Saafir, the celebrated Oakland rapper who became a stalwart figure in the world of early Nineties West Coast hip-hop, died on Tuesday, Nov. 19. He was 54.
Rapper Xzibit, a longtime friend and former member of The Golden State Project, along with Saafir and Ras Kass, announced the rapper’s passing in a joint Instagram post with Saafir’s son, a rapper known as Lil Saafir.
“Approximately at 8:45am this morning, my brother Reggie known to the world as Saafir passed away. We have so much history I can’t even explain what I’m feeling right now. We surrounded him and let him know how much we loved him. He can rest now.
“[T]he family really needs to be supported during this time. That’s all I have right now. My soul is crushed. We love you Bro.”
No immediate information on cause of death was available.
Saafir, real name Reggie Gibson, rose to prominence in the Bay Area’s underground rap scene during the early 1990s after his crew, Hobo Junction, released their debut album Boxcar Sessions. But it was a 1994 rap battle between his crew and their hometown rivals, Casual and Hieroglyphics, that cemented Gibson’s legend and place in hip-hop history.
Saafir Opened Up About His Condition
Gibson had been undergoing significant health struggles for years prior to his passing. In 2013, he did an interview with the San Francisco Bay Guardian where he talked about his reluctancy to speak out about his condition.
“I didn’t really go into telling people I was in a wheelchair or disabled because a lot of people don’t want to be bothered with it,” he lamented.
“I don’t have a problem with asking anybody for help or allowing people to help me or whatnot, but people have their own agenda, people have their own lives. And I need a bit of assistance just to do the basic things, getting into the bathtub, that’s like a marathon for me. And alone it’s damn near impossible. There’s not a lot of people there so I just try to stay concrete and just try to tread through it.”
