Sacha Jenkins, the veteran hip-hop journalist, documentary filmmaker, and co-founder of the groundbreaking Ego Trip magazine, has died.
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Jenkins’ wife, Raquel Cepeda, revealed to The Hollywood Reporter that his passing was due to complications from multiple system atrophy. He was 54 years old.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, multiple system atrophy is a brain disease that causes parts of the brain to break down over time. This affects movement and automatic functions like breathing, digestion, and blood pressure. The disease is often fatal within 10 years, though life expectancy varies with severity.
Jenkins was born in Philadelphia in 1971. When he was seven, his parents separated. His father, Horace Byrd Jenkins III, an Emmy Award-winning producer for Sesame Street, moved to Harlem. Meanwhile, Jenkins, along with his mother, Monart, and his sister, settled in Astoria, Queens.
Per THR, while still in high school, he borrowed money from his mother to launch the graffiti zine Graphic Scenes & X-plicit Language. In 1992, alongside his childhood friend Haji Akhigbade, he co-founded Beat-Down, widely regarded as the first-ever hip-hop newspaper.
Sacha Jenkins Co-creates Ego Trip
Two years later, Jenkins joined forces with Elliott Wilson, a former Beat-Down music editor and television producer, to create the pioneering hip-hop and skateboarding magazine Ego Trip.
Although it only ran for 13 issues, the mag had a major impact on rap culture in the 1990s and 2000s. It led to the creation of two books, Ego Trip’s Book of Rap Lists and Ego Trip’s Big Book of Racism!. The Ego Trip team also went on to produce several VH1 TV shows, including Miss Rap Supreme and Ego Trip’s the (White) Rapper Show.
Jenkins served as the music editor for Vibe from 1997 to 2000, contributed to Spin and Rolling Stone, and co-authored Eminem’s autobiography, The Way I Am.
Later in his career, Jenkins focused primarily on directing. His work included the films Word Is Bond and Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues, as well as the documentary series Rapture and Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men, which earned him an Emmy nomination. Until his passing, he was the creative director of Mass Appeal, a brand he helped relaunch after becoming a partner at Decon in 2012.
Jenkins leaves behind his wife, Raquel Cepeda, and their two children.