Drakeo The Ruler was laid to rest on Tuesday (Feb. 15) in his hometown of Los Angeles almost two months after he was fatally stabbed at the Once Upon A Time in LA music festival.
Hundreds gathered to mourn the 28-year-old rapper at his open-casket funeral service at the Greater Emmanuel Temple Church. Fans, friends and family members said their goodbyes as Drakeo’s body was laid in a $36,000 platinum coffin.
“It really hit me last night. Reality is setting in. This is my baby,” Drakeo’s mother Darrylene Corniel told Rolling Stone. “My son had class and I wanted him to go out with class.”
Surrounding the coffin were life-size images of the “Talk To Me” rapper and giant blue and yellow flower arrangements that spelled out his name.
Drakeo’s five-year-old son Caiden also attended the ceremony, but his mother Tianna Purtue didn’t let him see his father’s open casket.
“We couldn’t do it. It was just way too hard. I didn’t want him to have any last memories of seeing his father in a casket. I just prefer to keep the memories he has and the photos,” she told Rolling Stone. “Caiden understood he was coming to the church, but I kept having to explain that we were saying our final goodbyes.”
After the service, Drakeo’s coffin was carried outside by his Stinc Team crewmates and placed in a white chariot. His family, riding in a fleet of Rolls Royces, and the chariot drove to the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills, where Drakeo was buried.
Earlier this month, Purtue filed a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of her and Drakeo’s son against Live Nation. The multi-million suit claimed that if Live Nation and the other companies named “placed the safety and wellbeing of its guests and its invited artists ahead of profits,” then Drakeo wouldn’t have been attacked and killed by “100 deadly gang members.”
See posts from his funeral service below.
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