Full disclosure this website would not exist if my son was still alive. Our family is not a stranger to addictions, to substance abuse, to living and seeing the “fast” life, I just never thought “this” would happen, definitely not to us and definitely not while we were planning a birthday.
What is the “this” you ask? long story short, My 23 year old son Malik, overdosed on fentanyl and died days before his 24th birthday, at home, while we were right upstairs. The story is not short by far, and forgive the harsh way that I have delivered the news, but I am determined to save someone the devastation of losing their or a love one’s life to opioid use, abuse or overdose and I am not quite known for my pussyfooting around.
My son, Malik Levon Cobb, who performed under the name of TTD Cobby, was born March 4th, 1996 in Tucson, Arizona, and when I tell you being “COBBY” is a thing around our house because of him, you’d have to know him personally to really understand, but let’s just say he was always into something when he was younger and always down for something later in life. Malik was handsome, charismatic, athletic, smart, the life of the party and a talented rapper/writer and because of this I believe we, and I am rightfully pointing fingers, looked past the fact that we knew he was using and abusing narcotic/opioid drugs.
It is however, impossible to look past the Medical Examiner driving away with your eldest son in tow. We sat in awe that “it” had gotten this bad, recalling how we knew, thinking about the time we had attended the Naloxone training, questioning our CPR and wondering if we could have, would have, should have done more, while having no clue what to do in the moment or to expect in the future, but knowing it was too late. It did not soothe our families’ heart, nor mind when phone calls, messages and social media posts began to circulate about the death of TTD Cobby, the under-discovered talented rapper, who lost his life to drugs like this rapper or this other and forcing an official family statement too soon.
While planning his after life arrangements, I recalled a time we had done a family exercise where we wrote our eulogies as a way to focus our lives’ path and he quoted that he had lived as the greatest rapper alive, he gave homage to his TTD gang and went on about his rapper life he would live before his imaginary death, In reality Malik passed away before he could get his music acknowledged by the world or see his siblings and children grow older due to a fatal fentanyl overdose at our home in Baltimore, MD 03/01/2020 at 0420. Family administered CPR nor Emergency Medical Services interventions were successful. We did not have at hand Naloxone and Malik “TTD COBBy” did not ever reach his full vision, he is instead survived by me, his mother Mika, his sister Maiisha, brother Amadi and children Nicholas, Kingston, Malani and Makhi.
The TTD Gang “ish” of which Malik claimed General while “for life”, was not meant to survive his death. The TTD Cobby musical legacy and catalog is a scattered collection of finished, shared and unfinished masterpieces that we are now responsible for sharing with the world. That day, hours before his accidental fentanyl overdose he had finally share with me what would be his final project “Mika’s Son” a 6 track EP, that features his baby picture on the cover. I tell no lies when I tell you we play those tracks at crank volumes and even let my grands say a few naughty words while we all sing along in memory, and long to see, hear and hug Malik like before to no avail.
This is a call to action! Educate yourself, family and friends about the risks of Opioid USE, ABUSE and OVERDOSE. Learn the skills to identify Opioid Use Disorder and an Opioid overdose. Learn to perform CPR and carry and administer Naloxone in cases of Opioid overdose and as a personal favor, help me share my son’s music, photo’s, story and final musical project “Mika’s Son” and keep his musical legacy and spirit alive.
If you are currently using Opioids/Narcotics/Opiates TAKE THE STEPS TO STOP IMMEDIATELY, CARRY NALOXONE and make sure someone knows the steps to administer it. Resource List
Love and respect,
Malik’s Mother and your extended neighborhood momma