Sean Price, the highly-respected Duck Down Records rapper, one half of groundbreaking duo Heltah Skeltah, died suddenly in his Brooklyn apartment Saturday morning. He was 43. The cause of death is still unknown. Condolences rained down from across the hip-hop community for one of the most devastatingly brutish emcees of all-time; a man who, by all accounts, lived as he rapped: with integrity. He is survived by his wife and his three children.
Sean Price was born in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn on March 17, 1972, and he spent his entire life there. He’d always bear his borough as a badge of honor, often claiming the title of Best Rapper in Brownsville, and sometimes, all of Brooklyn ("Shawn Carter is nice, but Sean Price is the best"). In the mid-'90s, as Ruck, he formed Heltah Skeltah with fellow Brownsville native Jahmal "Rock" Bush, and as a tag-team they bludgeoned listeners with menacing street talk. A member of the Boot Camp Clik, Price first surfaced on Smif-N-Wessun’s 1995 debut, Dah Shinin’, on the posse cut "Cession at da Doghillee", where his opening query, "Do we have to result in fisticuffs," would serve as the first of many threats to put hands on foes.
In the mid-'90s, New York City rap was made of gunmetal grit and a ruggedness befitting a concrete jungle with Notorious B.I.G., Wu-Tang Clan, and Mobb Deep leading the charge. Ruck was built for such hostile conditions, weaponizing a gruff snarl with a surly disposition. He played an integral role in the bustling NYC underground as one of the Boot Camp Clik’s clear standouts. Boot Camp, then comprised of Heltah Skeltah and Originoo Gunn Clappaz as the Fab 5, fresh off of the Smif-N-Wessun guest spot, released the single "Blah" / "Leflaur Leflah Eshkoshka". The b-side became a surprise hit, landing at #75 on the Billboard Hot 100, and becoming the most successful single for any Boot Camp Clik member or affiliate.
Heltah Skeltah released its debut, Nocturnal, the next year in 1996, becoming the first out of the Boot Camp Clik to do so. A dark release with a fitting title, the album received widespread acclaim despite its meager sales. Ruck emerged as a lyrically imposing figure who could trade bars with any technician. The duo’s second album, 1998’s Magnum Force, was ensnared by the same issues that plague many sophomores: it leaned slightly towards the commercial as a diluted version of its predecessor. Harsh reviews and poor sales led the duo to split shortly thereafter.
Sean Price launched a solo career in 2005, and his three albums—Monkey Barz, Jesus Price Supastar (2007), and most recently, Mic Tyson (2012)—are all clinical displays of colorful but striking lyricism that mashes beats into pulp. A self-described "brute," Price idolized notable pop culture brutes like King Kong, Solomon Grundy, and the Hulk, and his hardcore, traditionalist approach to rapping emulated those characters. The Brownsville emcee had a very direct rap tactic that whacked a listener upside the head with hard punchlines.
"I’m not eloquent," Sean Price once told Okayplayer. "Sometimes I read Talib Kweli interviews; he talks so beautiful. I want to talk like that but I can’t." But the artfulness of Price’s speech, and his rapping, lied in his acute precision; his ability to cut ideas to the root and convey them with simplicity. His lyrics embraced physicality and how actions—specifically violent ones—can communicate thoughts in their own way. It isn’t a stretch to say that he was among the greatest rappers of his era. He may be one of the greatest rappers ever, too.
Despite his heavy hip-hop pedigree, Price was a blue-collar rapper. Outside of Boot Camp Clik membership and Heltah Skeltah partnership, he was a member of the group Random Axe with Detroit rappers Guilty Simpson and Black Milk (who also produced the group’s debut). He released a handful of mixtapes in the 2000s, and was planning to release another, Songs in the Key of Price, later this month. In addition to a slew of other Boot Camp releases, he and Rock reunited one last time, in 2008, to record the final Heltah Skeltah album, D.I.R.T.
Sean Price leaves behind a lasting rap legacy that will live on forever in those he influenced. He was an artist with an enduring voice, but he was also a great man, one devoted to family and treating others with respect. He was a friend to anyone within the hip-hop community, and is everlasting proof that you can be a great rapper without being a famous one. In an interview with Noisey last year, Price spelled out explicitly how he’d like to be remembered: "I think people will go, ‘Yo! That nigga can rhyme!’ And I’m cool with that. It’s the rap game, man. I wish that they would go ‘he’s dope and had eight platinum records,’ but I don’t and that’s cool. For those that don’t know. Sean P? That motherfucker can rhyme. I’m cool with that because, motherfucker, I can rhyme!" Sean Price was a rapper, and he was damn good at it. May he rest in power.