Rapper Earl Swavey Dead At 26 After He Was Shot While Piloting Car That Crashed, Autopsy Says

Earl Hatton popularly known as Earl Swavey, who got the spot light on him for his collaborations with A$AP Yams and Grimes’ brother Jay Worthy, was  on the wheels with multiple passengers when he was shot by someone outside a party in downtown Los Angeles and subsequently crashed into a parked motorhome, a final autopsy report obtained Monday by Rolling Stone says.

The report states Swavey, died from a gunshot wound to his back on Jan. 9, 2022. The copper bullet was found lodged in his heart. Blunt head trauma from the vehicle collision was listed as a contributing factor in the 26-year-old’s death.

Witnesses purportedly said at least one passenger inside Hatton’s vehicle discharged a firearm before “patrons at the party fired back,” an LAPD detective told the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner, according to the report. It’s believed the shooting was “gang-related,” the report said without elaborating.

Hatton's early life was overseen by a single mother in South L.A. following his father's demise when he was about 2 years old, he disclosed to the No Jumper podcast in 2018. Hatton recalled making acquaintance with the influential rapper Steven “A$AP Yams” Rodriguez in his teens. The A$AP Mob co-founder heard Hatton’s track “Beef” from a 2013 mixtape titled Business Before Pleasure and reached out to work with him, he said. The two appeared together on the 2014 song “Uza Trikk” produced by LNDN DRGS, the musical duo comprised of Worthy and producer Sean House. Rodriguez would die from an accidental drug overdose just months later in January 2015.

In a 2015 interview with Grungecake, Hatton said Rodriguez’s death got him hard. “It hurts a lot because I recently talked to him two days before he passed. Out of all of the members of A$AP, Yams was really like a brother to me. He would send me Christmas gifts and always look out for my mom, and ask if she needed anything. I could call him anytime and he would always answer, no matter what. I definitely gained some wisdom from him,” he said.

Acclaimed rapper Vince Staples paid tribute to Hatton in a Twitter post shortly after his death. “Rest In Peace to the great Earl Swavey,” Staples tweeted on Jan. 10.