On this date in 2019, the Hip Hop world lost a true pioneer when Richard Shaw, better known as Bushwick Bill, passed away at the age of 52 following a brief but intense battle with stage 4 pancreatic cancer.
As one of the founding members of the Houston-based Geto Boys, Bushwick Bill helped shape the identity of Southern Hip Hop. He first appeared on the group’s debut album Making Trouble, but it wasn’t until Rap-A-Lot Records CEO J. Prince restructured the group that Bill’s influence began to crystallize. With New Jersey native DJ Ready Red, and Houston upstarts Willie D and Brad “Scarface” Jordan joining the fold, the Geto Boys released their groundbreaking second LP, Grip It! On That Other Level, in 1989—a project that became a cornerstone of the Horrorcore subgenre.
Their third album, We Can’t Be Stopped (1991), marked both the group’s peak and one of its most controversial moments. The platinum-certified album’s cover famously—and disturbingly—featured a real photo of Bill being wheeled through a hospital hallway after sustaining a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the eye. Though the image became iconic, Bill later expressed deep regret about participating in the decision. “It still hurts me to look at that cover because that was a personal thing I went through… I still feel the pain from the fact I’ve got a bullet in my brain,” he once said. “I think it was pretty wrong to do it, even though I went along with the program at first.”
Just a month before his passing, Bill publicly revealed his cancer diagnosis. Though his time was cut tragically short, his impact on Hip Hop—particularly as a fearless voice for the South—will forever endure.
Bushwick Bill remains an irreplaceable figure in Hip Hop history.