RICHARD "BUSHWICK BILL" SHAW made a life out of escaping death and rapping about it, so it's fitting that he appeared to manage one last escape before finally succumbing Sunday at age 52. "Damn near didn't make it on my day of birth," he rapped on his first solo album, referring to his being born with dwarfism in Jamaica in 1966. In the same song, he recounts in documentary-like detail the point-blank shooting that landed him on the cover of the GETO BOYS' 1991 gangsta rap classic, WE CAN'T BE STOPPED, on a gurney being wheeled down a hospital corridor by his bandmates, his right eye badly wounded, his IV tube ripped out of his arm, his judgment clouded. Both he and fellow Geto Boy SCARFACE would come to regret the photograph but not the album, a violent, uncompromising and sometimes vulnerable inner-city confessional that stands as their greatest achievement. What brought Shaw down in the end was neither his dwarfism nor violence nor his on-and-off battle with drink and drugs; it was pancreatic cancer. But when his death was publicly announced by Scarface Sunday morning, and then un-announced by his family, who said he was sick but still fighting, it seemed he was taking one final swipe at the demons that he lived his entire life with and that he and the Geto Boys memorably rapped about in songs like "MIND PLAYING TRICKS ON ME." Alas, he wasn't going to win this round. Word of his actual death arrived about 12 hours later. Bushwick Bill will be remembered as a particularly brutal and straightforward rapper. Funny, too. Cinematic. And, to be fair, he'll be remembered for several troubling verses whose descriptions of women, taken literally, border on indefensible. GEFFEN RECORDS took great offense, refusing to distribute the RICK RUBIN-produced 1990 album THE GETO BOYS even while happily doing business with GUNS N' ROSES. Which, in retrospect, fine. Because being underdogs, being judged, suited the group's sensibilities. Bushwick Bill's size was a recurring lyrical subject. He was fond of comparing himself to CHUCKY. His attitude was basically this is who I am and I'll talk about it all I want and, at the risk of your life, don't you dare judge me for it. Also, he wanted you to know his size and his prowess with women were directly related. It might even be the thing he'd most want you to know. RIP... Of the 39 albums that hit #1 in BILLBOARD in 2018, 18 (!) were sold with ticket or merchandise bundles. The NEW YORK TIMES' BEN SISARIO explains how Billboard's chart math makes bundling more valuable than ever, how the magazine counts some bundles more than others, and why "some of the very people who have taken advantage of this strategy are complaining about it." Billboard is promising to change its chart rules later this year. Is it too much to ask for more of a popular vote and less of a weighted electoral college when it comes to making the charts? (Spoiler: Yes, it probably is)... The sound of the city: New York, summer, 2019.. RIP also TRE DA KID, BRIAN DOHERTY and ANDRÉ MATOS.