Today In Hip Hop History: The Source Magazine Reported BX Rapper Tim Dog Dead 9 Years Ago

Just a year short of a decade ago, we received an early morning phone call that BX rapper Timothy “Tim Dog” Blair, who gained fame from his East Coast vs. West Coast shot “Fuck Compton,” died suddenly at 41 years old. There was no other report of Blair’s death aside from the article on TheSource.com.

Our report of Blair’s death was quickly challenged from all angles. Other news sources, including Dateline NBC, and even the Georgia prosecutor who charged and convicted the Ultramagnetics affiliate of grand larceny just eight months before his death confronted our staff about the announcement of Tim’s death. Through the false reports of us backpedaling on the report and even the extreme claims that The Source Magazine helped Tim Dog fake his death, we stuck to our guns and, most importantly, the validity of the report.

It wasn’t discovered until September 2014 that Tim Dog did indeed pass away in Atlanta Hospice on February 14, 2013, when his actual death certificate surfaced. Source staff writer Sha Be Allah, the writer who broke the story, was interviewed and featured in best-selling author Elizabeth Greenwood’s book Playing Dead due to the unfortunate events surrounding the death of Tim Dog. The entire 2013 article about Tim Dog can be found HERE.