me and one of my boys were getting twisted and listening to uptown saturday night, this would been maybe 1998 or 1999 when we were still in high school. he was like this sounds like a jay dee beat. and like a dumbass i was like uhhh this sounds nothing like jermaine dupri, man. and he said nah jay dee outta detroit. unbenownst to me i had already heard and loved some of his work, notably that she said remix he had done with the pharcyde.

i kinda catalogged it in my mind and maybe a year later really started fucking with his work. i remember having lyrics from fantastic vol 2 for my email sigs for about a year after that.

fast forward i had heard he was sick but he was so young no matter how bad the news was i had kinda convinced myself he would pull through. was living back in philly at the time and when i read (right here on OKP) that he passed i remember having a sadness i've never felt when somebody i didn't know personally died. first time and maybe the only time i can remember getting drunk by myself, too. it just felt so unjust for someone with so much passion for music to be wiped out like that.