A friend and fellow emcee/producer Jax passed away a couple days ago in Atlanta on stage during a performance. The beauty of the situation is he died doing what he loved most! The ugly part is that it truly hurts to lose such a good brother at such a young age. I have had the pleasure of building with this brother and the Binkis crew while living in ATL from 2000-03, we did work together as he is featured on the Scienz of Life - Project Overground and most memorable we shared a lot of laughs together! Jax was that brother that 99.9% of the time he was smiling or making jokes that kept people laughing. This brother will truly be MISSED! Below is a story from the Creative loafing newspaper in Atlanta giving more details about what happened:

Jax of Atlanta's legendary indie hip-hop crew Binkis Recs suffered a heart attack while onstage at Lenny's last night and was pronounced dead after being rushed to the hospital. According to close friend and Binkis crew member Flux da Wondabat, Jax was performing the title track from his 2007 solo album, Sharper Images.

"He was performing onstage and he just passed out in the middle of his verse," said Flux. "We went to the emergency room and then they came out and gave us the word."

Formed in 1997, the Binkis Recs trio (Jax, Flux, Killa Kalm) quickly established itself as a true alternative to the commercial, crunk sound that defined Atlanta near the end of the millennium. "Atlanta is weird because it's two scenes," N.Y. native Jax told CL in 2005. "It's the natives and the transplants. And the scene that most people know - the OutKast and Ludacris - are all from here. A lot of us on the underground level are from somewhere else."

The group's name still speaks volumes - the acronym BINKIS stands for "Before Ignorant Niggas Killed Intelligent Songs." They released several CDs, including 2003's The Reign Begins. Though most failed to register commercially, their impact among Atlanta's independent hip-hop scene is still felt.

"Binkis Recs paved the way for what a lot of younger Atlanta hip-hop musicians are able to do right now," says former ATF Records label mate and friend, J-Mil of Collective Efforts. "A lot of people don't even know that DJ Drama got his start with these brothers."