In Memoriam...

goodbye my homies..

BIG PUNISHER    

 ( 1972 - 8.2.2000 )

Rapper Big Pun dead at 28

FEBRUARY 8 — Supersized rapper Big Pun, aka Christopher Rios, collapsed in a New York hotel room and died yesterday. He was 28.

 The 698-pound, platinum-selling hip-hopper collapsed in front of his wife at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in White Plains, New York, where they were staying with their three children while their home was being renovated. Emergency crews rushed to the hotel around 2:20 p.m. and found Rios in full cardiac arrest.

Rapper 'Big Pun' Dies at 28;
First Latino Rapper to Go Platinum

NEW YORK — In the latest tragedy to strike the hip-hop community, Latino rapper Big Pun — born Christopher Rios — died of an apparent heart attack at age 28 on Monday.

AP 'Still Not a Player' was a huge hit for Big Pun in 1998

Big Pun was pronounced dead at White Plains, N.Y., Hospital Monday afternoon after collapsing in front of his wife, Liza. Friends believe Big Pun, who they say weighed 600 pounds, suffered a massive heart attack. He was known to have respiratory problems due to his weight.

An autopsy was to be performed Tuesday by the Westchester County medical examiner.

Big Pun — short for Big Punisher — took the hip-hop world by storm with his 1998 Latin-infused single "Still Not A Player" from his debut album, Capital Punishment, and became the first Latino rapper to have an album certified double platinum. He is credited with spearheading the recent explosion of Latin acts in the hip-hop scene.

"[Big] Pun was many things," said rapper Fat Joe, Big Pun's mentor and head of the "Terror Squad," a group Big Pun rapped with. "To me, he was my brother; to the hip-hop community, he was a living legend; to Latinos everywhere, he broke down barriers in the entertainment industry."

Big Pun — also known as "Twin" because of an uncanny resemblance to Fat Joe — was of Puerto Rican descent and known to dress in the manner of a 1920s gangster vacationing in Cuba — complete with a "Panama Jack" brimmed hat, expensive walking stick and open necked shirts displaying gold chains.

Despite his flashy appearance and luxury cars, residents of the South Bronx neighborhood where Big Pun grew up and remained after his success described him as a "nice guy" who "gave back to the community," even letting local youths swim in his backyard pool.

"He was a gentle giant — one of the nicest people you could ever meet in this world. This is so sad, just so sad," sobbed Jimmy Rodriguez, owner of Jimmy's Bronx Cafe and one of Big Pun's pals.

Big Pun's good reputation stands in contrast to recent developments elsewhere in hip-hop, including the recent arrest of rap impresario Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs on gun possession charges after a nightclub shooting and the indictment of Brooklyn rapper Jay-Z in the stabbing of a record executive.

Ron Frehm/AP A mural on the wall of a Bronx building pays tribute to Big Pun

At the time of his death, Big Pun was preparing to release his second album, Yeeeah Baby, on Loud Records, which a company spokesperson said will be released in April.

"[Big] Pun's album is off the hook ... We expect big things out of it," Fat Joe told hip-hop Web site hookt.com recently.

Recently Big Pun and Fat Joe performed on Jennifer Lopez's latest hit single and video, "Feelin' So Good." Big Pun was slated to perform the song on Saturday Night Live February 5, but failed to appear.

Known early in his career as Big Moon Dog, the entertainer was once an avid basketball player and boxer, but later said he took to eating "until he couldn't tie his shoelaces."

He is survived by his wife and three children, Amanda, 9, Vanessa, 7, and Christopher, 6.

A grieving Fat Joe echoed the statement released by Loud Records' Chairman and CEO Steve Rifkind, who called Big Pun "much more than one of the most talented rappers today."

"Most importantly, [Big Pun] was a man, a husband and a father. He will be missed but never forgotten."

