OAKLAND – Kenzie Smith, a black community leader in Oakland whose altercation with a white woman in 2018 Shedding light on the country's racial tensionsdied on the weekend. He was 43 years old.
He is a well known local personality and co-founder and director of Dope Era Magazine, a publishing arm of the clothing brand founded by Oakland hip-hop icon Mistah FAB, Smith's half-brother.
Smith's role within the infamous BBQ Becky incident in 2018 – during which the girl called police because she was disturbing Smith and his friend Onsayo Abram at an outside charcoal grill they were tending at Lake Merritt – quickly gained national attention.
It was considered one of the primary viral cases of a phenomenon that has since turn out to be ubiquitous: white people filmed by smartphones calling 911 because they’re coping with black people in a situation that’s demonstrably safer than the situation they described to authorities.
The incident put his work in the neighborhood within the highlight and led to Smith ran unsuccessfully for city council and later served as appointed Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan on town's Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission.
Smith's official reason for death is unknown, but people near him said he suffered from hypertension and consider he could have suffered cardiac arrest.
In town, Smith was known for his enormous social energy level and his extraordinary ability to recollect the face of everyone he met.
“To me, he was just an annoying little brother,” FAB, officially often known as Stanley Cox, said Monday of Smith, who has the identical father. The half-brothers first got here into contact with one another within the 2000s.
“My mom always said, 'You don't know how big a giant really is until you're standing next to him,'” FAB added. “Sometimes you have to step back to realize how huge they were.”
The catchy hashtag #BBQBecky was the beginning of a series of community events in Oakland with a similarly catchy slogan: Barbecuing While Black.
The barbecues were praised for bringing ethnic diversity back to Lake Merritt.
Smith was hailed as a neighborhood hero by the general public, particularly for the work he had already done with the homeless in Oakland, but privately he struggled with the eye. say in an interview last yr that he often suffers from traumatic stress.
“He always made sure people knew he believed in them because he wanted them to believe in him too,” said Michelle Dione, Smith's ex-wife, who remained on good terms with him.
The two met within the late 2000s and suggested FAB launch a companion magazine to the rapper's Dope Era clothing line. Smith already had experience running a small outlet, Based Magazine.
Within a couple of weeks, their work was in full swing – often involving long drives after work to interview Bay Area rappers for the subsequent issue.
“He was just Mr. 'Make it happen,'” recalled FAB, who said he was overwhelmed by what number of artists and other members of the Oakland music scene posted online tributes to Smith over the weekend.
Smith was also known amongst his friends as a “joker” who took Oakland's cultural history and heritage seriously, but was still easy-going and personable.
“His death touches a large community,” said Leon “DNas” Sykes, a former local radio host and friend of Smith. “This man gave so much to others just to put a smile on their faces.”
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