{"id":3831,"date":"2026-03-11T13:38:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T13:38:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/2026\/03\/jacksonville-to-consider-making-march-18-lil-poppa-day\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T13:38:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T13:38:16","slug":"jacksonville-to-consider-making-march-18-lil-poppa-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/2026\/03\/jacksonville-to-consider-making-march-18-lil-poppa-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacksonville To Consider Making March 18 \u201cLil Poppa Day\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Residents of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.news4jax.com\/news\/local\/2026\/03\/11\/jacksonville-to-consider-making-march-18-lil-poppa-day-in-remembrance-of-local-rapper\/\">Jacksonville\u2019s Eastside gathered at City Hall this week<\/a> to honor late rapper Lil Poppa and ask city leaders to recognize his legacy with an official day of remembrance.<\/p>\n<p>Community members urged officials to designate March 18 \u2014 Lil Poppa\u2019s birthday \u2014 as \u201cLil Poppa Day.\u201d Supporters said the recognition would celebrate the rapper\u2019s influence on local youth and acknowledge his impact on Jacksonville\u2019s music culture.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Lil Poppa's Funeral Service\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sGIO2hDHBJo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The request comes nearly a month after the rapper\u2019s death shocked fans across the city and the wider hip-hop community. Residents who spoke at the meeting said the rapper represented perseverance and honesty about personal struggles.<\/p>\n<p>Felicia Jackson addressed the council and emphasized Poppa\u2019s openness about mental health challenges.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLil Poppa stood for a lot of things,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cBut the main thing he stood for is mental health.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jackson said many young people in the neighborhood saw Wheeler as proof that success remained possible despite hardship. She described the rapper as someone who achieved national attention while staying connected to his community.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-lil-poppa-day-being-considered-for-march-18-in-jacksonville-florida\">Lil Poppa Day Being Considered For March 18 In Jacksonville, Florida<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s very important for the kids to see that we can make it out, regardless of the things we go through in our neighborhood,\u201d Jackson said.<\/p>\n<p>Other residents echoed similar sentiments. Gavin Boykin told council members the moment could encourage young people to embrace empathy and reflection. He described Poppa as an artist who avoided spreading hostility online.<\/p>\n<p>Boykin said honoring the rapper could inspire \u201ctroubled youth\u201d to choose compassion and understanding.<\/p>\n<p>Latavia Harris also supported the proposal. She said recognizing Poppa would help preserve the culture and stories that shape Jacksonville\u2019s identity.<\/p>\n<p>During the meeting, Councilman Rahman Johnson offered condolences to Poppa\u2019s family and praised the rapper\u2019s achievements.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[Wheeler] is known throughout the music industry for the great work he\u2019s done,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cHe\u2019s brought so much notoriety back to Jacksonville. We can use this opportunity to talk about someone who always recognized our city.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Mornings With Mero | HOT 97 Livestream 3-11-26\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/eVqEN1ZhUzQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The city is preparing a proclamation honoring Wheeler, which officials hope to finalize soon.<\/p>\n<p>Poppa was signed to Collective Music Group. His 2021 album Blessed, I Guess expanded his audience. He recently released the single Out of Town Bae and had planned a performance in New Orleans later this month.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Residents of Jacksonville\u2019s Eastside gathered at City Hall this week to honor late rapper Lil Poppa and ask city leaders&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14044,"featured_media":3979,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6],"tags":[10,9],"class_list":["post-3831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-rss","tag-culture","tag-hip-hop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14044"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}