FREAKY TAH of LOST BOYZ

 ( 1971 - 28.3.1999 )

Rapper Freaky Tah, a member of the hot hip-hop group Lost Boyz and an idol in his Queens neighborhood where he championed hard work and nonviolence, was shot dead assassination-style early yesterday on Sunday morning ( arouund 4 pm ) 28 March in Queens.
An unknown man with unknown motives shot Freaky Tah through the head while he was stepping out of a hotel.
He died in the hospital half an hour later. He was 28 years old. Now his kids - Kahlil ( 8 ) and Shantanice ( 4 ) - don't have a father no more, and his coming child won't ever know him.
Police said a masked gunman ambushed the 28-year-old entertainer, whose birth name is Raymond Rogers, after a party at the Four Points Sheraton Hotel a few blocks from his South Jamaica, home.
Investigators said the killer rushed up to Rogers outside the Baisley Blvd. hotel about 4:30 a.m., shot him once in the head and fled on foot through nearby Baisley Park.
One partygoer said, "Someone called [Rogers] to talk, and he was in a conversation when he was shot from behind." The gunman struck without a word, said the partygoer, who didn't want to be named.
After shooting the rapper, the gunman fired several times in the air to freeze a stunned group of people also outside the hotel, the partygoer said. Police, though, couldn't confirm more than one shot was fired.
The mortally wounded Rogers, was rushed to Jamaica Hospital, where he died.
Other members of the four-man group that burst onto the hip hop scene three years ago with a No. 1 gold-selling debut album "Legal Drug Money,"were at the party, but late yesterday detectives were still unable to locate them.
Investigators said they've ruled out robbery as a motive for the shooting.
A long parade of mourners flowed through the apartment on 134th St. that Rogers shared with his three-months-pregnant fiance, their son, 8, and daughter, 4, yesterday.
Rogers' father, Linford, said he talked to his son about a week ago by phone. "He said, 'Guess what? Another one is on the way.' That was the last time I talked to him."
He called his son a local hero who "kept ties with the kids in the neighborhood. He checked their report cards. He bought them sneakers and jackets. He always told them, 'You do the right thing, and I'll do the right thing.' "
The Lost Boyz, boyhood friends, began rapping between classes and at block parties. In published accounts, the rappers admitted they sold drugs small-time as teens but switched from crime to rhyme after seeing a fellow dealer shot.
In what had become a frequent ritual since their success, the Lost Boyz held barbecues for local kids at Rosedale Village Park and at a neighborhood video arcade.
They also turned an abandoned store into a barbershop to help revitalize the neighborhood, and had sought corporate sponsorship for a free summer camp upstate.
Saddened young people spread word of their role model's death through South Jamaica. In midafternoon, three teens stood solemnly outside his apartment as though it were a shrine.
One carried a boom box that played the Lost Boyz' song "Why?"
A ghetto love is the law that we live by, day by day we wonder why our Freaky had to die. I'm reminiscent of my ghetto rawness every day give it up for da Freaky...
Mad niggaz think they have problems. I got problems nigga, tha LB's got problems nigga. Yeah, Lost Boyz...

TUPAC SHAKUR

 ( 1971 - 13.9.1996 )

Name: Tupac Amaru Shakur
Date of Birth: June 16, 1971
Date of Death: September 13, 1996
Born: Brooklyn, New York
Died: Las Vegas, Nevada 
Weight/Height: 5'7" 165 Pounds
Marital Status: Divorced
Occupation: Rapper & Actor

The nightclub they were going to was to be the place where they were  gonna celebrate the Tyson fight win with fellow rapper Run DMC. But they never made it to the nightclub, when a white 1996 Cadillac pulled up to their car and fired 14 bullets into their BMW. Tupac was hit 4 times- twice in the chest, once in the shoulder, and once in the right thigh. Suge Knight was hit once slightly in the head. Suge still had some power left in him, so he swerved the car around, made a perfect U turn, and f leed out of there. One minute later they were pulled over by cops. The cops opened the door and saw what has happened. They immediately radioed for an ambulance. When they arrived at the hospital, Tupac was in critical condition and Suge was released from the hospital a day after. Later Tupac had to go into surgery and have a lung transplant. He remained in critical condition for a few days until Friday when he died. Police are still looking for suspects of the shooting. A lot of people think it may have been Biggie Smalls (The Notorious BIG) who fired at the BMW, because of his past feuds with Tupac. Tupac and Biggie always argued about which coast is better, East or West. Tupac also claims to have slept with Biggie's wife. So there's no love lost between Tupac and Biggie. Some also think it may have been Sean Puffy Combs, since Puffy and  Suge Knight have their differences. Puffy's East coast rap label Bad Boy Entertainment always got into fight's with Knight's West coast label Death Row Records. Others think it was just a gang related drive-by shooting.

