In late February of this year, prolific actor Bill Paxton suddenly died at the age of 61. The Golden Globe-nominated thespian was best known for his role in HBO’s hit series, Big Love, as well as several other blockbuster film roles including Apollo 13, Titanic, Weird Science and True Lies.
One of his lesser known attributes, however, was he was a pretty credible Hip Hop fan — one who had even namedropped the likes of Three 6 Mafia, Jedi Mind Tricks and Murs during a 2009 appearance of The Today Show.
As one of the most versatile and likable MCs in Hip Hop, Murs has made some pretty interesting friends and Paxton just happened to be one of them. In an exclusive conversation with the #DXLive squad (the very same one that revisited The Notorious B.I.G.’s lyrical beatdown courtesy of a local L.A. rapper), the Strange Music rhymer shared some of his fondest memories of the late actor who he was fortunate enough to call a friend and mentor.
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“That dude [Bill] came to a show and brought his son, not like most people who come to Hip Hop shows and bring their kid, he was in the crowd and I was doing ‘Hustle’ and he knew every word, putting his hands up [I was like] ‘Yo, check this muthafucka out,’” remembered Murs. “He hit me on email from time to time. He was always trying to help me out. Got me an acting coach, Vinny Chase, the guy that Mark Wahlberg named the character after cause that’s the guy that taught him how to act. He’s an amazing acting coach and [Bill was like] ‘I’ll pay for your first session,’” he added.
Murs’ respect for the late actor ran so deep that he even took his son – himself an aspiring MC – on tour with him and showed him the ropes.
“I took [Paxton’s son James] on tour with me and his son is super humble and could have acted like a rich, spoiled brat. He drove the van, sold t-shirts, but he has bars. He wanted to rap and I was like ‘If you wanna rap this is what you gotta do. Pay your dues.’” said Murs. “He had no problem [with that]. So the last show we had in Oklahoma City we let him open up and do his first set live and I filmed it and sent it to his pops; his pops was stoked. That was like my friend friend, like a father figure, mentor and role model, just an overall great man, and the way we look at rap he looked at acting.”
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Paxton’s official cause of death was determined to be a stroke following surgery to address an aortic aneurysm.
The Los Angeles rap stalwart is currently promoting the release of his tenth studio album, Captain California. HipHopDX recently reviewed the project, praising his ability to “touch on multiple parts of the human condition and truly exemplify the complexities of human beings.”
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Aside from the previously reported Biggie and Black Eyed Peas stories, Murs also spoke about how the Rock The Bells festival actually may have derailed his career a bit, as he focused on the show’s productions opposed to putting his all into his albums.
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