Stretch (rapper)
Stretch | |
---|---|
Born | Randy Walker August 21, 1968 Queens, New York City, U.S. |
Died | November 30, 1995 Queens, New York City, U.S. | (aged 27)
Cause of death | Drive-by homicide (gunshot wounds) |
Other names | Big Stretch |
Occupations |
|
Years active | 1988–1995 |
Height | 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m)[1] |
Children | 1 |
Relatives | Majesty (brother) |
Musical career | |
Genres | Hip hop |
Instrument(s) | Vocals |
Labels |
|
Formerly of | Live Squad |
Randy Walker (August 21, 1968 – November 30, 1995), better known by his
Live Squad
Randy Walker was born in 1968 in
In the late 1980s, Randy, dubbed Stretch, and his brother Christopher, dubbed Majesty, teamed with DJ K-Low, forming Live Squad. In 1988, both rapping and producing it, Live Squad debut with an EP, titled BQ In Full Effect, which, featuring Percee P, includes the tracks "Troopin It" and "We Ain't Havin' It." Noteworthy is Stretch's voice, deep and raspy.
In 1990, Stretch met Shock G of Digital Underground, the Bay Area rap group's 1991 album featured Stretch on its track "Family of the Underground." That year, Live Squad remixed the group's single "No Nose Job." That summer, Stretch met Underground ally Tupac "2Pac" Shakur. The two became fast friends. Rapping his February 1992 single "If My Homie Calls" on Yo! MTV Raps, 2Pac was backed by Stretch, friend of host Ed Lover, who, praising Live Squad's demo tape and taking "executive producer" credit on its releases, helped Live get signed to Tommy Boy Records.[2]
In 1992, Live Squad released a double A side, "Murderahh!"/"Heartless," followed by single, "Game of Survival"/"Pump for a Livin'," in 1993. Live Squad also released an ultra-violent promo short film, Game Of Survival, on VHS tape, showcasing six songs from through group's forthcoming album. In June, national outrage broke out over the Los Angeles area's original gangsta rapper Ice-T's side project, his rock band Body Count's album of heavy metal with its track "Cop Killer." Tommy Boy, favoring radio friendliness, dropped Live Squad and shelved the album.
Teaming with 2Pac
While Tupac filmed his breakthrough role in
Unable to put a track on Juice's soundtrack,[4] 2Pac saw his album sell modestly,[5] but Juice's release in 1992 sent his star on the rise. In 1993, 2Pac's second album, Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z., found Live Squad producing and featured on "Strugglin'," while featured, along with Treach and rapper Apache, on "5 Deadly Venomz." That was produced by Stretch, who produced two more tracks, "The Streetz R Deathrow" and, featuring Live Squad, "Holler If Ya Hear Me."
Stretch made cameo appearances in music videos for the
2Pac's group Thug Life
In 1992, with rapper
In 1993, Tupac met Biggie, a promising young rapper from Brooklyn, on his visit to California. Tupac supported and mentored him, a prospective member of Thug Life.[9] During 1993, Live Squad, 2Pac, and Biggie performed a joint set at Maryland's Bowie State University, in Prince George's County, Maryland.[10] and recorded "House Of Pain," unreleased, for Biggie's debut album in the making.
Biggie's debut album arrived, without the song, in 1994 as Ready to Die. The alliance was severed through events on the night of November 30, 1994, at the Times Square building of Quad Recording Studios.
