Lucas Coly, French-American Rapper, Dead at 27

The rap world is in mourning.

Lucas Coly—the French-American rapper behind the 2016 viral hit "I Just Wanna"—died at age 27, his manager shared on Oct. 3.

"I'm going to be in mourning," read a statement posted onto the Instagram Stories of I Discover Stars, the agency representing Coly. "My brother is gone. Don't wait until someone dies to give them their flowers."

In a separate since-deleted statement, Coly's manager said there is "a hole in my heart right now."

"Being your manager was one of the reasons I stayed here," he wrote on Instagram, per Us Weekly. "Honestly, Lucas it hasn’t set in yet because I refuse to believe you are gone."

A cause of death was not disclosed.

Coly got his start on Vine more than a decade ago, according to NBC New York. He went on to release music in both English and French on YouTube, gaining almost half a million subscribers.

"I was born in France, I moved to the U.S. when I was about 8 years old," Coly shared in a 2017 interview with DJ Smallz Eyes. "Most of the time, people don’t know I speak French 'cause I don’t just tell people."

He continued at the time, "I'm looking forward to making more music with French in it. I feel like that'll expand. I got French fans, I got fans—of course—in other countries, so I got to come home now."

And for Coly, music was always his No. 1 his passion. 

"I didn't really do good in school, so that's really my main struggle," he recalled, explaining how he "barely" graduated. "I just want to rap. If it's not music or not making music, I want to do nothing."

In addition to "I Just Wanna," Coly's singles include 2017's "Feelings," 2018's "Break Ya Back" and 2021's "I Look Better." Last year, he released a track titled "Know Yo Place."

"I'm trying to keep my vision clear / I understand reality and all this s--t is smoke and mirrors," he rapped on the song. "And I know that they against me / I'll never show no fear."

In his final Instagram Story before his death, Coly wrote to his 1.3 million followers, “I love yall.”

(E! and NBC are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)