Death
Poetic died of colon cancer on July 15, 2001, 1:45pm EST at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, five weeks before Nightmare in A-Minor’s scheduled release. He had survived almost two and a half years beyond the doctors' initial 3-month prognosis. Tributes came quickly from across the hip-hop world, both from fellow musicians such as Chuck D of Public Enemy, who wrote an article in tribute to him on his Welcome To The Terrordome commentary section on the group's Web site, and from critics, who widely wrote of their regret at the loss of his talent.
An intimate memorial service for him was held at the Riverside Church in Harlem on August 4, 2001, attended by his family and close friends including bandmates Frukwan and Prince Paul.
Nightmare in A-Minor was initially released by Echo Distribution on August 23, 2001. It was re-released without the track "Better Wake Up" on Empire Musicwerks/BMG in 2002 to critical plaudits. According to Frukwan, a new album may be released using left over material from Poetic. His family has resisted any postmortem release as Poetic asked that his music not be released in this manner.
Read more about this topic: Anthony Ian Berkeley
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