RIP Gift of Gab

[Hicks]

Damn this sucks, one of my favorite MCs of all time.

Got to see him a bunch back in the day, including the Quannum World tour with Latryx, Shadow and Lifesavas which is probably the best hip hop show I've ever seen.

Dude had a monstrous flow and excellent, conscious lyrics, you really felt like you knew him through his music.

RIP

[emay]

damn RIP. havent put on blackalicious in a while which is a shame.
always loved this track with Cut Chemist.

[natronzero]

It's been a hell of a bad year for rappers dying. RIP

[emay]

From DJ Shadow

My statement regarding the passing of Timothy Jerome ?The Gift Of Gab? Parker:
Our brother Tim, having walked this earth as a student of life for over 50 years, has graduated to the next plane of existence.  He begins his renewed travels accompanied by the many spiritual attributes developed during his time among us mortals:  his wry sense of humor, his unlimited kindness, his abundant humility?his ability to entertain, to awe?his adeptness not only at teaching, but at learning.  His willingness to admit wrongs and defend truths; his voracious admiration of knowledge and wisdom, his contempt for deceit.  Characteristics all sharpened by the blades of hardship and achievement forged of a life lived fully and genuinely.
?It is not done ?til it?s done.? -The Gift Of Gab, from the Blackalicious song ?Changes.?
Tim was many things to many people, but to most of us, he was a rapper, and it was in the context of rap that I first met him nearly 30 years ago.  At the time, Xavier, Tom, Jeff and I were at UC Davis getting our label Solesides together.  Gab hadn?t formally joined the collective yet, but X used to talk about him all the time: ?Wait ?til you hear him, he?s super dope.?
One day, X invited me to co-DJ an impromptu MC session at his crib.  Right there, in that tiny apartment, I heard Tim rap for the first time.  His voice was perfect, his wordplay endlessly inventive.  ?Dope verse,? I enthused.  ?Nah, that was freestyle,? Tim smiled.  ?Want to hear more???  I was dumbfounded, and whispered to X, ?You mean that whole 5-minute verse was off the head??  I couldn?t believe it.  I had heard so many rappers talk about freestyles, but almost every one of them were fronting.  We all knew Freestyle Fellowship was legit, but I figured they were an outlier?I never thought I?d cross paths with an actual rapper like them that valued skills and expressive freedom over image and aesthetic.  In an industry with so many frauds and followers, Tim Parker was more than just original; he was unique.  And he was, quite simply, the most preternaturally gifted MC I?ve ever worked with.
Gab loved to think of life as just a momentary stage of a much longer journey, and all its trials and tribulations as ?training? for the adventures to come after.  If there?s one thing I know, wherever Gab is, he?s SOARING right now.  We love and miss you, Tim.

[mistercharlie]

Mother fucker...

This one hurts. Gab was so damned good. I saw him open for Public Enemy once and he was the best live rapper I've ever seen.

RIP :cry: