Former rapper Craig Mack, best known for his 1994 hit “Flava in Ya Ear,” died Monday night at his home in Walterboro, South Carolina, Colleton County coroner Richard Harvey confirmed. Harvey said Mack had died of natural causes and stressed that the rapper was 47 at the time of his death, not 46 as many media outlets have reported.
As the first release on Sean “Diddy” Combs’ Bad Boy Records, “Flava in Ya Ear” was certified platinum and nominated for a Best Rap Performance Grammy in 1995, although it lost to Queen Latifah’s “U.N.I.T.Y.” The song featured a video by Hype Williams — whose clips for Missy Elliott, Diddy and others would define the look of mid-1990s hip-hop — and a remix with Notorious B.I.G. (who would soon replace Mack as Bad Boy’s star artist), LL Cool J and others.
Mack's biggest hit is still well-known almost 25 years later, mainly because of the remix which featured an early-in-his-career Notorious B.I.G. and features one of Biggie's best verses that included the famous line: "You're mad because my style you're admiring/Don't be mad, UPS is hiring."
Mack's debut album "Project: Funk da World" peaked at No. 21 on the U.S. charts. His second album "Operation: Get Down" was released three years later and wasn't nearly as successful.
His longtime friend and former producer Alvin Toney told New York’s Daily News that Mack had been ill for some time and knew he did not have long to live.
“He was prepared for whatever comes, to go home to the Lord,” Toney said. “He was prepared to do that. He wasn’t scared. He was ready.”
Rest In Peace.
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