CNN
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Mister Cee, a beloved and influential determine in hip-hop, who served because the DJ for rapper Massive Daddy Kane and is credited with serving to to find The Infamous B.I.G., has died, in accordance with his former employer, New York’s Sizzling 97 hip-hop radio station.
He was 57.
“As a household at HOT 97 and WBLS, we’re deeply saddened by the passing of our beloved Mister Cee,” reads the statement posted on Hot 97’s site. “He wasn’t only a DJ; he was a pillar of our stations, bringing pleasure to numerous listeners together with his legendary Throwback at Midday and Friday Evening Reside units.”
“Mr. Cee’s affect stretched far past the airwaves, shaping the very cloth of NYC’s DJ tradition,” the assertion goes on to learn. “Our hearts are heavy as we ship our love and condolences to his household and the followers whose lives he touched by way of his music. Relaxation simple, Mr. Cee. Your legacy will stay perpetually.”
No explanation for demise was shared.
Born Calvin LeBrun, he hailed from Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, and it was there he would make the connections that might issue closely into his life and profession.
He grew to become the official DJ for his highschool buddy, famed rapper Massive Daddy Kane, engaged on his 1988 debut album “Lengthy Reside The Kane,” after rising on the hip-hop music scene in New York Metropolis.
LeBrun’s childhood buddy Kevin “DJ 50 Grand” Griffin helped rapper Christopher Wallace document his demo, which launched him into infamy as The Infamous B.I.G., aka Biggie Smalls.
“The primary time I met him was when his DJ 50 Grand, relaxation in peace, [DJ 50 Grand died in 2022] introduced Massive to my home. The plan was we had been going to redo the basement demo that he and 50 Grand put collectively,” LeBraun informed Rock the Bells final yr. “Massive was very shy. He would at all times speak together with his head down and say, ‘Yo man, don’t be promising me nothing, man. If you happen to say you’re going to do one thing, do it.’ And I’m like, nah, we’re going to redo the demo.”
He not solely acquired credit score with serving to to get Wallace the eye that made him a star, but additionally served as an affiliate producer on the rapper’s debut 1994 album, “Prepared To Die.”
LeBrun went on to have a preferred profession as a DJ and radio persona for Sizzling 97, a lot in order that Jay-Z identify checked him and Funkmaster Flex on his 2009 single “D.O.A. (Demise of Auto-Tune)” by saying, “I made this only for Flex and Mister Cee.”