TATTOOS

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EAZY E of N.W.A

 ( ?? - ?? )

Eric Wright, known to the world of music as Eazy-E, passed away of AIDS the week of 20 March. Wright, who was 31, entered LA's Cedars-Sinai hospital on February 24. He went for a lung problem. When he was diagnosed as having full-blown AIDS, Wright made no bones about it. He was the first rapper ever to admit such status.

Eazy is the same sort of loss as Kurt Cobain, which is to say he transformed the music around us. His voice was as unique as that of Nirvana's leader. And his group, NWA, created "gangsta rap". They also re-deployed the word "nigger": as pop discourse.

Eazy-E co-founded NWA with a set of friends: MC Ren, Yella and Dr Dre. The latter, soon a "dope" producer, was once a schmoozy charmer in the World Class Wrecking Crew.

For NWA's products, Wright founded a company of his own: Ruthless Records. (It is received knowledge, still believed today, that Ruthless was funded by cocaine-dealing profits.) Early on, its records came from a plant so small the press was run by hand. And, at first, fans thought the name meant "No Whites Allowed". Yet NWA emerged as Niggers With Attitude. They soon had a string of smashes, which were soon filtered through larger labels: Priority, Warners and Atlantic.

Straight Outta Compton

One of the group's biggest hits was "Express Yourself" (124k). And its chorus sampled a song by Eazy-E's Dad. Charles Wright wrote his "Express Yourself" in 1970, for Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd St Rhthym Band. Ice Cube updated it, Eazy and producer Dr Dre added lots of bass -- and the song became poetically perfect homage.

This was not least because the phrase "express yourself" runs deep in black American culture. Harlem Renaissance poets wrote lines like "Speak up Ike, and 'spress yourself." The saying embodies Afrocentric use of repetition, and the African view: that life is at once progress and repetion. NWA's lyrical update was trenchant:

"Blame it on Ice Cube
'Cause he said it
Gets funky
When you have a subject and a predicate."

Wright was somewhat similar to the early James Brown -- able to accrue a talented stable of professionals. By 1989, Ruthless product included: six Dre-helmed rap LPs, three of them gold and heading for platinum, and an "uncensored" NWA video album. That year, the five members of NWA each took home six-figure salaries.

Eazy was like the Godfather in other ways. He was physically short of stature. Plus, says Jerry Heller, the white biz veteran who became his manager,

"He was the most Machiavellian guy I ever met. He instinctively knew power and how to control people. And his musical instincts were infallible."

So were Wright's social instincts. NWA's "Fuck The Police" made them notorious, as an underclass anthem. So did their unflinching reportage, with its many profanities. Eazy had an explanation ("Im a reporter, man, I'm writing pulp fiction"). Yet another hit track, "The Boyz-in-the-Hood" (88k), inspired a young PA on television's Peewee's Playhouse. John Singleton wrote a hit film based on its images. And that film -- a mega-hit -- contains stunning performances: notably from Laurence Fishburne (Peewee's "Cowboy Curtis") and NWA's Ice Cube.

Eazy's short life stayed full of controversy. He fathered seven children by six women, lunched with President Bush in the White House, and survived the acrimonious split of NWA. (Ice Cube, in 1990, was the first to leave). Rumours of an NWA reunion, surfaced some while back. And, less than two weeks before he died, Wright got married.

During the week of 20th March, the star drafted his last message to fans. He died as the sort of activist that he was in life, survived by his HIV-negative wife and son. But Ruthless Records, the company that he founded has announced they will release his pending rap project. It is a set of 70 songs, many collaborations. The parties involved are truly diverse, ranging from rap-world stars to Axl Rose, of Guns and Roses fame.

© HAMILTON " 2000 "