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rest in peace, negro terror’s omar higgins

April 22, 2019
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Very sad news to report from our punk reggae family with the passing of Memphis musician Omar Higgins of Negro Terror and the bassist and leader of Chinese Connection Dub Embassy.

The 37-year-old had been hospitalized after suffering a stroke earlier this month. A much-beloved member of the community, Higgins formed the Black hardcore punk group Negro Terror in 2017 and they had already garnered a following in the punk movement. A Brooklyn native who grew up playing punk rock, Higgins brought his flair for hardcore music to Tennessee when his family moved there in the late 1990s. He eventually enlisted in the Army, serving two tours in Iraq. By 2004, he was back on the music scene where he formed a punk outfit by the name of Downfall of Humanity and a reggae band called The Soul Enforcers.

“Coming up playing this music, people looked at me funny. They’d say, ‘That’s white-boy music.’ But music doesn’t have a color,” said Higgins. “And it’s not about being an ‘all Black’ punk band either. The whole idea is for young African American kids to feel comfortable doing whatever it is they want musically. [Negro Terror] is about destroying those old ideas.”

Negro Terror’s much-anticipated debut album is due out later this year.

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