Gift Of Gab, Sacramento Native And Member Of Blackalicious, Dies At 50 After Battle With Kidney Failure

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Sacramento native Timothy J. Parker, a rapper known as Gift of Gab from the Bay Area group Blackalicious, has died.

The death was announced in a post on Parker's official Instagram page.

In a message written by Xavier "Chief Xcel" Mosley, the fellow Blackalicious member reminiscences about how they met at Kennedy High School.

"He was a junior and I was a sophomore. I had moved to Sac earlier that summer from Union City. Gab had moved there two years prior from Pacoima. We had a home economics class together, Mr. Hightower, third period. He sat in the row directly behind me," Mosley wrote.

Parker, who was 50, had been battling kidney failure.

Blackalicious released four albums and were considered one of the major underground rap groups.

Fellow hip-hop artist DJ Shadow, who is also a Sacramento-area native and a UC Davis graduate, remembered Parker for his sense of humor and kindness as much as his musical talents.

"Gab loved to think of life as just a momentary stage for a much longer journey, and all its trials and tribulations as 'training' for the adventures to come after. If there's one thing I know, wherever Gab is, he's SOARING right now," DJ Shadow wrote.

Along with his work with Blackalicious, Gab released three solo studio albums.