John Forté built his life around music and family before dying suddenly at his Martha’s Vineyard home on Monday at age 50.
Forté had been taking medication to control seizures after suffering a serious health setback one year ago that required hospitalization. Family friends confirmed that he had been managing the condition with medication since the initial episode.
Chilmark Police Chief Sean Slavin said a neighbor found Forté unresponsive on his kitchen floor Monday afternoon and called 911 at 2:25 P.M.
Officers arrived at his Hewing Field home seven minutes later but could not revive him. Slavin pronounced Forté dead at the scene and said no foul play was suspected, and a cause of death has yet to be confirmed.
The Massachusetts State Police Detectives Unit will investigate the case as standard procedure for unintended deaths, pending a medical examiner’s report.
The Grammy-nominated producer and rapper left behind two young children and a legacy that stretched from Brooklyn’s toughest neighborhoods to Hip-Hop’s biggest stages.
Forté was born on January 30, 1975, in Brownsville, Brooklyn, where violence and poverty shaped his early years. His mother encouraged him to learn the violin to stay focused and stay off the dangerous streets that claimed so many young lives in his neighborhood.
He attended Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. The prestigious prep school accepted Forté, giving him a chance to escape Brooklyn and pursue his education among some of the country’s brightest students.
At Exeter, Forté met Ben Taylor, the son of music legends Carly Simon and James Taylor, and the two formed a friendship that would prove crucial throughout his life.
After leaving New York University, where he studied music business and roomed with Talib Kweli, Forté landed a job at Rawkus Records. That move set the stage for a major break when Lauryn Hill introduced him to The Fugees in the early ’90s.
He quickly became a key contributor to their 1996 album The Score, co-writing and producing tracks on the Grammy-winning, multi-platinum project that helped define an era of Hip-Hop. At just 21, Forté earned his first Grammy nomination for his work on the album.
He spent the next few years touring globally with The Fugees and working on Wyclef Jean‘s 1997 solo album The Carnival. In 1998, Forté stepped into the spotlight with his debut solo album, Poly Sci, produced by Wyclef and featuring his own lyrical and production chops.
But in 2000, his rising career came to a halt when federal agents arrested him at Newark International Airport with liquid cocaine. Prosecutors charged him with intent to distribute, and in 2001, a judge sentenced him to 14 years in prison under mandatory minimum drug laws.
While in a low-security federal prison in central Pennsylvania, Forté continued writing music. He even managed to record a second album, I John, which included collaborations with jazz icon Herbie Hancock and a duet with singer Carly Simon.
Simon and her son Ben Taylor became vocal supporters, calling Forté’s sentence excessive and pushing for criminal justice reform. Their advocacy helped draw national attention to Forté’s case and the broader debate over mandatory minimum sentencing.
On November 24, 2008, President George W. Bush commuted Forté’s sentence. He was released four weeks later, just in time for the holidays.
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