Bushwick Bill apparently had no qualms about walking right up to Michael Jackson and starting a conversation once, despite the potential disparity in levels of fame.
During his appearance on the B High TV podcast published on Monday (July 29), the late rapper’s son Lil Bushwick spoke fondly of his father’s bigger-than-life persona, and recalled a story he was told about an interaction with the legendary MJ.
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“Geto Boys and Michael Jackson – they both had shows on the same dates going to Japan,” he explained. “So my dad met Michael Jackson on the way to Japan and he just walked up to [him]. Even Big Mike can attest to this story because he broke it down to me. The Geto Boys’ DJ was there too. He broke it down as well like, ‘Yeah your dad just walked up to Michael Jackson [and shrugged like it was nothing.]’ He’d just do that, that’s just him.
“That’s just how he was. He didn’t see nobody different. He didn’t care who you was and that’s why everybody recognized who he was because he was that it-factor in every room he was in. [I don’t know what they talked about] but I know they ran into each other and chopped it up and he knew who my dad was. It was a mutual love. And security, nothing didn’t stop him. They was like, ‘That’s Bushwick Bill.'”
Shortly after Bushwick Bill told TMZ Live (and the world) he was sick in 2019, the Geto Boys announced The Beginning of a Long Goodbye Tour, which was intended to be their final reunion run. But a day before it was scheduled to begin, Bushwick canceled. In his gut, he knew he’d die on the road.
“The Geto Boys reunion tour was going to start May 24,” Bill’s son told HipHopDX later that year. “My dad was admitted to the hospital May 23 in Texas. He could barely even walk. Basically, he got walking pneumonia from chemo. They gave my dad chemo on top of pneumonia, which made him even sicker.”
He added: “My dad was so sick, but he was literally just trying to put shows together and work. Right after chemo sessions, he’d head straight to the studio. I was in the studio with him for like 23 hours sessions. While I was falling asleep tired, he’d get on me and be like, ‘You got to be up. We got to work.’ He was that determined to finish that project. The man barely slept.”
Lil Bushwick says his dad made the conscious decision to quit taking the chemotherapy treatments. He believed they were actually making him deteriorate faster.
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“He stopped doing chemo on his own because he felt his body getting weaker and worse,” he explains. “He was like, ‘Man, I don’t feel right.’ That fourth chemo session he didn’t do because he felt like it was killing him, which was true. That Monday he went to the hospital and admitted himself. They said he had walking pneumonia.”
“If he would of did that show on May 24, he actually would have died on the road, which would of been his last show. That’s why he didn’t like the title [of the tour] because he actually would of died on the road. He was that sick.”
