American rapper who was signed to Bad Boy, Black Rob has died at the age of 52 on April 17 at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta.
According to the Pitchfork reports, The cause of death was cardiac arrest, as Ross’ friend Mark Curry told the Times. He added that Ross was dealing with a number of health issues prior to his death, including lupus, kidney failure, diabetes, and multiple strokes. Ross was 52 years old.
At the time of his death, a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for his medical expenses had yet to reach its goal. The former Bad Boy signee is best known for his 2000 song “Whoa” recently shared a video shot during a hospital stay, in which he paid tribute to the late DMX. Ross suffered a stroke prior to the release of his fourth and final album Genuine Article in 2015.
Ross grew up in East Harlem and began rapping between the ages of 11 and 12. He was inspired by the artists he listened to regularly, including Spoonie Gee, Doug E. Fresh, and Slick Rick. When he was 22, he joined his first rap group, the Schizophrenics, though they did not release any albums. He initially rapped under the alias “Bacardi Rob”.
Black Rob was sentenced to over seven years in prison in 2006 after failing to appear in court for his sentencing (which was set to be two to six years initially) on a charge of grand larceny from 2004, in which he pleaded guilty to criminal possession of more than US$6,000 worth of jewelry stolen in a hotel. He was released from prison in May 2010 and was interviewed by BET two hours later.
