Joe ‘Bunny’ Carter died on January 2nd 2003, aged just 51, leaving a wife and two children. Remarkably, he was commended by the Legislature of the State of Georgia following his death, under his full name, Joseph Anthony Carter. Kemp explains; “That commendation is really something! What is going on is that the first Bunny Carter was the one living in Baltimore, who really was a product of the ‘ghetto’ in its deepest core. This Bunny was irrepressible and not what you might call very reliable – there is no telling how he would have ended up. Then, for some reason, Bunny went to Chicago to work with Rev. Jesse Jackson for Operation Push / The Rainbow Coalition, and other change-producing organizations, and it was like a Saul/Paul conversation, as if he had been struck by lightning. Bunny Carter metamorphosized himself into Joseph Anthony Carter, an extremely hard-working, religious, and exceptionally responsible human being and agent of change for the Black community, where he became a true leader and loving family man who was loved and respected by all. That is what happened. I must say that it is absolutely amazing, especially if you knew the first Bunny Carter. I cannot imagine the later incarnation, namely, Joseph Anthony Carter, writing ‘Shack Up’, but, for Bunny Carter, in the earlier incarnation, it was a snap”. Avalanche now pay his royalties to his mother, who still lives in Baltimore.