Double K, a member of the underground rap duo People Under the Stairs in Los Angeles, died Saturday at the age of 43. The rapper died at his home, according to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, although no cause of death was given.
Born Michael Turner, Double K and his cohort Thes One (Christopher Portugal) formed the duo People Under the Stars as high school students in the mid-1990s. Both were already producing music in high school when they met, first with a mutual friend to decide whose music was superior. They decided to join forces instead.
“Where I grew up there was the negative, and I had the positive, that was my music,” Turner said. Los Angeles Times in 2019. “I was surrounded by the negativity, the things that happen on the street, the things I thought I wanted to be a part of. I decided this was more important. I was just hiding in my room and listening to music, and then I met this guy and had someone else to listen to music. “
In 1998 they released their debut LP The Next Step, featuring one of their signature tracks, “San Francisco Knights”. While mainstream success eluded them, People Under the Stairs established cult status in the rap community thanks to albums like 2000’s Question in the form of an answer and 2002’s OST, the duo’s most enduring release.
The late rapper Mac Miller was also a fan of the duo, giving a title to his 2011 mixtape I love life, thank you “People under the stairs”; the track also sampled ‘San Francisco Knights’. The duo were invited to serve as the opening act on Miller’s 2011 tour.
The group continued to release music and relentlessly toured more than 60 shows in a row, with hip-hop journalist Jeff Weiss noting their ‘mishmash of Tribe Called Quest’s jazzy flirtations, the Pharcyde’s crazy, laid-back demeanor and the stoner. insouciance of the Beatnuts ”in a 2009 profile of the group. After more than two decades together, People Under the Stairs announced in January 2019 that they would be calling it quits after their 12th studio LP, Sincerely, The P.
“I think a lot of the people who grew up with us still want us to rap about parties, road trips and buy records, and we’re like, ‘Man, how many times can I say it?’ LA Times then. “Most of my favorite rap groups only made three [albums], and the third was bad. “
In that farewell interview, it was noted that “Double K was once a towering figure, now looks much weaker and his hands are shaking as he talks.”
Fans and Turner’s fellow rappers flocked to social media to pay tribute to the musician. “What a dope persona and artist,” Psalm One tweeted. “One of my first big national tours PUTS was kind enough to take me out. Double K was a goddamn West Coast pioneer. “