Up and Coming Rapper shot dead at LA Mall

According to LA Times, the rapper was gunned down in a busy parking lot of the upscale Beverly Center mall in Los Angeles, California in the afternoon.

People that knew of Dolla only had positive responses to say on his behave. He was known to be a nice guy who survived a troubled childhood.

"Everything with Dolla was 'please' and 'thank you,' " said Ant Rich, manager of A&R for Jive Records, who discovered the rapper for the label when Burton was 17 and helped sign him a year later. "The streets did not define him at all. He was bigger than that," reports CNN.

Dolla was linked to singer Akon, who collaborated with him on his first single, "Who the F--- is That?" which also featured another high-profile artist, T-Pain. Another Dolla song, "Feelin' Myself," appeared on the soundtrack to the 2006 movie "Step Up."

Burton's family declined to comment on the killing through their spokeswoman, Remy Revoyoso, who said she was Burton's aunt, reports LA Times.

The family "would be very appreciative if we could mourn this loss in private," Revoyoso reportedly wrote in an e-mail.

Dolla, whose real name was Roderick Anthony Burton II, was 21-year-old Sothern hip-hop artiest from Atlanta, Georgia.