November 1994 shooting
In late 1994, Tupac was reportedly hired by fledgling music manager James "
Suspecting a shooting as the primary motive,
The day after the shooting Tupac was convicted in a Manhattan court of sexual assault. On February 14, 1995, he was sentenced to at least a year and a half in prison. In March, 2Pac's third album, Me Against the World, was released with Stretch removed from its track "So Many Tears." In a jailhouse interview published in April, Tupac discusses the November shooting and Stretch, incidentally 6'8":[2]
"I was, like, 'What should I do?' I’m thinking Stretch is going to fight; he was towering over those niggas. From what I know about the criminal element, if niggas come to rob you, they always hit the big nigga first. But they didn’t touch Stretch; they came straight to me."[12][13]
In the interview, Tupac reflected,
Stretch was my closest dog, my closest homie. I did a lot of drama, I got into a lot of cases and shit because of Stretch. Money-wise, he could've had anything. His daughter was my daughter; whatever she wanted she could have. Then this shit happened and the nigga didn't ride for me. He didn't do what your dog is supposed to do when you shot up. When I was in jail, nigga never wrote me, never got at me. His homeboys was coming to see me and he wasn't coming to see me. And he started hanging around Biggie right after this. I'm in jail, shot up, his main dog, and he hanging out going to shows with Biggie. Both these niggas never came to see me.[14]
— Tupac Shakur, Source magazine, March 1996
No strong evidence emerged to implicate Stretch in the crime. Publicly responding, Stretch contended, "Pac's saying all this shit in the interview, like, 'I thought that Stretch was gonna fight. He was towering over them.' Now, that nigga know I ain't never going out like no bitch. But I ain't dumb. I ain't got no gun, what the fuck am I supposed to do? I might be towering over niggas, but I ain't towering over no slugs."[9][15][16]
Some reporting suggested forensics evidence that Tupac had shot himself. Stretch offered, "Me personally, I only heard one shot. ... Tupac got shot trying to go for his shit. He tried to go for his gun, and he made a mistake on his own. But I'll let him tell the world that. ... He tried to turn around and pull the joint out real quick, but niggas caught him. Grabbed his hand when it was by his waist."[9][15][16]
Me and Pac have been down from day one. Before he did Juice, before his first album. That's my man. So the interview he did in Vibe bugged me out. But I know him. He likes to talk a lot. Especially when he's upset, he'll say shit that he won't even mean. And then he'll think about it later and be, like, "Damn, why the fuck did I say that?" ... In that interview, Pac was talking all that shit about Thug Life is ignorance and telling niggas' names and all that shit. I don't even understand why he went there. I've seen Pac mad times after the shooting and he never kicked none of that shit to me. You know how he feels about the media, so why would he go and do an interview like that? He's supposed to be a street nigga; he should've kept it in the street. I mean, niggas had to go and get their names changed. I want him to get a reality check. Recognize what the fuck he's doing. Niggas on the street live by rules, man. And that rule right there, that's a rule that's never to be broken.[15][9]
— Randy "Stretch" Walker, Vibe magazine, 1995
Bill Courtney, retired New York Police Department officer, once with its infamous "Hip-Hop Squad," suggested that the stickup answered Tupac's comments, published in New York's Daily News,[17] about Jimmy Henchman's associate Haitian Jack, big in the Queens nightlife scene and criminal underworld. Haitain Jack and two other men had been indicted with Tupac for the November 1993 sexual assault on a woman in Tupac's hotel room, whereby Tupac was convicted on December 1, 1994.[9][18]
By then, Haitian Jack had taken a misdemeanor plea deal for no jail time, and the newspaper published Tupac's gripe. The onetime "Hip-Hop Squad" officer hazards, "A message was being sent to him not to name-drop." Jimmy Henchman has since commented, "Nobody came to rob you. They came to discipline you."[9][18]
On June 15, 2011, the day before what would have been Tupac's 40th birthday, Dexter Isaac, imprisoned for murder, sent from Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center to
Death
On October 12, 1995, with bond posted via Suge Knight, CEO of Death Row Records, and pending appeal, Tupac was released from prison in upstate New York. Joining the label in Los Angeles, Tupac feverishly recorded his fourth album, All Eyez on Me. Two tracks, in particular—"Ambitionz Az a Ridah" as well as "Holla At Me"—have lyrics that some people believe, though not proven, to be against Stretch, one envisioning his death.[19]
By the album's release on February 13, 1996, Stretch was already dead. Released a few months later, in July 1996, the sophomore album, It Was Written, by rapper Nas, from Queensbridge in Queens, had Live Squad production on two tracks, "Take It In Blood" as well as "Silent Murder," from Stretch's final recording session exactly one year after the November 30, 1994, shooting of Tupac.[20]
On November 30, 1995, Stretch was on his way to a Biggie Smalls event after leaving the Nas recording session at midnight. He dropped off his own brother Majesty at his Queens Village home. Two or three men in a black car pulled up beside Stretch's green minivan, and gave chase, firing from a rolled down window. Stretch crashed at 112th Avenue and 209th Street, just after 12:30 AM. He was found dead with four bullets to his back.[2]
In one theory, Stretch had robbed "a big drug dealer of over 10 bricks". Despite the "pressure on the street," he refused to return the over 10 kilograms of cocaine, and this is why "a hit was issued."[21] In April 2007, via separate investigation into the murder of Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC, in his native Jamaica, Queens, federal prosecutors named Ronald "Tenad" Washington as a suspect in both murders.[22] Washington would eventually be indicted for Jam Master Jay's murder in August 2020;[23] Washington's trial would then begin in January 2024,[24][25] and he, along with another defendant, would be convicted for Jam Master Jay's murder in February 2024.[26][27]
After Tupac's death in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, in September 1996, a Live Squad production, the track "Nothing to Lose," appeared on the first posthumous 2Pac album, released in 1997,
In 1999, a promotional release for The Notorious B.I.G.'s posthumous album In 2001, Majesty released the Live Squad album that Tommy Boy Records had nixed, Game Of Survival.
