It’s been a tough year for the hip-hop community, and last night it suffered another huge loss. Our social media timelines are full of people paying tribute and showing love to Nova Scotia-born Ryan Lorde, better known as Littles the General.

Littles was killed last night in Georgetown, Ontario, roughly an hour outside of Toronto. According to the Halton Hills News, several shots were heard around 11 p.m. in the area of Monarch Drive and Niagara Trail. When police arrived, Littles was found outside of a home with fatal gun shot wounds. No arrests have been made in the case.

Once an artist himself, Littles had worked tirelessly behind the scenes to support Canadian artists and the Canadian urban scene as a whole. He was a regular voice on the HipHopCanada message board back in the day and we’ll be forever grateful for the support he has shown us since.

As an artist, Littles was a vocal member of the Toronto-based group, The Offense, who famously took on Drake and The Wise Guys in what is considered Drake’s first official rap beef. He made music for several more years before switching his focus to management and promotions.

Most recently, Littles had been championing the sounds of some incredible talents including Mississauga’s Syph of Nu Money Gang and budding Toronto artist, Dutch Revz. Littles reached out to us regularly to make sure we got behind their new releases. He’s also worked with various other well known Canadian acts over the years including Sayzee and Devon Tracy.

Syph wrote a heartfelt message on social media earlier today which really speaks to the type of person Littles was: “[Littles] believed in me more then I believed in myself.”

Dutch Revz has yet to make a public statement regarding the loss, but if you check out his latest Instagram post, you can get a view of how supportive and dedicated Littles and his Elite Choice Music Group were to getting Dutch’s music out there. His last comment on the artist’s profile in response to a post about the new Dutch single we posted on Monday: “this Needs radio…”. He was always and constantly pushing his artists and promoting them to anyone who would listen.

Along with his contributions to the music scene, Littles was known for being an incredible father and loyal friend. He recently started promoting a GoFundMe campaign for an old friend and recording artist, Ceaza Leon, who has appeared on HipHopCanada dozens of times. Littles was helping raise money for Ceaza’s fight against Multiple Sclerosis.

To say Littles would be missed would be a huge understatement.

Our condolences go out to his family and friends.

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