late 2002. In 2003, he released Years Later…A Few Months After, his last album before his untimely death. The album featured the hit "I'll Pay for It". He also helped create the song "Slow Motion". Though the hot 100 hit was released under Juvenile's name, the song was originally written by Soulja Slim.

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On November 26, 2003, Slim was on his way to do a show when he was shot 3 times in the face and one time in the chest in front of his mother's home in the 8th Ward. Police are investigating a number of leads in the killing, but have yet to charge anyone in connection with the crime.

In addition to that incident, Slim allegedly got into an altercation at a club in Mississippi. The source said that a man was in the V.I.P. area of an unnamed club. Slim didn't recognize the man and apparently struck him, before being thrown out of the club.

In another similar altercation in a club in Miami, Slim was allegedly involved in an altercation and took a man's jewelry. According to the source, there was also an altercation at a New Orleans gas station where a man tried to assault Slim because he was from the Magnolia Projects. Witnesses say that Slim pulled out a gun.

22-year-old Garelle Smith from the St. Bernard Projects (7th Ward) is known as the potential hitman. Smith was arrested on December 30, 2003 and soon charged with Slim's murder.^[1] The charges were subsequently dropped in February 2004. Slim's killer has yet to be found.

Deceased Soulja Slim Suspected Of Murder & Shootings! Posted: 3/22/2004 8:02:51 PM by foxxylady Soulja Slim lost his life last year to a hitman in an apparent record label rivalry. Now, the slain New Orleans rapper has been posthumously named as a prime suspect in another gruesome murder. While investigating the murder of James 'Soulja Slim' Tapp, who died by an assailants gunfire on his mother's lawn on November 26, 2003, detectives found an ominous link that implicated the rapper in a murder of Robert Lee Paige Jr. that took place in September 2003. The thirty year old New Orleans man was shot and tossed into a City Park lagoon -- his body weighted down with cinder blocks. And apparently, Slim is being looked into as a possible suspect in other shootings. "We had a known credible witness who came in and gave us circumstances of the murder which substantiated information that, through our investigation, only we had," Scott said. "There would be no other reason for a person to come in and name Soulja Slim as a perpetrator after the fact. There would be nothing for that person to gain," said Third District Capt. James Scott. Slim's family and friends are outraged by the accusation, saying Tapp was on the verge of stardom and was in the process of promoting his album. "That's just their way of closing their books," said Tapp's manager, Anthony "Antman" Murray. "Nothin' on the street was serious enough for him to bother with like that. Nothing that crucial...He wasn't on that type of time. He was on artist-type time." Meanwhile, they also have to contend with another blow. The DA's office has concluded that it would not charge the suspected hit man, Garelle Smith, in the murder of Slim because "the evidence was insufficient to prove the crime." When police arrested a man in the ambush slaying of local rap star Soulja Slim, it didn't solve the mystery of his violent death, it deepened it. Detectives said suspect Garelle Smith was a hit man who was paid $10,000 and the killing "had something to do with the record industry and a rival record label." Shrouded in a fog of questions about who may have ordered the execution, the case seemed to be inching through the slow pipeline of the court system until last month, when Slim's family was blindsided by two developments: First, the charge against Smith, 22, was refused by prosecutors because "the evidence was insufficient to prove the crime," district attorney's spokeswoman Melanie Roussell said. Speculation is still swirling as to who could have been behind the murder of Slim, some naming Master P and No Limit as the culprits. "It could have been jealousy, it could have been a lot of things," he said. "You hear so much, you don't know what to believe. But the streets talk, and with the following that Slim had, the truth is going to come out," remarks Slim's producer, KLC.

Garelle Smith allegedly received $10,000 for killing the 26-year-old rapper, whose given name was James Tapp.

Slim was shot three times in the face and once in the chest as he crossed his front lawn toward the door of his home on November 26 shortly before 6pm.

Authorities on Tuesday booked Smith with first-degree murder after ballistics tests allegedly linked him to the murder.

Police state that they had information that Smith killed Soulja Slim with a .40 caliber Glock semi-automatic pistol that he allegedly stole from the home of a New Orleans police officer. Ballistics tests determined that the stolen gun was used in the killing.

• 1994: Soulja fa Lyfe (Gold)
• 1995: The Dark Side (Gold)
• 1998: Give It 2 'Em Raw (4xPlatinum)
• 2001: Streets Made Me (2xPlatinum)
• 2002: Years Later (Platinum)
• 2003: Years Later...A Few Months After (3xPlatinum)
• 2005: Greatest Hitz (Gold)
• 2005: Mixtape: Soulja Slim and BG "Uptown Soulja's
• 2008: Project Gangsta

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• Slim had also been shot in 1995 in an unknown dispute.
• He was mentioned as a suspect in an unrelated murder which occurred just two months before his demise.

1. ^ Soulja Slim's Killer Was Captured!. Hip Hop Elements. Retrieved on October 30, 2005.

• Soulja Slim at MySpace
• Soulja Slim Video Tribute at YouTube