Brandy says Kobe Bryant's death shook her faith.

The 41-year-old NBA star tragically died in January when he and eight others - including his 13-year-old daughter Gianna - lost their lives during a helicopter crash and Brandy admitted she is still shaken by his death.

Brandy - who was Kobe's date for his Lower Merion Township High School prom at the Bellevue Hotel in Philadelphia in 1996 when they were both 17 years old - told Entertainment Tonight: ''It's unbelievable. I can't believe it, and honestly I would have to say that shook my faith. That moment really shook my faith. It just stopped me dead in my tracks.

''I just cannot understand it. I don't understand it. I'll never understand it to this day.''

Meanwhile, rapper Kanye West previously said Kobe's death had been a ''game-changer'' for him, and insisted he will no longer ''take any mess for an answer''.

He said: ''This is a game-changer for me. He was the basketball version of me, and I was the rap version of him, and that's facts!

''We got the commercials that prove it. No one else can say this. We came up at the same time, together. And now it's like, yeah, I might have had a reputation for screaming about thing - but I'm not taking any mess for an answer now. We're about to build a paradigm shift for humanity. We ain't playing with 'em. We bringing home the trophies.''

Kanye, 42, also said Kobe's death changed the way he ''looks at life'' and he thinks about the late star whenever he drives past the area in Calabasas, California, where the crash took place.

He said: ''So now there's no way for me not to be as determined as Kobe every time I drive down that street. It's game time. There's no move that we can't make, or that we'll wait to make.

''Everyone in our life is now a member of the Lakers on one of Kobe's championship teams. The way that Kobe would say that we all have to come together and win this championship is the way I look at life now. To an infinite, other level.''