The music world is mourning the loss of one of its greats. Fiji, aka George Veikoso, sadly passed away yesterday, leaving not just his muisc, but a legacy.
His sound was more than music. It is culture, connection and comfort.
The Mai Home Run found out about his death during their show yesterday and shared their heartfelt tributes. Desch from Mai Hot 20 joined Randy and Nate to honour the legend, expressing how personal the loss felt.
“I’ve never felt like this when a celebrity has passed on. Like I’ve never felt this sort of connection, and I don’t even know him personally,” Desch said.
“It’s the impact, man,” Randy said.
Agreeing, Desch said, “It’s just the impact of the music, and you know all those memories that you have with your family”.
Fiji’s music truly brought us up, and brought all of us together. His voice echoed through our homes and hearts.
Nate shared a fond (and funny) memory of meeting Fiji years ago here in Aotearoa.
“He’s a gun poker player,” Nate recalled.
“But he was acting like, ‘Oh, how do you do this?’, and I got suckered into thinking that he was a rookie.”
“He ended up cleaning me up and then he left me with this one quote that stuck with me forever. He goes: ‘If you look around the table, and you can’t figure out who the clown is, that’s you.' I was like ‘ohhh, I’m going home now..’.”
Rest in aloha, King of Poly reggae.
