It has been over a week since the tragic passing of one of basketball and pop culture’s most beloved personalities. Two Sundays ago, NBA superstar and Lakers great Kobe Bryant, along with his thirteen-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others died in the helicopter crash in Calabasas, California.
The entire world mourned, normal people, athletes, and celebrities alike honored the Mamba in their own way, but one friend of Kobe did his thing the way he knows how to best. Singer-songwriter Brian McKnight, who was a friend and has had a working relationship with Bryant years ago when the two collaborated on a rap version of one of McKnight’s tracks. McKnight has also made a tribute song for Kobe in the past as well.
Can’t Say Goodbye, McKnight’s tribute song to Kobe wrote itself, according to the R&B crooner. The singer said he could never take credit even if he was the person who wrote the song on a video published by TMZ last Monday.
The song is solemn and heartfelt and heartwarming and painful. One could say it is indeed a typical Brian McKnight song, but the realness of the message and that punch in the gut feeling you get when listening to the track is surreal. It makes you realize how uncertain and short life is, something most, if not all of us forget as we traverse our daily lives.
During a TMZ Live session last Monday, McKnight discussed writing Can’t Say Goodbye which he first performed to honor the late Laker superstar. The R&b savant explained that he couldn’t even remember composing the song. He added that the lyrics just poured out as he made them.
McKnight also shared with TMZ that this was the first time he’s seen someone’s death affects the entire world the way Bryant’s untimely passing did, taking into consideration the passing of both Prince and Michael Jackson. McKnight said that this global effect proved that Kobe was that loved by everybody.
The 17 time Grammy nominee also said that if asked, he would gladly perform his tribute song at Bryant’s memorial service. McKnight also dropped a bomb during his TMZ Live session when he said that he will be concluding his studio career with an album containing Can’t Say Goodbye. The album will be dropping this May, and when pressed if he was really retiring, the singer pretty much said ‘never say never’.
Other notable and heartfelt tributes were the moment of silence this last Super Bowl, Michael Jordan’s emotional statement, and Lebron James’ black mamba tattoo, in memory of the recently passed Bryant.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHxEnsyP9Ck&feature=emb_title