Amy Winehouse Dies at 27

The news of Amy Winehouse passed away today at the age of only 27 is heartbreaking but hardly shocking. She had lived the life she sang in her award-winning Back to Black. While the album was blowing up, Winehouse was on the road to self-destruct with drugs and alcohol. In the title track she claimed, “You love blow and I love puff / and life is like a pipe.” Whenever I listened to that two bars, I can’t help thinking of Nas’s “Life’s a Bitch.” Nas was one of Winehouse’s musical heroes. Could Winehouse took Nas’s words a bit too her heart? Who knows, but the chorus seems to describe her troubled lifestyle: “Life’s a bitch and then you die; that’s why we get high / Cause you never know when you’re gonna go.”

Goodbye, Amy.