Mac Dre Dies: Today in Hip-Hop

On this day, Nov. 1, in hip-hop history...

2004: Out in the Bay Area, Mac Dre was something approaching a folk hero to resident hip-hop fanatics of the region. Thus, his tragic murder on Nov. 1, 2004 was a crushing blow to the growing hyphy scene that was sprouting up from the Bay during the time period.

Real name Andre Hicks, Mac Dre was killed in a shooting while riding as the passenger in a white van on a Kansas City freeway during a concert stop on a tour. As his van traveled north on Highway 71 in the city, a second vehicle pulled up aside the car and fired shots into the van. The van veered out of control across four lanes of southbound traffic and crashed in a ditch. As paramedics arrived on the scene, Mac Dre was found dead of a gunshot wound. The murder remains unsolved.

Now, 13 years later, Mac Dre still remains one of the most venerated Bay Area rappers ever. He was a pioneering father of the scene's popular hyphy movement and respected for his independent hustle starting the seminal record label, Thizz Entertainment, to release his own music along with several other popular rappers in the Bay. In 2016, a new documentary about the West Coast legendary had been released and Drake honored Mac by doing the Thizzle dance while in Oakland for a concert stop.

Gone but not forgotten. R.I.P. Mac Dre.

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