The last few years have been hard on Milwaukee music. In 2023, De La Buena lifeblood Cecilio “Ceeloe” Negrón, Jr. died at the age of 47. In 2024, hip-hop force of nature Antoine “Twan” Mack died at the age of 54. And just this month, beloved rapper and label owner John Keuster, a.k.a. Kid Millions, died at the age of 48.
“These weren’t just artists—they were pillars of our community.” That’s a quote from another Milwaukee music stalwart, BLAX, who pays tribute to his fallen friends on a new Bucky Luger-produced track, “Take A Picture.”
“Each of them touched countless lives and helped shape Milwaukee’s music culture,” BLAX continues. “‘Take A Picture’ is about holding onto those moments and memories that define us, before time takes them away.”
BLAX grapples with even more emotionally fraught subjects on the song: the death of his teenage son in 2018, his own childhood, and the unending and sometimes cruel march of time. “Grays coming in my beard / These days is feeling weird / Take a picture,” BLAX raps. Weird days, indeed.
BLAX further details the song’s genesis in an Instagram post:
This song “Take A Picture” came to conception rather quickly with all that happened with the loss in my immediate Milwaukee art community. The process all started with a stat that grew to a verse that grew to me driving to Madison last week to get this song off my chest.
Two people were shot and one killed just houses away from where I stay while my neighbors were arguing and one was getting arrested by the police. While that happened another shooting occurred blocks away. Days later we lost the homie Kid Millions. Days later Young Twan. I was still thinking about the homies Ceeloe and Twan Mack and of course my eternal guy, my son Dunde.
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