Craig Mack, the former rapper who found fame on Diddy’s Bad Boy Records in the ‘90s, died on Monday, March 12, the New York Daily News reports. He was 46.
Music producer Alvin Toney told the newspaper that Mack died of heart failure at a hospital near his home in Walterboro, South Carolina. “God bless my friend. He was a good friend of mine,” Toney said. “He was prepared for whatever comes, to go home to the Lord. He was prepared to do that. He wasn’t scared. He was ready.”
The Long Island, New York, native was best known for his 1994 single “Flava in Ya Ear,” which sold more than a million copies and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Solo Performance. It was later remixed by Notorious B.I.G., LL Cool J, Busta Rhymes and Rampage, in addition to being sampled on Jennifer Lopez and Ja Rule’s “Ain’t It Funny (Murder Remix).”
Mack left Diddy’s label in 1995 and later left the industry to become a minister at the Overcomer Ministry Church in South Carolina. “Nobody got to understand his story,” Toney told the Daily News. “I wanted the world to know the talent he had. It was something I wanted people to enjoy, but it was cut short because he was very religious and wanted to go to church.”
Mack is survived by his wife and two adult children.
