“Egyptian Moses, 24 karat king tut piece
Fuck the Police, righteousness versus lust and deceit
Enough ice to manifest Christ like dust in the weed
Rest in peace Uncle Howie
Rest in peace Sean P!
Rest in peace Sean P!”
– Heavy Metal Kings (Egyptian Moses)
Powerful phrases from an eclectic emcee in remembrance of one other. The remaining week of December tends to be historically a time of reflection and reverence … so I figured essentially the most acceptable approach to rejoice this time is to lastly put to paper the knowledge that I obtained from my second go to to the sacred metropolis often known as New York. Location? Brownsville, Brooklyn. In an effort to hint the roots and lengthen the legacy of the pinnacle of the Ruck Down Dynasty : the late, nice, Sean P !
After a punctually swift change with Da Villins member Rim by on-line direct messages, I used to be in a position to set up a gathering time with the household remained within the wake of Sean’s transcendental leg of his journey that punctuated it’s finish and starting in early August of 2015.
Though the interview took a couple of weeks to come back to fruition, every part went in line with plan on the tail finish of NYCC weekend as I took my foot off a Brooklyn certain practice and arrived in a conclave related in demographical statistics to the Jamaican-American group that I fortunately enveloped myself inside throughout my first keep in N.Y. a month prior in Canarsie, Brooklyn taking it upon myself to pay homage to make a pilgrimage from the West to the undisputed birthplace and coronary heart of the Hip-Hop tradition.
Sitting on a challenge constructing stoop awaiting the arrival of the Price household, I handed the time by penning a unfastened tribute to the God emcee who was no stranger to iconoclast comparisons and (self) affirmations (*see “Jesus Price Superstar” Sadat X – assisted banger “God”). After penning my tribute of types, briefly succession, Price’s Queen (and strong emcee in her personal proper) Bernadette Price appeared out of a Brownsville Housing Unit like one thing out of the “Price of Fame” video “Peter Pop Off”; besides as an alternative of Fame & Ruck in tow, accompanying Bernadette was each her son and Price’s childhood buddy, the scion of data on this story who weren’t merely below the moniker the place the ethers of thought is pulled from : Black.
Decked out in purple Decepticon put on, with a yellow “P!” emblem emblazoned on his letterman to honor the fallen Triggercon chief, Black started pulling out a myriad of comics from Sean’s private assortment; a set that I had discovered had been scattered about because of the rigorous pressures of life on the highway that was earned by the superfluous scribe. Rim pulled up and hopped out trying just like the Hip-Hop star that he’s : adorned in jewellery, loud winter put on to stave off the bitter NorthEastern chilly, and sporting (most notably) 1,000,000 greenback smile that might gentle up any room – that night the streetlights in Brooklyn would simply should cede in competitors as our dialog in memoriam of a hip-hop legend waned deep into the evening.
Sean Price was born within the Aries season of 1972 and raised out of a spot the place diamonds are solid : Brownsville Houses. Sean had a big household consisting of 5 siblings that was unfold all through the borough’s subsection, as Striggs (the spitting picture of his extra recognizable brother) regaled to me tales of their mom, how they as brothers interacted once they grew up two Housing Projects aside (Striggs respectfully resided in Van Dyke Houses) and the way Ruck (P!) and his rhyming associate The Rockness Monsta met at a hideaway often known as “The Future” to type Da Incredible Rap Team : Heltah Skeltah. Though a dialog of reminiscences have been handed round and comparisons to my native Los Angeles have been espoused as they have been put into distinction with my amazement at Brooklyn Tech’s “Transformers” turned “Warriors” offshoot of youth gang tradition, I needed to bear in mind to steer the dialog into what I used to be there for, a subject that Sean Price undoubtedly would have liked chopping it up over : comedian books.
Black met Sean at Marcus Junior High within the eighth grade and launched the quickly to be world famend wordsmith to the works present in The House of Ideas. A bounce off level for a lot of readers that discover themselves both visiting or turning into engrossed in comedian ebook tradition; Sean’s first books may very well be discovered within the works of Chris Claremont, Rob Liefeld, and John Byrne throughout their milestone X-runs. According to Black, Price was a proud proprietor of “The Phoenix Saga [and] the first appearance of Deadpool” in a set that Price was identified to hold in spots as insane as used shoeboxes. The approach that almost all rappers have licensed weed rollers, the connection that Sean and Black established in center college turned Black into Sean P!’s licensed footman for comics, as Price traveled the world, holding Price abreast on issues that have been happening in universe’s that housed Earth’s with numbers like 33 and 1218, fueling the creativeness of one of Hip-Hop most storied and revered lyricists to ever contact a microphone.
