Yahoo Lifestyle DJ Unk Dies: Atlanta Rapper Who Had Hits With ‘Walk It Out’ & ‘2 Step’ Was 42
DJ Unk, the Atlanta rapper who had a Top 10 pop single with “Walk It Out” in 2006 and followed with the R&B hit “2 Step,” died Friday. He was 42. His wife Sherkita Long-Platt posted the news on social media but did not provide a cause or place of death.
“Please respect me and my family,” she wrote on Facebook. “I just lost my husband and my kids just lost their father. Our life will never be the same. I LOVE YOU ANTHONY FOREVER.”
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Born on November 28, 1982, in the Georgia capital, DJ Unk (real name Anthony Platt) broken into the music game as part of the Atlanta-based Southern Style DJs. He later signed with local label Big Oomp and recorded his debut Beat’n Down Yo Block!, which became the label’s first album to be distributed under a then-new deal with Koch Records.
The disc clicked, fueled by the single “Walk It Out,” which went all the way to No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 2 on its Hot R&B/Hip Hop Songs tally. OutKast appeared on a remix of the track, which Unk performed at the BET Hip Hop Awards that year. It also was featured in a dance-battle scene from the 2007 film Stomp the Yard. Watch the video for “Walk It Out” here:
Unk’s follow-up single was “2 Step,” which reached the pop Top 30 and hit No. 4 on the Hot Rap Tracks chart. Released in early 2017, its remix featured T-Pain. Both tracks were culled from from Beat’n Down Yo Block!, which just the top half of the Billboard 200.
Those would be the biggest national hits of Unk’s career. His sophomore album 2econd Season arrived in late 2008 and included the single “Show Out,” which made the pop Top 50 and Rap Top 20. The album peaked at No. 104. Unk went on to release several mixtapes in the late 2000s and about a half-dozen singles through 2015, none of which charted.
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The rapper performed his two big hits during the 2019 Super Bowl Live event at Centennial Olympic Park, which the Big Game when held at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium. He continued to tour the college circuit.
Information on survivors other than Unk’s wife and children was incomplete.
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