Old school rapper, producer, and former EPMD dancer Steve Williams, better known by his stage name Stezo, has passed away today, April 30th, his producer Chris Lowe confirmed on Twitter, according to Brooklyn Vegan. His cause of death is not yet known. Stezo was 51 years old at the time of his death.
Several of hip hop’s pioneers and influential figures, including Questlove of The Roots, Pete Rock, DJ Premier, Stretch Armstrong, EL-P of Run The Jewels, DJ Green Lantern, and more have taken to social media to celebrate the life and legacy of Stezo in the hip hop community. Questlove wrote about the artist, “Before Hammer’s pants, there was #Stezo…before we all abused that #SkullSnaps #ItsANewDay break…there was Stezo. Before #AtomicDog fed an ENTIRE GENRE….there was Stezo. While your favorite rapper was asking so & so & such & such to do some beats for em….Stezo was doing it all himself.”
Stezo was one of the first hip hop artists to take part in both the rapping and production aspects of his music, releasing his self-produced album Crazy Noise in 1989. Stezo was known for his percise rapping over his funky-based beats. You can check out more tributes posted on social media by hip hop figures below:
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