In Strigg’s phrases “Black was like P’s phone a friend should a comic book [query arise]. An integral behind the scenes force to P’s craft , though Sean could be more commonly seen in between tours at the Dollar Tree stocking up on individual size rib-eye’s (Price regrettably passed in his sleep, possible due to health related complications) he did frequent Forbidden Planet, Galaxy Comics, Big Apple Comics, and Bulletproof Comics where he tended to participate in their popular video game competitions. Though Bernadette let me know that Sean enjoyed taking on any and all at 2K, his core team for Marvel vs. Capcom : New Age Of Heroes was Dr. Doom, Magneto, and Hulk – Sean always had a flair for characters that toed the line of heroics and villainy. This would explain why even though Sean would venture into Image and Vertigo imprints, his core time spent scanning the panels were with along with the rest of The True Believers.
“Copies of trades could be found in his makeshift library with pages ripped out, utilized for verses that he would up using to build his uniquely eclectic discography consistently inspired by the rich mythologies and aesthetics found in comic book culture. Take a braggadocious record like “Onion Head“, the first track that Rim heard from Sean which details Sean as something of a invulnerable and invested character … but not always so as he traveled the land housing his craft like Doctor Strange or Doctor Doom in the mountains away from society before they rose to prominence and became the household names that the world knows today. As Ghostface Killah was once a extra in Favreau’s Iron Man, Black says that his childhood compatriot “could have easily starred in a MCU film”, if Disney would have been clever sufficient to chop the examine.
A purveyor of the books over the movies, Black was upset that Sean would by no means get the chance to see Civil War, particularly since one of Sean’s favourite cinematic productions was the Russo Brothers’ Winter Solider. Loeb and Ennis have been identified to be some of Price’s favourite authors, whereas when studying the storylines of Starlin’s Infinity Gauntlet or the senses shattering Loeb/McGuinness manufacturing of Planet Hulk, P would grow to be the characters after he would learn such trades, as described by each his household and mates, and channel that vitality into the phrases that he would lay over instrumentals by some of Hip-Hop’s most allustrious of DJ’s : The Alchemist, ninth Wonder, Stu Bangas, !lllmind, the record goes on …
“How Hulk gonna lose to the Sentry when the nigga just hit him with a bunch of sunshine ?” Comedic as Price’s critique was of the grand finale to World War Hulk or his general preferability to Ennis and Dillon’s Punisher over their cult basic Preacher, Sean Price was a real comedian ebook head. A Street Fighter anime observer who by no means actually dug manga however was on the hunt for comics written in Russian when it got here all the way down to appeasing his overseas repair, Sean Price really was the kind of one that would “say some shit now that people would get later”; and for the reason that man lived by his phrases, that description of what he would vocalize couldn’t describe the approach to life of the transcended God any higher. Loved by his household, revered by his stomping grounds to the purpose of murals of the Brownsville legend protecting Brooklyn the borough over, Sean Price was and is a comic book ebook head.
A Dollar Tree shopper, public transportation patron, and 2K match participant, Sean Price will perpetually be a comic book ebook connoisseur for the reason that days of his adolescence to his wealthy presence immortalized in comedian ebook pop aesthetics from his debut album ahead past the grave.
Dressed in a cape and masks alongside Rock throughout Heltah Skeltah’s most up-to-date outing, DIRT, Bernadette advices the Price trustworthy to be affected person for the duo’s subsequent and first partially posthumous challenge. Until then, Hip-Hop and comedian ebook heads can relaxation straightforward as Sean’s legacy continues to unfold with Bernadette releasing rhymes out her personal ebook (see : “50 Villains Deep“) and Rim continuing to expand his own legacy as Sean Price’s fellow Boot Camp Clik members continue to stand strong, ten toes down, and cemented in the niche that they carved in the annals of Hip-Hop’s Valhalla.
Sean Price is the portrait of the comic book head : eclectic and a melding of countercultures, his friends and family would describe the wordsmith as Hip-Hop and comics intertwined. What could be more fitting in a genre that includes Lieber’s, Priest’s, and McDuffie’s that could be placed in a class of Mathers’, Diggs’, and Crooks’.
Sean Price : Father, Brother, Emcee, Artist, Creative, Pioneer, Purist, God, Brownsville, Brooklyn, Decepticon, Comic Book Head.
” Rest In Power To Sean Price. Salute to my brother Vinnie. We all Nice” – Ill Bill (Pentagram)
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C.V.R. The Bard
First Image Credit: Johnny Nunez/WireImage
All different Images captured by by C.V.R. The Bard
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