Patricia Elam says the family of Keith “Guru” Elam found out about his death the day after he died, through the media.
“[My son] Justin found out on the Internet and called me. I had to call my dad,” Patricia Elam told MTV News in an exclusive interview. “[Keith’s 9-year-old son] KC found out riding in the car, hearing it on the radio. That’s not right if you care about someone. That’s not how you treat them. My brother would never have wanted us to find out that way. Never in a million years. Especially his son. Come on, now.”
Furthermore, when they sought to find the whereabouts of Guru’s body, it was en route to a funeral home for cremation.
“The hospital released the body in [Solar’s] care. I don’t know how it was determined what funeral home it would go to,” Patricia said. “My son Justin was looking online and saw something that the body was going to be cremated. My father was calling the hospital looking for the body and they were like, ‘We released it to the health-care proxy.’ Luckily my other brother happened to be in New York on something unrelated and he started calling funeral homes in the area, if you can imagine. Fortunately the third one he called was the right one. He said, ‘Listen, I’m the brother of Keith Elam, do not release that body to anyone but me.’ Thankfully he was able to get there in time.”’
Solar has not commented on these recent allegations, but admitted to MTV that things “got weird in the end” with The Elams.
Guru’s body was eventually cremated, as he requested prior to dying. Patricia Elam also stated that the family will have a private memorial, but looked to have a public one for fans and friends of the Gang Starr rap legend.
Ideally, such a memorial would take plac on Guru’s 49th birthday, July 17.
“I don’t have any more specifics at this point in time. There’s also talk of a musical tribute; I don’t have the specifics on that yet. We want something for the public and for fans. We’re also working on a website so fans can post things. We’ve gotten so many wonderful, loving messages and tributes from around the world. We want fans to have a place for that,” she concluded.
