Gift of Gab was beautiful, and his loss hurts. He was one of the first rappers I learned to appreciate after being introduced to his music by my blood brother, Digs (who is an accomplished producer), around the age of 12, and Blazing Arrow, which was the second official album by his group Blackalicious (the other member was producer Chief Xcel, who penned a moving tribute I can’t seem to link to because it’s on Facebook), was one of the first two rap albums I bought with my own money as a baby rap nerd in the year 2002 – the other was Power In Numbers by Jurassic 5, and along with CL Smooth, Lyrics Born, and Black Sheep Dres, Chali 2Na of J5 and Gift of Gab were numbers one and two on the first “top five rappers” list I ever made, 19 years ago.
Gift of Gab was a model for me, because he made technically complex and emotionally resonant rap music at a high level, and he did it with a sunny nature and a certain flair that his somewhat nerdy on-mic demeanour and poindexterish voice couldn’t disguise. The rapid-fire tongue-twist of “Alphabet Aerobics” (which famously made a fan out of Daniel Radcliffe) and later “Chemical Calisthenics” made him semi-famous, but my favourite songs he ever made were some of the album cuts on Blazing Arrow, particularly “First In Flight”, on which he displayed superb chemistry with the likewise departed Gil Scott-Heron, whose warm baritone complemented Gab’s compassionate raps beautifully. There were a variety of other songs he made over the years that meant a lot to me – I love “Green Light Now Begin”, “Aural Pleasure”, and “Make You Feel That Way”, and the solo song “The Ride of Your Life” was special to me, too. I saw all five of these songs as encapsulating Gab’s joyous and heartfelt ethic. He paved a path for me as an accomplished and sophisticated emcee striving to make openhearted and humane rap music without compromising genuine artistic quality, and I always respected that and strove to honour it. It’s no exaggeration to call him a major influence on my art.
As he underwent a series of health challenges and began to slip away, I realized we would probably lose him too soon, so I’ve been in a state of preemptive mourning for him for the last several years, especially after seeing a live show sometime around 2019 at which he mostly sat in a chair while his friends Vursatyl and Lateef The Truth Speaker did most of the rapping for him. But he kept up an unflagging spirit of devotion to the art until the very end. His music was shot through with sincerity and decency, and it was impossible not to love him. I know that several of my friends, notably the similarly nerdy and technically brilliant rappers Mega Ran and Tribe One, were as profoundly influenced by him as I was. He is a profound loss for the entirety of the rap community, especially the “true-school“ underground, which always cherished him. I’ll miss him forever, and I hope he enjoys the glorious and beautiful afterlife in which he always expressed faith. His music was wonderful, and he deserves fitting recompense for his remarkable legacy of superb rap music. His name will resound in the pantheon of rap heroes forever.