{"id":204921,"date":"2024-11-20T00:52:18","date_gmt":"2024-11-19T23:52:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/?p=204921"},"modified":"2024-11-20T00:52:18","modified_gmt":"2024-11-19T23:52:18","slug":"legendary-west-coast-artist-saafir-has-passed-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/legendary-west-coast-artist-saafir-has-passed-away\/","title":{"rendered":"Legendary West Coast Artist, Saafir, Has Passed Away"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Hip-Hop community has unfortunately lost another iconic artist in 2024. West Coast underground legend, <strong>Saafir<\/strong>, has sadly passed away at the age of 54. Born as <strong>Reggie Gibson<\/strong>, Saafir made numerous significant contributions to West Coast&#8217;s Hip-Hop culture. Hailing from Oakland, his innovative, jazz-infused style garnered widespread recognition. A stellar performance as a part of his group, <strong>Hobo Junction<\/strong>, in a freestyle battle against <strong>Casual<\/strong> of\u00a0<strong>The Hieroglyphics<\/strong>, led to him being discovered by <strong>Quincy Jones<\/strong>. He released his debut album, &#8220;Boxcar Sessions,&#8221; in 1994, via Quincy Jones&#8217; imprint, <em>Qwest Records<\/em>. The album is regarded as a classic.<\/p>\n<p>During his career, Saafir was a part of several renowned groups. Apart from being a founding member of <strong>Hobo Junction<\/strong>, he was also a part of <strong>Digital Underground<\/strong>, where he worked closely alongside <strong>Tupac Shakur<\/strong>. He would later go on to join the &#8220;Golden State Project,&#8221; alongside <strong>Ras Kass<\/strong> and <strong>Xzibit<\/strong>. Saafir also delved into acting, and appeared in the 1993 cult classic, &#8220;Menace II Society,&#8221; where he took on the role of Harold Lawson.<\/p>\n<p><strong>May he rest in peace.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: center;\">Saafir &#8211; Light Sleeper<\/h4>\n<p><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lfQWH8QsNjA?si=selDEEeuk9w0FuSN\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: center;\">Xzibit x Ras Kass &amp; Saafir &#8211; 3 Card Molly<\/h4>\n<p><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6SNLq2xA1fM?si=7UXhz5lMZG0KT4bK\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: center;\">Ahmad x Ras Kass &amp; Saafir &#8211; Come Widdit<\/h4>\n<p><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lECRPe02u6g?si=jTux78CDVc7fFxMx\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: center;\">The Battle &#8211; Casual x Saafir (A Shomari Smith Short Film)<\/h4>\n<p><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QC7OtfYxDaQ?si=llcmgP0xAhWBteo2\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Hip-Hop community has unfortunately lost another iconic artist in 2024. West Coast underground legend,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":204928,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-204921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Saafir-Obituary-Thumbnail.webp?fit=1500%2C1000&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pG6fW-Rjb","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}