Shawty Lo dead: Future leads tributes after Atlanta rapper killed in hit and run

Atlanta rapper Shawty Lo has been killed in a hit and run accident. The 40-year-old star's manager Johnny Cabell confirmed the news of his passing to radio personality Ryan Cameron.

A post on Walker's official Twitter account read: "My brother has passed he is no longer here but his spirit, his kind heart, and his music will live on. Long live Shawty Lo King of Bankhead."

Future led celebrity tributes on Twitter, telling his 2.7 million followers: " Legends never die...Shawty Lo Forever "

Shawty Lo, real name Carlos Walker, was best known for his 2007 smash Dey Know, which featured on his album Units in the City and won Track Of The Year at the 2008 BET Hip Hop Awards. He was also a founding member of the hip hop collective D4L ,the group is best known for its 2006 hit Laffy Taffy. In 2003, he founded D4L Records.

He made headlines in 2013 after a planned Oxygen reality show, entitled All My Babies Mamas', provoked outrage over what was seen as a negative portrayal of African-American fathers. The one-hour special would have featured 11 his children and their 10 mothers and in one scene he boasted that his controversial lifestyle was 'heaven'.

Fulton County Police are currently investigating the accident, which occurred in the early hours of Wednesday morning (21 September) on I-285 southbound at Cascaden. The event left two other people injured.