Quavo Shares Tribute to Takeoff: ‘I Love You With All My Heart’

Quavo shared an emotional tribute to his nephew Takeoff after the shocking death of the Migos rapper. Takeoff (born Kirshnik Khari Ball) was shot and killed on Nov. 1 in Houston, Texas. He was 28.

“Dear Take, it’s so hard to tell you Ima miss you because you always with me and we did everything together,” Quavo wrote on Instagram on Saturday (Nov. 12), where he also shared a slideshow of personal photos the day after a memorial service for Takeoff. The two, along with Offset, make up the Grammy-nominated trio Migos. During their career together, the three-piece released four studio albums, two of which — Culture (2017) and Culture II (2018) — debuted on the Billboard 200 at No. 1.

Quavo wrote, “Since we were kids you been by my side lookin up at me, them eyes waiting on me to make the next move.. then you followed up right behind me. You always made sure I did it first so you can do it right with me. You never competed with me, we were always on same team. You hated playing against me because I was always playing too hard or too ruff then I can hear my mama say ‘sonnnn not too ruff’ cuz I didn’t like to lose!”

“Remember, our first dream was to be tag team partners in WWE. We fell in love with WWF wresting.. man we had every action figure. Thought we was gonna be pro wrestlers cuz the way he imitated all the wrestlers so good and if you know Take, his imitation skills are to the T.. he could imitate anybody just ask Danny and P,” he recalled.

“Super quiet though, quietest in the room but paid attention to everything going on in the room, always been like that!!!” Quavo said of Takeoff. “Nothing ever really bothered Take and he didn’t bother anybody. He the most unbothered person in the world. He never got mad, he never raised his voice, and when he did, he silenced the room because what Take said was law and he wasn’t changing his mind fa na, not even Unc could, you just gotta let em cool off for bout 30 mins.”

“But by far the funniest person in room,” he added. “Once you got him goin he wouldn’t stop.”

Quavo remembered that “last but not least he took time with everything. We called it the ‘Takeoff Time.’ Whenever we would be running late to the shows he would always say ‘God will get us there on time.’ Some shows God did, some shows we were late. Point is he trusted God though.”

Quavo credited Takeoff with starting their musical journey.

“Throughout this whole time he had a REAL passion for music,” he said. “It was HIS dream to become a rapper cuz I didn’t kno what I wanted to do. I tried everything, all the sports. After every game I would come home and he would just sit there playing the game with the controller in his hand looking, and look at my face and he could tell we lost another game. So sports wasn’t his thing cuz he saw me lose all the time. This is how I knew he was gonna be a rapper. Growing up he knew every song off the Hot Boyz album, every lyric word for word and he was cursing up a storm. Mama heard him rapping, took the CD and said that music was too grown for us.. until we won the Boys and Girls Club talent show together performing ‘Get Ya Roll On’ by Big Timers, it was all good then.”

“So it’s safe to say we had something going then. It came easy to us when it came to style and swag. We were always looking like somebody cuz our mama dressed us like rappers or grown men as u can see in the pictures! Our clothes were huge but we had the look!!! Then he created his triplet flow and the rest was HISTORY. He never worried about titles, credit, or what man got the most shine, that wasn’t him. He didn’t care about none of that as long we brought it back home to the family!” wrote Quavo.

He then reflected on their close relationship and called Takeoff the family’s “angel.”

“The whole time I’ve been trying to figure what you really are to me because nephew wasn’t it,” he said. “We hated that word ‘nephew’ or when they said ‘Unc and Phew’ cuz we always knew we were way closer than that and it made me feel old too. But I knew you weren’t my brother cuz you are my sister’s son, so I couldn’t say brother. Now I finally get it… you are OUR angel watching me and watching us this whole time in living form making sure EVERYONE FELT UR LOVE AND HUGS while u here and u made our dreams come true. Whenever u spoke it, it manifested it wen u said ‘God gonna do it,’ he did it. I’m just proud be in your life, I’m proud to be ya UNCLE. I’m proud we saw the world and done things we couldn’t ever imagine together. We laughed way more than we ever argued and when we did I always was in the wrong every time… I guess mama made that rule too! I’m proud to say I’ve seen your blessings, I’ve seen you bless me, you blessed mama, you blessed Shara, you blessed Treet, Heaven and Zeke. You will continue to send your blessings down from Heaven and I will continue to keep your name alive as long as I live.”

“It’s always my responsibility to look after my nephews and nieces. I will do that before we make moves or any decision we always gon say ‘what would Take think?’ Always been, ain’t nun gonna change,” Quavo wrote. “Me and u knew we gon always be with each other for life and jus like now we gon see each other again. I love you with all my heart. I’ll never leave you I guess God jus ain’t need my help. So can you ask Him for me what I gotta do to be with you again!!! In a place where there’s no pain, no demons, no jealousy, no envy, no greed. Whatever we have to do God to be at that place of paradise send us the tools now cuz we wanna be with Take. Love you nephew!”

See Quavo’s note about Takeoff here, and scroll through his photos here.