KOLLEGE Kidd co-founder Raysean Autry posted about “seizing a life opportunity when it presents itself” shortly after he passed away at 34 from pneumonia after a battle with Covid.
Raysean, the co-founder of KollegeKidd.com, a hip hop news and culture site with more than 1.2million followers on Instagram, died on December 29, his brother exclusively confirmed to The US Sun.
“He had been hospitalized for at least a couple of weeks in Toledo, Ohio,” Raysean’s grieving brother PJ Taylor, 29, told The US Sun.
“He was 34 years old. We were blindsided by his death. We couldn’t even celebrate the holidays. His brother Rich is still in the hospital. They were on the same floor.”
Raysean’s twin brother Rich is the other co-founder of KollegeKidd.com.
The pair started the blog together in November 2011 and built it into a leading news source for hip hop on the internet.
Weeks before his death, the 34-year-old shared a clip of rapper G Herbo where the rapper spoke about having an opportunity to change one’s life.
Autry captioned the post, “Seize the opportunity when it presents itself.”
In the clip, G Herbo says: “I don’t care who you are, or where you’re from. Everyone had the opportunity to change they life. Everybody had an opportunity to get some money and better themselves.
“I don’t give a f*** who you are, what you’ve been through. Everybody had an opportunity. That opportunity knocked on your door at least one time, and if you took advantage of it or not, that’s on you.”
TWIN SUCCESS
Raysean and Rich went to college at Bowling Green State University in Ohio.
Raysean majored in television and film and interned at CNN’s In America before co-founding Kollegekidd.com.
Rich studied journalism and went on to work as a reporter for the Toledo Free Press and intern at the Wall Street Journal as a metro reporter.
PJ explained that the family has not told Rich yet to protect him while he battles Covid.
He said: “Rich doesn’t know yet. He’s still in the ICU. We don’t want to tell him and elevate his vitals, and something goes wrong.
“I don’t think he will know until after Ray is buried. January 10 is the date right now. He’s going to be buried in Toledo, but we’re still picking the cemetery.”
PJ added: “Ray and Rich had been living in LA, but they had been back in Toledo for months, and they got ill here. They made a success of Kollege Kidd since the beginning when they were in the dorm rooms.
“It was just hard work at a point in time before it was even profitable. They had to choose to get rid of one, and they got rid of sleep, man. They had to go to work, come home, work on Kollege Kidd. That would just be it.
“You would just see them working on Kollege Kidd 24/7, just be with each other 24/7. Until this day, while they was still in the hospital bed, they’d still be posting until they couldn’t no more.”
Raysean leaves behind a daughter, who PJ said is “older than 10 now.”
Speaking of Raysean’s family life, PJ added: “When he would come home, me, Rich and my mom would be at our mom’s house, and Ray would come to our mom’s house, but then he’d go down the street and go basically be with his daughter 24/7.
“The family can’t even digest it. It’s still so fresh. Ray was one of the fun brothers, man. You could joke with him, laugh with him. He was funny.
“He was always my big brother, man. Since I’ve been in this earth, he’s been there. I don’t know life without him. He was like a superhero.”
