The Death Of A Rapper

2020 was not a good year for rapper’s mortality. Pop Smoke, Lil’ Marlo, Tray Savage, Huey, King Von, FBG Duck, Mo3. All talented artists in their own right. Sobering is the fact that we will no longer be blessed with their presence. No evolution, no interaction, just memories and anthems. A few of them have a few things in common. All dead for one, few from the same city, few with the same flow, same producer, etcetera. The loss of these artists left a hole in the hearts of fans worldwide but we don’t want to talk about the usual suspects in analyzing the trend of death in the rap community and I only referenced those rappers due to the violent nature of their passings. We surely lost a few of our beloved to the pandemic and our hearts go out to anyone affected by the losses.

Today we wanna talk about the endemic of the prophecy of death in rap music, that is, rappers predicting death. We all know how closely rap is connected to the streets and the street lifestyle, but where does art imitate life when it comes to us losing our people? It seems like in this day and age that if a rapper is not seeing the grim reaper in chase then it may have to chase our stream as if life depended on it. Just think, which of your favorite rappers doesn’t see omens of death whenever they move? Chances are that it’s not that many if any.

The paradox can be as real as we make it. I can wax theoretical about how BIG should not have rapped so much about death and it might not have come so soon but I don’t know if I could love him the same without “You’re Nobody Til’ Somebody Kills You”. I can say Pac was one of the best but lament him for “I See Death Around The Corner”. I don’t know where to draw the line and as a consumer I can’t help but feel a bit responsible. Hip Hop and the streets run in tandem and unfortunately, death runs throughout the streets. We can’t blame that overall fact on any single person but we need to at least acknowledge that there is a threshold of responsibility that we all pass through when it comes to what we expect out of rap.

That threshold can be invisible but I promise you it is somewhere between you singing along to a rappers cries for death and you potentially crying when you get that news. We love to say god bless the dead but we don’t champion the living enough just for living. Yeah that’s callous, just as callous as a rappers estate asking me for funeral expenses when said rapper had death in their entourage from day one to day none. I’ll be an asshole for that but I’ll never be a bigger asshole than Eric Holder, or Quando Rondos mans, or whoever shot Jam Master Jay.

Also hailing from Queens, New York, Lionel Pickens, the rapper better known as Chinx Drugs was just approaching his tipping point when he was gunned down on May 17th, 2015. On his 2013 record “Maybe” he raps “kids left to hold your name/this for my homies on the other side/we see you short but try hard not to fuck up my stride. From D-12, Detroit’s own Proof damn near let us know how he was gonna go two years before it happened. There are too many instances to name and there are too many participants to blame.

To be honest, this is hard to write. I personally just lost a little homie in life who was a big homie in the rap game. It wasn’t the first time and I’m sure it won’t be the last. That’s never feels good to say, so why is it a good thing to hear in music? “Niggas in my faction/don’t like asking’ questions…”? We all know what’s coming next as well as what happened not long after he recorded it. You’re Nobody Til’ Nobody Somebody Kills You was a seminal record in the history of Hip Hop, but I don’t need to hear the whos, what’s, where’s and when’s of a rappers death, especially if I never get the why.

Hip Hop and Rap music have always been a celebration of life and death is an unfortunate but undeniable part of life. Our losses are not just a product of senseless violence. From overdose to automobile accidents, we lose ours at alarming rates and whenever I hear about the death of a rapper, I can’t help but search their lyrics and see how much they spoke of death.

Positive energy activates constant elevation.

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