With a white towel wrapped around his neck, Kevin “BK” Brooks stopped on stage with the help of his prosthetic leg and shared details with the crowd on his battle with the sarcoma.
But he didn’t stay on the subject for too long.
Even when the rare and ruthless way of cancer was wearing it, it seems that the main singer of the Montreal Hardcore Maxxpower punk band wanted the approach to be in his music.
“Now that we get the shit out of F-King out of the way, let’s live at the time because that is all that exists,” Brooks told the crowd of Espacea a cover in Batiment 7, a community space in the neighborhood of Pointe-Saint Charles of the city, before continuing with the concert.
Brooks’ mother, Rachel Abugov, attended. She describes her child’s ability to act that Friday night last August as “incredibly rude.”
“It was actually the best show that I have seen,” he said.
He was also the last of Brooks.
He died in January at the age of 43, a few days after reserving his launch party for his new album, Tumor humorwhich he developed in the last year while undergoing chemotherapy and rehabilitation.
Despite his death, the album launch party is happening tonight in Turbo Haüs, in the center of Montreal.
“This was Kevin’s desire,” said Abugov. “I wanted to have a plan B in case I couldn’t be there.”
The show on Friday night will be a tribute and a celebration.
Brooks, or BK as he is known in the music scene, is described as a kind, humble and inspiring soul he persevered after the devastating disease shook him and his family in what could have been the worst possible moment.
“It should have been a supremely happy moment ‘
Brooks was born in Toronto, but his family moved to the Co-Des-Neiges coastal neighborhood when he was two years old.
His trip as a musician began during his teens, when he fell in love with Rap music and finally perfected his skills both in the microphone and a rhythm manufacturer.
His Maxxpower group specializes in Powerviolence, a quick and frantic punk rhythm punk subgenre.
“He prioritized his love for the music he won about money,” said Andrew Valaskakis, a rapper known as Coolman Logan, who was Brooks’ best friend for almost three decades.
“I would reject the offers to sell rhythms because I didn’t want to make a bad song that remained on the Internet forever and earned a few hundred dollars.”
Brooks’ love for music helped him face when he was going through a wave of vertiginous emotions in the year prior to his death.
Sarcoma is a rare form of cancer that develops in bone and connective tissue.
According to his mother, Brooks was diagnosed only seven weeks after his son was born, Jacob.
“It should have been a supremely happy moment for him,” said Abugov.
Instead, cancer was invoicing, spreading to its lungs and forcing the amputation of its leg.
At the Maisonneuve-Rosemont hospital, Abugov remembers seeing other patients under chemotherapy doing what they could to distinguish things: some wove or read, others would crosswords, remember.
His son had a laptop and focused on making music.
During the rehabilitation, he even had an MPC, a music processing machine used to show and rhythm, and laid the foundations for his new album.
“For me, this was normal because this is the Kevin that I have always met,” said his mother. “This is something that has always defined it.”
Abugov said that Friday’s concert I will go to Brooks’ family and the Sarcoma Research team of the Maisonne-Rosemont hospital.
Dr. Sophie Motard, who is part of that team and is familiar with the case of Brooks, said that progress is to advance the treatment is complex, given the different features of each of the different forms of sarcoma.
“A drug would probably be good for one of the 115 subtypes, but not for all of them,” Motard said.
“So we are in the process of seeing the genetics of each subtype of the sarcoma to see if there is something in the genomes or in the sarcoma gene where we could have a new objective therapy. And that is really complicated.”
In 2023, two doctors, one from the Health Center of the McGill University and the other of the Maisonneuve-Rosemont hospital, founded the Sarcomoma Research Consortium of the Province, also known as SARC-Q.
Be like bk
Abugov said he has been overwhelmed by the spill of tributes and support he has seen on social networks since his son died.
“I don’t know how I am going to feel,” he said when asked about the type of emotions that would cross it during the concert tonight, which will have artists from a variety of genres such as rap, rock and reggae.
“But I’m prepared to have a good time. That’s what Kevin wanted it to be the event.”
Abugov said that the songs of his son’s newest album will be played among the artists’ performances.
The bridge54:00For the love of art and life: keep the anglo rap alive in Quebec
In this year’s Juno awards, several categories included artists from all over the country; as well as artists who make music in different languages. Of the 5 nominees in the Single of the Year Rap category, a song, hiers, is one of the popular French rappers from Quebec. That is great for the history of music made in Canada. But what does it mean for artists who monitor in English in the province of La Belle? Can you get some attention from that industry too? Or do it even matters? We discover for a rapper of Montreal, Coolman Logan, who during the last 15 years has been taking the matter in his own hands, producing shows to give space to artists like him who do it for love!
Valaskakis said he has learned many lessons from his best friend, especially during the last year: life is unpredictable, so don’t lose a second.
“Do not give up because feeling bad for yourself does not improve your situation. And I have learned it from him, but I have not applied it, do you know what I mean? I effort to be more like him,” he said.
“He made that album in the most difficult conditions possible.”
