Battle rapper Pat Stay was the victim of a fatal stabbing in Nova Scotia, Canada, early Sunday morning, his brother Pete has confirmed to CBC. He was 36.
Police were called to the scene of a reported stabbing in downtown Halifax at 12:36 a.m. ET, and Stay was immediately transported to a nearby hospital, where he later died.
An arrest has not been made.
A source close to the situation tells HipHopDX that the incident took place at a bar.
Last month, Stay called out The Game for “desperately” striving to get Eminem’s attention with “The Black Slim Shady” diss track. Stay posted on Instagram a shirtless photo of Game lying in bed, scrolling through his phone, with a caption reading in part, “I gotta say, as a fan losangelesconfidential its been hard to watch you desperately begging for @eminem attention trying to battle him. Trust me, I respect the hunger, but once you start that whole ‘he only blew up because he’s white’ type sh*t it comes off more hater-ish than competitive.”
The day before Stay’s death, he posted an IG message to The Game, saying in part, “Oh, and Game (cant tag you since you blocked me lol)……I stepped into your world so wassup? It’s all love for the sport, right?!? Let’s see if you’re really bout this rap shIt.”
Stay, who hailed from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, is best known for his talent as a master in rap battles, where two rappers face off in freestyled spontaneously in front of an audience, incorporating boasts, insults and wordplay to see who out can out-rhyme the other. His 2015 win (his fourth!) in a pay-per-view battle at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Toronto in which he defended his title in King of the Dot’s Blackout 5 against rapper Charron, sealed his place in battle rap history.
Later that year, Stay joined Eminem’s reality TV show, “Road to Total Slaughter,” in which eight battle rappers competed to co-headline a main event match-up in Eminem’s Total Slaughter Battle Rap League.
In October 2021, Stay performed on stage with Real Sikh onstage during Drake’s “Till Death Do Us Part” rap battle in Long Beach, California.
In a weirdly prophetic IG post four days ago, Stay wrote, “Imagine if we treated all of our friends and loved ones as if we knew their days were numbered.”
