Black Rob, the New York rapper who was closely associated with Sean “Diddy” Combs’ Bad Boy Records, has died at the age of 51.
According to former associates of Black Rob (via TMZ), he passed away Saturday (April 17th) from kidney failure. In a video posted from the hospital earlier in the week, Black Rob revealed that he had been battling a number of health issues over the last several years, having suffered several strokes.
A native of East Harlem, Black Rob first made waves via features on songs by The Notorious B.I.G., Faith Evans, and Total. He also appeared on Mase’s 1999 all-star collaboration, “24 Hrs. to Live”; tragically another featured guest on that song, DMX, passed away earlier this month.
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Black Rob released his debut album Life Story on Bad Boy Records in 1999. It peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard albums chart and was certified platinum by the RIAA after selling 1,000,000 copies. The album’s lead single, “Whoa!”, produced by Buckwild, peaked at No. 43 on the Billboard Hot 100. The following year saw Black Rob appear in a guest capacity on Diddy’s smash single “Bad Boy for Life”.
Unfortunately, Black Rob failed to achieve similar success with his sophomore album, 2005’s The Black Rob Report, and he was eventually dropped by Bad Boy. His final two albums, 2011’s Game Tested, Streets Approved and 2015’s Genuine Article, were released independently.
