We remember Joe. His MySpace has not been touched since he died. He was the only one who knew the code. It is just there like the day he logged in. I sent an e-mail to the last fan he added and waiting for a response. His death has remained controversial as people still blame the fire department. I had just arrived in Canada and was shocked! This is how it started last year........Fire kills rising hip-hop star.There are several stories of lives miraculously spared in the fire that raged through six duplexes in Montreal's east end on Friday. But they serve only to make the tragedy that is the death of 26-year-old Jonathan Beaupre Guilbault - a rising star in Quebec's hip-hop music scene, with an album on the way - all the more poignant. Guilbault, whose body was discovered amid the rubble 36 hours after the blaze, was slated to appear at the FrancoFolies music festival last night.
Such an appearance is a coup for any musician - but especially for one who works in the mostly underground realm of the Quebec urban music scene. Last night's show became a tribute, beginning with a moment of silence before performers wearing black T-shirts with the words "R.I.P. Joe B.G." sang in memory of Guilbault in front of a sombre crowd. "Adieu - rest in peace," they said before celebrating his life with an upbeat performance.bEarlier in the day, friends stood with red-rimmed eyes outside Guilbault's home and asked that he be remembered for what he was.Guilbault, they said, was a hard-working musician who spent years putting everything into his dream and helping others at the music studio in his home. "All we see in the papers is some guy from Hochelaga-Maisonneuve died in a fire," said Steve Legault, a music manager and collaborator with Guilbault since 1999. "He was an artist, a great artist, and somebody who helped out others. He was a good guy who would listen to your problems. "Nobody else was even injured in the fire, and he's dead - on the day before his big show."
The blaze started at 5 a.m. Friday in a duplex on Gonthier Ave. in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve and quickly spread to its neighbours. Of the 24 residents affected, all but Guilbault escaped. Neighbour Michel Brisson recounted yesterday how a cat not known for its affectionate nature started kneading the chest of its sleeping owner. "He knew something was wrong, because the cat never did that. It woke him up and gave him the time to get up and out, which took long because he's missing one leg."
The cat was found dead later, lying beside the tenant's bed. Seventy-eight-year-old Jeanine Desjardins-Fafard was roused by a neighbour banging on her door. She peered at him through the window, told him to go away and retreated into her house. He kicked in the door and persuaded her to leave. The same neighbour woke other residents, and helped one man down the stairs in a wheelchair. Sadly, the residents' familiarity helps explain why firefighters overlooked the fact Guilbault had been trapped inside.
He had parked his car behind the duplex - something neighbours told police and firefighters he did only when he'd be away for a few days. This time, they were wrong" On a fire scene, when somebody is saying there's somebody there, they'll go back in and take a lot of chances to make sure everybody's out," said Aime Charette, a Montreal fire department chief of operations. "But in this case, we had no information." Firefighters did a first sweep after the fire and found no one. They normally do a second sweep, but because the cause of the fire is not known, it's under investigation by the Montreal police arson squad and the second sweep was put on hold.
Firefighters went back to check again after Guilbault's mother told them her son had failed to turn up for a show at the TOHU performing arts centre Friday night. It's not known whether he died in bed or while trying to escape. Because the body hasn't been positively identified yet, police wouldn't confirm his identity, pending an autopsy.
His first album, Ma definition du Hip Hop, under the name Mista Snake, and two videos were shot for it. Soon after, he joined Quebec label 13 Deep and began collaborating with the province's top hip-hop star, Sans Pression, singing backup and appearing in more than 350 shows, solo and with others. The rest of the time was spent working on his music at his home studio and helping others to record. He did his music full time - it was his life, his music," said his manager, Jean-Francois Robert. "His next album is excellent - one of the best things to come out recently."
"He was strong, conscious of what he wanted to do - he wasn't wasting his time," said Legault, clad in a white cut-off that bared a large black tattoo. From a white plastic bag he took a can of Budweiser and laid it on the steps leading to Guilbault's upper duplex, alongside a makeshift shrine that included the compilation CD Hip Hop 2000, on which Guilbault appeared, and a plastic rose. "He was my friend, mon chum. Write about that." Legault took out another can of Bud as his friends stood by silently, opened it, sat down and started to cry.
On the net: www.joebg.com and www.myspace.com/JoeBG
Source: Montreal Gazette July 31st 2007
No comments:
Post a Comment