Tame One, A Founding Member Of The Artifacts Has Passed Away At The Age Of 52

We’ve lost yet another rap artist today. Tame One, a founding member of the New Jersey-based Hip Hop collective Artifacts has passed away at the age of 52. Sad news for hip hop.

His mother, posted the following words on social media.

“The medical examiner says the six pharmaceutical drugs that Trinitas hospital prescribed to him last Friday, combined with the weed he smoked over this weekend…his heart simply gave out. I will not be responding to all the posts for a bit, but the hardest words I will ever post or say is, my son, my heart, is dead.”

Also known as “The Brick City Kids,” the Artifacts dropped their debut album, Between a Rock and a Hard Place on October 25, 1994. The project was critically acclaimed for its B-boy and graffiti motifs and the album featured production from Buckwild of D.I.T.C. along T-Ray of the Soul Assassins crew. Their sophomore album, That’s Them was released on April 15, 1997, and the group split up soon after its release.

Over the years, Artifacts would reunite for occasional performances but didn’t release another project until this year’s No Expiration Date, a joint project with producer Buckwild, released in August 2022.

In 1998,  Tame One formed a group of superproducers called The Weathermen with Cage Kennylz, Masai Bey, Aesop Rock, Yak Ballz, El-P, Jakki Tha Motamouth, Camu Tao, Copywrite, Vast Aire, and Breeze Brewin.

As a solo artist, Tame One, who’s also Redman’s first cousin, released, six solo albums, three mixtapes, and three collaborations, one with former labelmate Cage as Leak Bros (Waterworld), one with Del The Funky Homosapien (Parallel Uni-verses) and The Revolution album with Dro Pesci and Nick Jackelson.

RIP Tame One. You will never be forgotten.