We’re sad to announce that Californian rapper Gajah has passed away. Friend and collaborator Uncommon Nasa wrote an Instagram post and email breaking the tragic news:
“I am in complete shock and more numb then I’ve ever been to learn that Gajah has passed away. I’m almost not in the condition to make a post like this but I want to make sure that people know how special Gajah was.
I did likely my two longest tours each with Gajah. We toured through places I would have never seen if not for his help. We are both dreamers. The kind of artists on tour that want to walk up and down the Ocean Beach boardwalk in San Diego, rather then spend more time at the venue or on someone’s couch. And that’s what we did. He was the most chill person I’ve ever known, which on paper with as fiery as I can be, should have been a disaster – but thanks to his calm demeanor and patience with me, always succeeded. We decided early on that if we were getting stiffed by a promoter, he would be the good cop and I would be the bad cop.
One of my fondest memories with Gajah was of us driving from Portland to San Francisco in one shot. An 11 hour drive. We slept in a Denny’s parking lot (inspiring our song) half way down after leaving right after the previous nights show. But in Northern California there is a town called Gilroy that claimed to be the garlic capital of the world. A stand had garlic ice cream. Without hesitation we were stopping. Even though it was a long ride to go and then some. Both us said something like “I love garlic” and for us, that was normal. The ice cream was amazing and it was enough to make an 11 hour drive work. This was the kind of guy Gajah was and who I’ll remember. There will be plenty of time to share all of the amazing memories I have of him on stage.
This is starting to set in and it’s tough. Live life to the fullest like Gajah did. You just never know”.
via Uncommon Nasa’s Instagram post
In his honour, Uncommon Nasa created a Spotify playlist featuring a mix of Gajah’s songs and some of his favourite artists including Frank Zappa and Kurt Elling.