John Forté, Fugees Affiliate & Rapper, Reportedly Dies At 50

Although details are still developing, police in the Massachusetts town of Chilmark confirmed John Forté’s passing on Monday (January 12).

John Forté, a rapper and producer affiliated with the Fugees, has reportedly died. While details are still developing, police in the Massachusetts town where John Forté resided have confirmed the death to a local news outlet.

According to The Martha’a Vineyard’s Times, John Forté, a resident of Chilmark, was a prominent fixture among the island’s music scene, and lived in the town for the past 10 years with his wife and their two children. A cause of death was not shared by the outlet, and the family has yet to make an official announcement.

A neighbor spotted Forté on his kitchen floor and alerted local authorities, who arrived at the home in the afternoon to find Forté unresponsive. It appears that he was the only person home when the incident took place.

Forté’s career began when he was a young man learning the violin, culminating in his enrollment in New Hampshire’s Phillips Exeter Academy. Forté later enrolled in New York University, dropping out to later work for the underground Hip-Hop label, Rawkus Records.

Forté became aligned with the Fugees by way of Lauryn Hill in the early 1990s, and produced tracks and performed on the trio’s award-winning 1996 album, The Score. Forté continued his work alongside Wyclef Jean as a member of the Refugee Camp All-Stars production crew

In 2000, Forté was nabbed at Newark International Airport with a significant amount of liquid cocaine valued at up to $1.4 million. Forté served eight years of a 14-year sentence after President George W. Bush commuted Forté’s sentence in 2008.

Forté resumed his music career largely behind the scenes as a producer and composer, working on tunes for the Sundance Film Festival, the Brooklyn Nets, and the CBS documentary series, Brooklyn DA.

Forté is survived by his wife, Lara Fuller, and their two children.

John Forté was 50.