Discography
Year | Song | Artist(s) | Album | |
---|---|---|---|---|
1988 | "Troopin' It" | Live Squad | BQ In Full Effect | Rapper and co-producer (with Live Squad) |
"We Ain't Have It" | ||||
1991 | "Family of the Underground" | Digital Underground | Sons of the P | Rapper |
"No Nose Job (Fat Bass International Mix)" | Digital Underground | No Nose Job (Single) | Co-producer (with Live Squad) | |
"Crooked Ass Nigga" | 2Pac
|
2Pacalypse Now | Rapper and producer | |
"Tha' Lunatic" | Rapper and co-producer (with Live Squad) | |||
1992 | "Murderahh" | Live Squad | Murderahh / Heartless (Single) | Rapper and co-producer (with Live Squad) |
"Heartless" | Rapper and co-producer (with Live Squad) | |||
"Pass The 40" | Raw Fusion, 2Pac, D The Poet 151, Bulldog, Saafir, Pee-Wee, Mac Mone | Hollywood Records Sampler | Rapper | |
"Roses (Live Squad Remix)" | Rhythm-N-Bass | Roses (Single) | Co-producer (with Live Squad) | |
1993 | "Holler If Ya Hear Me'" | 2Pac | Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z.
|
Producer |
"Strugglin'" | 2Pac, Live Squad | Rapper and co-producer (with Live Squad) | ||
"The Streets R Death Row'" | 2Pac | Producer | ||
"5 Deadly Venomz" | 2Pac, Live Squad, Treach & Apache | Rapper and producer | ||
"Holler If Ya Hear Me (Black Caesar Mix)'" | 2Pac | Holler If Ya Hear Me (Single) | Producer | |
"Holler If Ya Hear Me (Broadway Mix)'" | Producer | |||
"Holler If Ya Hear Me (New York Stretch Mix)'" | Producer | |||
"Flex'" | 2Pac, Live Squad | Rapper and producer | ||
"Hellrazor" | 2Pac, Stretch | Hellrazor (Promo Cassette) | Rapper and producer | |
"Game Of Survival" | Live Squad | Game Of Survival / Pump For A Livin' (Promo Single) | Rapper and co-producer (with Live Squad) | |
"Pump For A Livin'" | Rapper and co-producer (with Live Squad) | |||
"Hurts The Most" | 2Pac, Mopreme & Stretch
|
(Unreleased) | Rapper and producer | |
1994 | "Papa'z Song (Da Bastard's Remix)" | 2Pac, Stretch | Papa'z Song (Single) | Rapper and producer |
"Pain" | 2Pac, Stretch | Above The Rim – The Soundtrack (Cassette only) and Regulate (song) single (b-side) | Rapper and producer | |
"Bury Me A G" | Thug Life
|
Thug Life: Volume 1
|
Co-producer (with 2Pac as Thug Music) | |
"Shit Don't Stop" | Co-producer (with 2Pac as Thug Music) | |||
"Stay True" | Rapper and co-producer (with 2Pac as Thug Music) | |||
"Under Pressure" | Rapper and co-producer (with 2Pac as Thug Music) | |||
"Street Fame" | Producer | |||
1995 | " Runnin' From tha Police "
|
Dramacydal, Buju Banton
|
One Million Strong | Rapper |
"So Many Tears" | 2Pac | Me Against The World
|
Backing vocals (verse removed) | |
1996 | "Take It In Blood" | Nas | It Was Written | Co-producer (with Live Squad) |
"Silent Murder" | Co-producer (with Live Squad) | |||
1997 | "Hellrazor" | 2Pac, Stretch, Val Young | R U Still Down? (Remember Me) | Rapper (original producer) |
"Nothin' To Lose" | 2Pac | Co-producer (with 2Pac & Live Squad) | ||
"Hold On, Be Strong" | 2Pac, Stretch | Rapper | ||
"Only Fear Of Death" | 2Pac | Co-producer (with Live Squad) | ||
1998 | "God Bless the Dead" | 2Pac, Stretch | Greatest Hits
|
Rapper |
1999 | "House Of Pain (Bad Boy Remix)" | The Notorious B.I.G., Stretch, 2Pac, Joe Hooker | Born Again Promo | Rapper |
"What You Need" | E-MoneyBags, Live Squad | In E-MoneyBags We Trust | Vocal appearance | |
2001 | "Big Time" | E-MoneyBags, Live Squad, 2Pac | Regulate / Big Time (Single) | Rapper |
Game Of Survival: The Movie | Live Squad | Game Of Survival: The Movie | Rapper and co-producer | |
2005 | "Moving Up" | Live Squad | Thugadons: Grand Goons Vol. 1 | Rapper |
"Nobody Move" | Live Squad | Thugadons: Grand Goons Vol. 2 | Rapper | |
"Life So Hard On A G" | 2Pac | The Way He Wanted It Vol. 1 | Producer | |
2007 | "Shedding More Tearz" | 2Pac | The Way He Wanted It Vol. 3 | Rapper |
"The House of Pain" | 2Pac, The Notorious B.I.G. | Rapper |
See also
- List of murdered hip hop musicians
- List of unsolved murders
Notes
- ^ a b Charisse Jones (December 1, 1995). "Rapper Slain After Chase In Queens". The New York Times. Retrieved January 11, 2022.
