Los Angeles Rapper Gunned Down

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- Rapper Katashtrophe (aka Tash), from the hip-hop group 'Tha Alkaholiks,' suffered several gunshot wounds to the chest and torso area this evening while exiting the Robinson's May along with his associates at the Westside Pavillion in West Los Angeles. Witnesses say the rapper, whose real name is Rico Smith, was charged by two masked gunman that fired several shots at Smith. Smith's associates tried to chase the gunman, only to be halted when one of the suspects threatened to fire his gun. Witness also recall hearing one of the gunman say, "this isn't the first one... there's more." Smith was immediately rushed to Kaiser Permanente Hospital. Tha Alkaholiks, made up of 3 members, had their best-selling album titled "Likwidation" in 1997. Earlier albums, such as "21 and Over," and "Coast II Coast," were also top-sellers. Smith is not the first rap star to be shot. Rapper and actor Tupac Shakur, who had multimillion-selling albums like "2Pacalypse Now" and "All Eyez On Me," was wounded in a November 1994 shooting in New York and then fatally shot in September 1996 as he sat in a car in Las Vegas. He was 25. In March 1997, 24-year-old rapper Christopher Wallace, known as Notorious B.I.G. or Biggie Smalls, was shot to death in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles. In 1998, Russel Jones, known as Ol' Dirty Bastard, was wounded when shot twice in the back during a home-invasion robbery in Brooklyn.