B-12 said:
I think people mis-use these types of posts. A human life is gone. One in many, with many more to go. Life is short and that is not a cliche.
Dre was a good dude, outside of music. I have alot of friends and family right now that are really hurt beucase its more than rap to them.
Let the circus begin...every rapper who ever had a Mac Dre verse will attempt to capitalize on this. Its a sad day.
Along with Short, and 40, Dre was one of the originators of how we all eat in the indie rap game. We all should be donating money to his fam or a museum or something.
We owe...
Everything you said is on point B. I hope that whatever people do in regards to Dre's music going forward is respectful to his legacy.
Mac Dre was the first rapper from the Bay that really drew me in and made me want to look deeper and seek out music from other artists in my own backyard of the Bay. Mac Dre is honestly the reason that I found out about so many more artists that I throuroughly enjoy such as E-40, N2Deep, JT The Bigga Figga, IMP (RIP Cougnut) the list is endless. If I hadn't heard Mac Dre as a youngster I probably would have never put out No Joke or Strivin' when I got older which are two things that I am most proud of having done in my life.
I'm grateful for all that, but I'm most grateful that I had various opportunities to interact with him. I remember getting a letter from him while he was locked down in Lompoc. I had been sending him my No Joke Bay Area rap newsletter for months and he decided to write me and thank me for keeping him up on what was goind on in the Bay. Shortly after that I interviewed him over the phone while he was in Lompoc. I interviewed him at the YBBR office a week or two after his stretch in Lompoc ended. One of the funnier things he said that day was that he couldn't wait to get back out to Santa Rosa to get some Mexican pussy. LOL. That day we sat in his fresh off the lot Impala and listened to some of the new songs that he had recorded since his release. I saw him at one of his first performances after his release at the Sessions conference in Oakland in '97. I was standing right next to B-12 at the time and I'll never forget how excited 12 and I both were that we were seeing Dre as a free man and performing again. 12 was jumping around and yelling like crazy during the performance. Last time I saw him was about a year ago. I heard he was having an in-store near my house so I decided to head over. He recognized me instantly even though it had probably been about 4 years since I had last seen him. I remember how happy he was that I had brought him some old copies of the magazines I put out with his picture on the cover and his interviews inside because he had lost the originals I gave him way back when. I have nothing but good memories of him.
Dre was a solid person everytime I ever spoke to or saw him and my stomach sank when I saw his picture on the TV last night as I flipped through the channels 'cause I knew something bad had happened. I turned back quick and only caught the words "gunman" and "Andre Hicks was from Vallejo" or something like that and then the piece was over. I was going to make some calls after I saw that to find out what was happening, but I didn't because I almost didn't want to know.
I hope his family and friends are coping and I wish them the best.
RIP Mac Dre