- ^ a b c d e Jones, Charisse (1 December 1995). "Rapper Slain After Chase in Queens". The New York Times. Retrieved 1 December 2012.
- ^ "How Tupac Dealt With A Jewelry Thief On The Set Of "Juice"". vibe.com. VIBE. 16 November 2011. Retrieved 9 April 2016.
- ^ Murphy, Keith (16 January 2014). "Oral History: Tupac, Fist Fights and the Making of 'Juice'". Retrieved 9 April 2016.
- ^ Preezy, Brown (12 November 2016). "How '2Pacalypse Now' Marked The Birth Of A Rap Revolutionary". vibe.com. VIBE. Retrieved 9 April 2016.
- ^ "Stretch filmography at IMDb". imdb.com. IMDb. Retrieved 12 September 2015.
- Allmusic
- ^ Via trademark issues, Biggie would soon take another stage name, the Notorious B.I.G.
- ^ a b c d e f Westhoff, Ben (12 September 2016). "How Tupac and Biggie Went from Friends to Deadly Rivals". VICE. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
- ^ "2Pac, Live Squad & The Notorious B.I.G. – 1993 Live In Maryland". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
- ^ Philips, Chuck (1 December 1995). "Tupac Interview 1995 recording". Chuck Philips Post. Archived from the original on 22 October 2013. Retrieved 20 September 2013.
- ^ a b Powell, Kevin (April 1995). "Tupac Interview for VIBE Magazine". VIBE.
- ^ a b c d Jason Rodriguez, "Pit of snakes", XXL magazine, Sep 2011.
- ^ Strange, Adario (March 1996). "Tupac Interview for Source Magazine". Source.
- ^ a b c "Stretch Interview for VIBE Magazine". VIBE. 1995.
- ^ ISBN 9781935396543. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
- ^ Benza, A.J. (6 January 1997). "Two Smalls-Minded Women". Daily News. New York. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
- ^ a b Philips, Chuck (12 June 2012). "James "Jimmy Henchman" Rosemond Implicated Himself in 1994 Tupac Shakur Attack: Court Testimony". The Village Voice. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
- ^ In "Ambitionz Az a Ridah", 2Pac raps, "Had bitch-ass niggas on my team / So, indeed, they wet me up". And in his first verse in "Holla At Me", 2Pac raps, "When me and you was homies / No one informed me it was all a scheme / You infiltrated my team and sold a nigga dreams / How could you do me like that? / I took ya family in / I put some cash in ya pocket / Made you a man again ... You're a shell of a man / I lost respect for you, nigga / We can never be friends / I know I'm runnin' through your head now / What could you do? / If it was up to you, I'd be dead now / I let the world know, nigga, you a coward / You could never be Live—until you die / See the motherfuckin' bitch in your eye".
- Complex.com, Complex Music, 25 May 2012, archived from original on 29 Jun 2012].
- ^ Strong, Nolan (18 April 2007). "Sources: Death Of Stretch Walker No Accident, Drug Hit". allhiphop.com. AllHipHop.com. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
- ^ Suspect named in '02 slaying of Jam Master Jay
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 22, 2024.
- ^ "Jury selection begins in Jam Master Jay murder trial". Fox 5 New York. 2024-01-22. Retrieved 2024-01-22.
- ^ Wassef, Mira (22 January 2024). "Dozens probed during jury selection for 2 accused in Jam Master Jay murder". PIX11. Retrieved 22 January 2024.
- ^ Romero, Dennis (February 27, 2024). "2 men found guilty of murder in Jam Master Jay killing". NBC News. Retrieved March 5, 2024.
- ^ "Jam Master Jay murder: 2 men convicted nearly 22 years after Run-DMC's rapper's death". USA Today. Retrieved 2024-03-05.
- ^ "Would the real Biggie Smalls please stand up?". 33jones.com. 33jones. 10 December 2009. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
- ^ "Two Charged In E-Money Bags Slaying". allhiphop.com. Billboard. Associated Press. 19 November 2004. Retrieved 9 April 2016.
- ^ Shane, Larry (10 February 2007). "Infamous NYC drug lord with rap music ties gets life without parole for 2 slayings". southcoastoday.com. Retrieved 22 January 2024.
- ^ https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna17073926
External links
- Stretch at Discogs
- Live Squad at Discogs
- Stretch at IMDb
- Live Squad Fan Site (archived)