When he first got the call that his girlfriend was pregnant, Tahmir Hightower was nonchalant, says his girlfriend, Tanae Dorsey. But by the time she arrived back to his house later that night, he was smiling from ear to ear. “I’m going to be a father!” Tanae recalls. “I want a girl and I’m going to be a great father.”
Tanae meet Tahmir around May 2022 through a mutual friend, and she fell for him almost right away. “I love his smile, the way he carried himself, very respectful, playful, and always happy go lucky,” she says. At first they would spend hours on the phone with one another and then they became inseparable. “Whenever I needed anything he would come. We had a ball just hanging out spending time together. Our first date was to the beach then we went to the Bahamas for my birthday. “
He had the privilege of naming his baby Ayuri Malayea Hightower on May 4, 2023, but he didn’t make it to see the birth.
He was gunned down on the 900 Block of Olive Street in North Philadelphia on April 20, 2023, and was pronounced dead at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center later that night. The investigation is ongiong.
Tahmir was the baby of the family, and he was always independent, says his mother Folan Hightower. He was full of life with great character, charming personality, a leader, a family man who was loving and caring towards everyone he encountered. During his younger years, “Tahmir was a good child, I never had to go up to the school for anything concerning him.”
Tahmir was a straight A student while in school who gravitated to love all sports especially football, and swimming. “Everything Tahmir put his mind to do he would figure it out and do it.”
As a teen he to become a police officer or fire ighter but by age 14 he changed his mind and set his heart on becoming a rapper. He would refer to himself as Saucyboymir, aka SBM, because he said he doesn’t need a stylist, and he knew how to dress with the sauce. To set him aside from other rappers, he learned how to create his own bars, went into the studio and laid the tracks.
He also placed his music on different platforms such as Apple Music, Spotify and Youtube for others to enjoy. Some of his hits were Wake Up, Say It Strong and Mixed Emotions.
Folan recalls when he told her about his exciting news of becoming a father, he would sit for hours asking her questions. “How will I put the baby to sleep? What do I feed the baby? And I want to be the best father I can be.”
“While in the Bahamas we went jet skiing and I was holding onto him from behind for dear life,” says Tanae. “I told him not to go out to far and of course he did the opposite. When I looked up we were far out into the ocean with the mammals swimming around us, I was scared.
“When we reached the shore I was glad and we laughed about this all of the time. I just miss everything about him and I will tell our daughter all about her father.”
“From the time I found out I was pregnant Tahmir was buying items for the baby almost every day. One of the last purchases he made was a car seat. He placed it in the car all wrong. I know he was more excited than I was to become a parent, now I have to keep his memory alive.”
