The endlessly charming DJ, radio personality, and underground rap staple Lord Sear has passed away. As TMZ reports, Sear's friends and collaborators, including Eminem, shared the news of his passing on Wednesday night. No cause of death has been reported. Sear was 53.
Lord Sear was born Steve Watson in Harlem, and he first broke into the rap world through his association with the New York rapper Kurious in the mid-'90s. Later in the decade, he became a co-host of The Stretch And Bobbito Show, a hugely important New York rap radio. Future and current greats would come through that show and drop exclusive freestyles all the time, and Sear, who was extremely funny, would have them laughing to the point of tears. Nobody could cut through the tension of a rap-media situation like that guy.
Lord Sear and Stak Chedda put out a 1997 12" single on Bobbito's Fondle 'Em Label, and Sear made appearances, sometimes as a human beatbox, on records from artists like the Beastie Boys, MF DOOM, Big Pun, and Armand Van Helden, among many others. In 2001, Sear and Stretch Armstrong hosted the Game FM radio station in Grand Theft Auto III. Shortly after that, Sear was part of Eminem's Anger Management tour, and he joined the staff at Eminem's Shade 45 satellite radio station, where he eventually hosted his own show, The Lord Sear Special.
