EGN NEWS DESK
Mister Cee, a disc jockey who was an integral determine in New York City’s booming Nineteen Nineties hip-hop scene and was an early champion of the Notorious B.I.G., has died. He was 57.
His dying was confirmed on Wednesday by Skip Dillard, the model manager at WXBK 94.7 The Block NYC, the place Mister Cee had a present. No trigger was given.
Mister Cee, whose head-bopping mixes reverberated on New York radio for many years, was a success D.J. on New York City’s Hot 97 for greater than 20 years earlier than leaving the station in 2014. He was the chief producer of the Notorious B.I.G.’s debut album, “Ready to Die.”
Born Calvin Lebrun in August 1966 in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, Mister Cee grew up at his grandparents’ dwelling and took to the turntables below the mentorship of an uncle who was a D.J., he advised Rock The Bells, a satellite tv for pc radio present, in November.
He added that his early influences got here from the radio, listening to the likes of the hip-hop acts World Famous Supreme Team and Awesome Two.
“This become my ardour for deejaying and having that dream that sooner or later I needed to be on the radio,” he mentioned.
Mister Cee lived out the dream on Hot 97 earlier than leaving the station, citing the station’s new musical path.
“I could be the reply for now, however I don’t assume I’ll be the reply 5 or 10 years from now,” he advised The Times in 2014.
Chris Green, a promoter at Capitol Musical Group who had identified the D.J. because the mid-90s, mentioned in an interview with The New York Times that 12 months that Mister Cee “was the glue between the previous and the brand new” on Hot 97.
Mister Cee first resigned from the station for a quick interval in 2013 after it was revealed that he had solicited the companies of transgender prostitutes.
Questions about his sexuality rankled the hip-hop group, which has lengthy struggled with homophobia. He briefly returned to the station earlier than finally leaving in 2014.
Mister Cee, nonetheless a highly-respected determine, continued spinning information in golf equipment and on different radio applications. Before he died, he had his personal present enjoying throwbacks on 94.7 The Block NYC.
After his dying was introduced Wednesday, the station honored Mister Cee by enjoying a recording of his 2022 combine paying tribute to the Notorious B.I.G. for what would have been late rapper’s fiftieth birthday.
Before the Notorious B.I.G., the D.J. had labored with Big Daddy Kane. Mister Cee can be credited with serving to promote the careers of fifty Cent and different rap stars.
A full record of Mister Cee’s survivors was not instantly out there.
In an interview on the Kitchen Talk podcast printed in 2021, Mister Cee confirmed the hosts an image of himself at 3 years previous during which he’s holding a forty five r.p.m. report. He famous that his father had given him the photograph earlier than he died in 1993, the identical 12 months Mr. Cee joined Hot 97.
He added: “And he mentioned to me, ‘I knew that is what you was going to do.’”
