When Saba was six and Walt was eight, they were far from friends. Pugh’s uncle is Saba and Chilliams’s maternal grandfather, so the kids weren’t especially close cousins-they’d only see one another a few times a year for big family events. Walt lived in Austin with Pugh and his stepdad, Tyrone Jones, a few blocks south of where Saba and Chilliams grew up in their maternal grandparents’ house. Last month, the foundation announced the inaugural class of five John Walt Foundation Fellows, each of whom was awarded a $1,000 grant to further their creative careers. The nonprofit aims to provide money, mentoring, and other support to young Chicagoans in the arts, and though it’s starting small, with no office or paid staff, Pugh has big ambitions: inspired by YCA, she’d eventually like to help build a youth creative space in Austin.

Just as important to Saba as his own career is the John Walt Foundation, which he launched last year with Walt’s mother, Nachelle Pugh.

Throughout this banner year, as Saba became one of Chicago hip-hop’s newest crossover stars, his cousin, collaborator, and best friend has never been far from his mind.

At the end of this month he’ll embark on his first tour of Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and South Korea, and he’s already announced a European tour for 2019. Since dropping the album in April, Saba has earned Best New Music from Pitchfork, received a glowing Rolling Stone profile, and performed its songs for an NPR Tiny Desk concert. So many people filled YCA’s second-floor space that members of Walt’s family had trouble getting in.Īmong the many homages to Walt is the high-profile release Care for Me. The following week, his family held a memorial at Young Chicago Authors, a West Town nonprofit that helped nurture Walt, his Pivot pals, Noname, and countless other stars in the city’s hip-hop and poetry scenes. The next morning, “John Walt” was trending on Twitter in Chicago, and by the afternoon, Fact magazine and the Fader had published obituaries. He and his older brother, Pivot Gang rapper-producer Joseph Chilliams, were supposed to perform with Noname that night at Metro, but they never made it. In the hours after Walt died, the news spread fast, and Saba was far from the only one grieving. In “Prom/King” Saba doesn’t say what happened that day, but on Care for Me‘s opening track, he’s already told us Walt was killed. As the song ends, Saba receives a call from Walt’s mom on February 8, 2017, asking if he’s heard from her son. It portrays their deepening friendship as founding members of hip-hop collective Pivot Gang, which formed less than a year later. The track begins with Walt finding Saba a date for prom at St. dies at the end of Saba‘s “Prom/King.” In the penultimate song from Saba’s raw and vulnerable 2018 album, Care for Me, he raps about his kindhearted cousin-best known by the stage name John Walt-for seven and a half minutes.

Prom king saba