Black Rob

Hip-hop has lost yet another one of its artist at far too young an age on Saturday. Former Bad Boy rapper Black Rob has died at just the age of 51. The news was first shared by singer and producer Mario Winans on his Instagram page and was later confirmed by Mark Curry, who is also a former Bad Boy artist, in a video which a fan seemed to have screenrecorded.

“I don’t know where to begin this,” Curry said in the video while fighting back tears. “But I thank everybody for the donations. [Black] Rob passed away about an hour ago.” It’s unknown when or where Curry shared the video as it cannot be found on any of his social media pages. A cause of death for Black Rob has not been confirmed yet.

The unfortunate news comes just a week after a video of Black Rob in a hospital surfaced online. In it, the rapper can be seen struggling to talk while he sent condolences to DMX, who passed away last week. A day later, another video arrived, but this time it showed that Black Rob was out of the hospital. He did speak, however, about health issues and other struggles he’s been dealing with over the past few years, including a stint of homelessness.

“Oh man, I’ve been dealing with this for five years,” he said. “Four strokes … I don’t know what to tell you man. Sh*t is crazy. The sh*t is hard. I don’t got no house to live in — except maybe an apartment.”

Black Rob dropped his first album back in 2000 with Life Story. The project would debut at No. 3 on the Billboard and house his most successful solo single, “Whoa.” He would go on to release a total of four full-length projects in his career with the first two coming under the Bad Boy imprint. His most release was his 2015 mixtape, Genuine Article.

You can view the posts from Mario Winans and Mark Curry above.

As the hip-hop world continues to grieve the death of DMX, concerns for the well-being of another one of its members spiked after a video surfaced on a few days ago. Black Rob sent love out to DMX in a video that landed on social media after the late rapper’s family confirmed his death, however, Rob’s frail condition and unexpected hospitalization shock fans and immediately left him concerned for his health.

“What’s goin’ on. I don’t know what the pain is, the pain is crazy man,” he struggles to say. “It’s helping me out though, but it’s making me realize I got a lot to go on.”

Now, just a day later, former Bad Boy rapper returned with an update on his health.

“I thank you all for your prayers & concern,” the image he posted on Instagram read. “I wanted to let you know from myself that I’m good. I’m home now!” In the caption, he wrote, “Don’t always believe what the media post with out true context! Cats always wants to spread negativity for a come up!” In a second video, Black Rob gave fans an update on his life where he revealed multiple health issues as well a period of homelessness.

“Oh man, I’ve been dealing with this for five years,” he said. Four strokes … I don’t know what to tell you man. Sh*t is crazy. The sh*t is hard. I don’t got no house to live in — except maybe an apartment. Me and my man be trying to get together. I’m telling you man, this sh*t is strange. It’s hard, you know what I’m saying?” He added, “I don’t know what the people want to do, what the people going to say. I need some rest, man. Really, man. I need some rest. My side is killing me.” Producer and rapper Mike Zombie set up a GoFundMe for Rob that raised $7,935 before he ended fundraiser. The description says the GoFundMe is to “help him find a home, pay for medical help & stability during these trying times.”

You can check out Curry’s video and Black Rob’s message above.

On Friday morning, DMX’s family gave official word that the rapper unfortunately passed away from a drug overdose and heart attack. The music world was quick to pour out love and condolences in an array of messages posted all over social media. One of them came late Friday night from former Bad Boy rapper Black Rob, who honored the late rapper with a video. But it’s where the video was filmed that has hip-hop fans extremely concerned.

In the video, Black Rob can be seen struggling to talk as he lays in frail condition in a hospital. “What’s goin’ on. I don’t know what the pain is, the pain is crazy man,” he says. “It’s helping me out though, but it’s making me realize I got a lot to go on.” He was then asked about DMX. “I feel everything about X,” he replied. “X was positive. Big love to X man.”

There’s no word at the moment on why Black Rob has been hospitalized. Back in 2015, the rapper revealed that he suffered a mild stroke caused by high blood pressure during an interview on Sway In The Morning. Luckily, he made a full recovery and committed to changing his diet, exercising, and abstaining from alcohol.