Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of MaximumFun.org and is distributed by NPR.

It's Bullseye, I'm Jesse Thorn.

A few weeks ago on the show, I said that you know you're getting old when your heroes

start to die.

That was me talking about the amazing rapper Gift of Gav, who had just passed away.

This week we lost another one.

Zumbi was the MC half of the hip hop duo Zioni.

For decades they were stalwarts of the Bay Area hip hop scene.

It hardly felt like a rap show, unless Zumbi was stalking the stage and his partner Amplife

was behind him, laying the pads of his NPC sampler like they were an electronic drum kit.

Zioni put out their first record in 2000.

Mind over matter remains an underground classic with amp providing hard hip hop drums and sort

of ethereal electronic sounds.

And Zumbi, who's shifting style finds all the nooks and crans of those beats.

Zumbi was never scared to grasp for profundity.

He was never scared to rock a crowd or get a party started either.

And for two decades he was, as we say, in hip hop true.

He was true even in the toughest circumstances.

Zumbi was born and raised in Oakland and he lived in Oakland with his family.

At least until a few years ago when he lost the house he was renting there, thanks to

a landlord who, let's say, wanted a different kind of tenant.

As Zumbi and his family packed up and moved out, they rolled cameras.

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