Nashawn Breedlove, the actor best known for battle-rapping against Eminem in the semi-autobiographical film 8 Mile, has died at 46 years old.
Rapper Mickey Factz was the first to report Breedlove’s death on Monday, after which TMZ received confirmation from the actor’s family. According to TMZ, a family member revealed Breedlove died in his sleep on Sunday in his New Jersey home. There is no known cause of death at this time.
Breedlove played a rapper named Lotto in the movie, facing off against Eminem’s B-Rabbit in the second round of a pivotal freestyle battle. Lotto gives Em’s character a run for his money, dropping punchlines like, “I feel bad that I gotta murder that dude from Leave It to Beaver” which drew the crowd’s approval.
However, B-Rabbit took the round with some crowd-pleasing jokes of his own: “Tank-top screamin’, ‘Lotto, I don’t fit you!’/ You see how far them white jokes get you/ Boys like, ‘How Vanilla Ice gon’ diss you?'” Check out the scene below.
Prior to appearing in the 2002 movie, Breedlove rapped under the name OX and landed a feature on the soundtrack to 2001’s The Wash starring Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg.
In Factz’s tribute to Breedlove, he praised the actor/rapper’s “tenacity and aggressiveness.” Well-known battle rapper Daylyt added his own praise in the comments, writing, “The first mc who was ever robbed of his win in a rap battle! Rip lotto.”
