On November 30, 1995, Stretch was being chased by at least two men in a black car when he was shot at least four times, crashing his minivan at the corner of 112th Avenue and 209th Street in Queens Village just after 12:30 A.M., said Lieut. Vito R. Spano, commander of the detective squad in the 105th Precinct.
Stretch was on his way home after dropping off his brother, Chris, 23, when the car chase began and he was struck by bullets, at least two fired through his back, relatives and the police said. A father of one, he towered at 6 foot 8 inches, friends said, and was more often the one to cool tempers than start trouble.
”His death occurred one year almost to the minute from the incident last Nov. 30 when he and Mr. Shakur walked into a Times Square building housing a recording studio, and Mr. Shakur was robbed and seriously wounded. The shootings were one year and about five minutes apart,” Lieutenant Spano said. “It’s weird.”
Tupac could not be reached for comment.
Randy Walker aka Stretch was born in Springfield Garden, Queens on August 21, 1968 in New York City. Stretch lived with his mother, Lucilda, a native of Jamaica who came to the United States 29 years ago and, after the death of her husband in 1981, raised their two sons and two daughters alone, working as a nursing attendant at New York University Medical Center. “He never talked to me about having enemies,” Mrs. Walker said yesterday.
“My son was a very loving, kind person. I don’t know why they did this to him.”
More for Stretch
Stretch was close friends with Ed Lover from ‘Yo! MTV Raps’ who got Live Squad signed to the record label “Tommy Boy” where in 1992 they released their first double A side single “Murderahh/Heartless” (from where Pac’s „Heartless“ tattoo takes it homage).
Stretch started performing in shows with Tupac, appearing in his music videos and he produced songs on the albums “2Pacalypse Now”, “Strictly 4 My Niggaz”, “Thug Life Volume 1” and the scrapped album “Troublesome 21” (from which most of the tracks were later used for “Me Against the World” and „R U Still Down?“).
In some of Pac’s early work a company called “Grand Imperial Thug Music” is credited whenever Live Squad appear on or produce a Tupac record, although Stretch or Majesty are not named for any of the production in the „Thug Life“ booklet this same company is credited for production for a lot tracks on the album and it is my understanding that “Grand Imperial Thug Music” is Tupac plus Live Squad meaning Stretch and Majesty helped produce „Thug Life Volume 1„; “Grand Imperial Records” went on to become a record company co-owned by Majesty and Queens rapper E-Moneybags who recorded a few songs with Live Squad and Tupac, most notably the track “Big Time” which was released in 2001.
In 1993 Tupac, Stretch and the Notorious B.I.G. starting hanging and performing shows together, during this period the three made several songs together which remain unreleased.
Stretch was with Tupac when he was shot in New York on November 30th, 1994.
Tupac and Stretch were still friends until Pac was sent to jail on 14th February 1995 but their friendship quickly deteriorated after Tupac learned that Stretch was still doing shows with the Notorious B.I.G. after he had accused him of being involved with the New York shooting, Pac felt like Stretch had sided with Bad Boy while he was locked up, In a Vibe interview Tupac went on to insinuate that Stretch never tried to help him during the shooting which Stretch responded to in another Vibe interview. Tupac sent a letter from jail and in the footer are the names of all people he considered his enemies struck out, Stretch’s name is last.
The only time Stretch is ever mentioned by Tupac again is on the song ‘Against All Odds’ from Makaveli when he says “and that nigga that was down for me, rest his head, switched sides, guess his new friends wanted him dead”.
Randy “Stretch” Walker, VIBE Magazine, 1995
Me and Pac have been down from day one. Before he did Juice, before his first album. That’s my man. So the interview he did in VIBE bugged me out. But I know him. He likes to talk a lot. Especially when he’s upset, he’ll say shit that he won’t even mean. And then he’ll think about it later and be, like, “Damn, why the fuck did I say that?” … In that interview, Pac was talking all that shit about Thug Life is ignorance and telling niggas’ names and all that shit.
I don’t even understand why he went there. I’ve seen Pac mad times after the shooting and he never kicked none of that shit to me. You know how he feels about the media, so why would he go and do an interview like that? He’s supposed to be a street nigga; he should’ve kept it in the street. I mean, niggas had to go and get their names changed. I want him to get a reality check. Recognize what the fuck he’s doing. Niggas on the street live by rules, man. And that rule right there, that’s a rule that’s never to be broken.
2Pac interview ”Source” Magazine, March 1996
And what about you and Stretch from Live Squad?
Stretch was my closest dog, my closest homie. I did alot of drama, I got into alot of cases and shyt because of Stretch. Money wise, he couldve had anything. His daughter was my daughter, whatever she wanted she could have. Then this shyt happened and the nikka didnt ride for me. He didnt do what your dog is supposed to do when you shot up. When I was in jail, nikka never wrote me, never got at me. His homeboys was coming to see me nad he wasnt coming to see me. And he started hangin around Biggie right after this. Im in jail, shot up, his main dog and he hangin out going to shows with Biggie. Both these nikkas never came to see me.
And before he passed, you never got a chance to talk to him?
Aint no words. The rules of the game are so self-explanatory.
After all that went down, people are trying to say its some sort of hit connection…
Nah, Know what happend? Rules of the game, what comes around goes around. I never had no violent thoughts towards Stretch at all. I just didnt want to **** with him no more, but I didnt want to kill him. He was my dog. Once you my dog, you my dog. He got shot just like I got shot. Everybody believed it was just a random ****in robbery (when I got shot), this nikka get killed, now random shyt dont happen. There are two methods of fighting, the one by law, the other by force: the first method is that of men, the second of beasts; but as the first method is often insufficient, one must have recourse to the second.
NAS talk about Stretch’s death
Stretch was really hurt by 2Pac. I would hear him talking about how ‘Pac was so mad at him because Stretch was with 2Pac when he got set up and robbed in the lobby of Quad Studios in Manhattan, in Nov. 1994. ‘Pac was mad at everyone after that. I felt bad for Stretch because he really had a lot of love for ‘Pac and couldn’t believe that ‘Pac thought he had something to do with it.
Stretch dropped me off at home, then went home and was killed [in Dec. 1995, in Queens]. That was a real great guy. He produced “Take It in Blood” and “Silent Murder”—the irony. It was just a messed up moment for me. It was the last work he did.
Check Database of Stretch’s Songs
Thug In Peace, Stretch! One Love!
Part of the article was taken from: nytimes.com
