Normally not a morning person, I woke up this morning in pretty good spirits – excited about the possible results of today’s election as well as waiting to hear some feedback on the Overdue Process joint we just leaked. I think the last thing I expected to wake up to was news regarding the passing on of a good friend…

Last night Binkis Recs lost one of its family members – the talented and charismatic emcee by the name of Jax. This was a kat who loved life, his family, loved to laugh and had a true passion and a gift for hip-hop music. I had to pleasure of meeting the brotha via my man DJ Jon Doe of Prophetix back in 2002. Jax left about a 2-minute extra-enthusiastic voicemail on my phone praising some of the music that he heard from me beginning with his famous, “Zo Boogie! This is Jax kiiiiiiid.” It was actually a message that I saved for a while after that because it was the first time I had ever heard someone get that excited about any works that I had done. I called him back soon after, we conversed and clowned out for about 45 minutes and we were good from then on.

We got to hang out in person only a few times over those years, mostly down in Atlanta where he lived and another time in Detroit when he, Phife, Rasta Root and Slick-N-Rose were all in town to record at Studio A (pictured above). But every time we were in contact, whether it was via phone or IM, he was the same ole animated, high-energy, good-natured dude. Our conversations sometimes seemed like a comedic battle involving intense joke cracking (on each other or otherwise) and witty one-liners (he always got me on those though). Jax was just a genuine brotha overall – full of positive energy and we will all miss that. Although we only worked on just one joint together (“Limitless” from his Sharper Images album), we always held a high level of mutual respect with regards to one another’s artform while planning to work again on more music in the future.

The one thing that will continue to stick out in my head as I continue to try and wrap my mind around the fact that he has even passed is how much of a humbled supporter he was of his people. This was made crystal clear to me about a half hour ago when his wife, Lisa, whom I had never even met before sent me a text introducing herself and explaining to me who she was. I found this to be highly commendable being as though she was less than 12 hours removed from being informed of her husband’s passing. But she reached out in part, to let me know that they had a date set for an “official” wedding ceremony (the 22nd of this month) and for their introduction, Jax requested they use the song I produced for Little Brother, “When Everything Is New.” I was blown away, which had to have been evident as the only thing I could respond with was, “Woooow”. It may not seem like much, but to me that small bit of information uplifted just as much as it hurt because as I said, it was a strong reminder of what kind of guy he was… Jax, you will be missed heavily man.