Bushwick Bill dies

Why it matters

Richard Stephen Shaw, who recorded as Bushwick Bill in the Geto Boys, died on June 9, 2019, of pancreatic cancer. He was 52. He had publicly disclosed the diagnosis the previous month. Bushwick Bill is one of the most physically distinctive figures in rap history: he was a Jamaican-American MC with dwarfism, who had grown up in Brooklyn before relocating to Houston. The voice on Geto Boys records is unmistakable. His solo verses on "Mind Playing Tricks on Me" (1991) are widely considered the most affecting on the song. The album-cover photo from We Can't Be Stopped, with him in a hospital gown after the gunshot wound that took his right eye, is one of the iconic images of 1990s rap. He had spent most of the last decade of his life off the music industry's radar. The diagnosis got him back into the public conversation briefly. The death closed one of the most singular careers in Southern rap. You should hear his verses if you have not. Nobody in rap has ever sounded quite like him.