The whole reason Dr. Dre & Ice Cube‘s “Natural Born Killaz” is today’s Song of the Week is to pay tribute to Jerome “New Jack” Young. For those that don’t know, New Jack is a professional wrestler, mainly known for wrestling in ECW and working a hardcore style. He sadly passed away last on May 14 at the age of 58. “Natural Born Killaz” was his entrance theme song. Here a few random thoughts about New Jack:
I wasn’t the biggest fan of New Jack when ECW was at its peak but like everybody else, I was intrigued by seeing him enter with a cart full of weapons and jump off balconies at insane heights.
New Jack’s appearance in Beyond The Mat is one of the best things about that documentary. From Hollywood execs gassing him up to be a leading man despite having a severely scared forehead (“Maybe I’ll be the next Denzel”) to him talking about his confirmed kills as a bounty hunter to him not having all his knuckles.
It’s funny. I just watched the Nick Gage episode from Dark Side of the Ring (Another notable hardcore wrestler). I watched a match that I found on YouTube but imagine if they would have faced each other at their prime. Then again, somebody might have died.
Speaking of Dark Side of the Ring, the episode of New Jack was dope too. It covers the “Mass Transit incident” as well as the “Hunter Red incident” (Among other things). Both situations involved stabbings from New Jack
To be honest, I didn’t really become a fan of New Jack until I watched his infamous O.J. Simpson promo. Classic (“Keep up the good work baby, two less we got to worry about”). To tie that back in the song “Natural Born Killaz”, the hardest line on that track is: “So fuck Charlie Manson!/I’ll snatch him out of his truck/Hit ’em with a brick and I’m dancin'”.
Speaking of “Natural Born Killaz”, I know it a great chance that Dr. Dre didn’t write his verse but I always thought he was kinda spitting on this song. The same goes for his verses on “Keep Their Heads Ringin'”. I’ll go back to talking about New Jack since “Natural Born Killaz” has technically already been a Song of the Week.
Looking back at it, New Jack’s time in TNA run wasn’t actually that bad. That was the closest thing we were gonna get to a WWE run. If only Vince McMahon could’ve got him for the original One Night Stand PPV.
I’m just rambling at this point but if you want to see a worthy tribute to New Jack, just go watch Paul Heyman’s tribute via WWE. Gangsta.
Check out this Song of the Week. R.I.P. New Jack.