Hip Hop Mourns The Death Of Steely Dan's Walter Becker

The music world is mourning the death of Walter Becker, the visionary bassist and guitarist who co-founded the '70s prog rock band Steely Dan. He was 67.

"Walter Becker was my friend, my writing partner and my bandmate since we met as students at Bard College in 1967," Steely Dan co-founder Donald Fagen wrote in a statement. "We started writing nutty little tunes on an upright piano in a small sitting room in the lobby of Ward Manor, a mouldering old mansion on the Hudson River that the college used as a dorm.

"He was smart as a whip, an excellent guitarist and a great songwriter. He was cynical about human nature, including his own, and hysterically funny... I intend to keep the music we created together alive as long as I can with the Steely Dan band."

Questlove, Just Blaze, Talib Kweli, and other hip hop artists took to social media to pay tribute to Becker.