Geto Boys’ Bushwick Bill died Sunday evening, his publicist confirmed to Associated Press and on Instagram. Earlier this year, he was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. He was 52.
Earlier Sunday, false reports of Bushwick Bill’s death spread after Geto Boys’ Scarface shared the news of his death on Instagram. Several major names from the world of hip-hop spread the word on social media with tributes to the icon. Bushwick Bill’s son released a statement refuting those reports: “He’s still alive and fighting for his life.”
Bushwick Bill was born Richard Stephen Shaw in Kingston, Jamaica. He was raised in Brooklyn where he was a b-boy and graffiti artist. He made his name in Houston, joining Geto Boys in the late 1980s as a dancer under the name “Little Billy”—a reference to his height (which is commonly listed as 3'9"). He was encouraged to start rapping when his peers heard him performing his favorite Public Enemy songs.
In 1991, Bill lost an eye after accidentally shooting himself in an argument with his girlfriend. He was pronounced dead, but later regained consciousness while in the hospital morgue. “My toe was tagged and they were pushing me in the drawer,” he recalled in a 2014 interview. “I looked both ways and I saw frozen people to the left and frozen people to the right. I thought I was dreaming, then I saw people in front of me pushing the door closed and I was like, ‘Yo!’” Following his cancer diagnosis this year, he said: “It’s not like I’m afraid of dying, because … I died and came back already, in June 1991. I know what it’s like on the other side.”
A Geto Boys reunion tour had been announced earlier this year, but was cancelled in late May.
Comments
Post a Comment