Eminem, Queen Latifah producer The 45 King has died
nme.comEminem, Queen Latifah and Jay-Z among others, has passed away at 62.The producer, also known as Mark Howard James, passed away on October 19, three days before his 63rd birthday.
DJ Premier first announced his death, with representatives confirming the news of his passing to Rolling Stone.No cause of death has been announced as of the time of writing.A post shared by @djpremierJames, who helped craft hits such as Queen Latifah’s ‘Wrath Of My Madness’, Jay-Z’s ‘Hard Knock Life’ and Eminem’s ‘Stan’, was born in New York City but established his career in New Jersey in the 1980s with the Flavor Unit, a crew whose luminaries included Queen Latifah and Chill Rob G.
He would go on to produce for the crew’s various solo projects, and was heavily involved in the production of Latifah’s 1989 breakthrough record ‘All Hail The Queen’.While famed for his production work, James also made a name for himself with his 1987 track ‘The 900 Number’.
Later used as the basis for DJ Kool’s ‘Let Me Clear My Throat’ in 1996, the track was also named one of the fifty greatest hip-hop songs by Questlove in 2012.Since the producer’s passing, tributes from around the music world have begun to pour in for the hip-hop icon.
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