Prince Markie Dee, who as a member of the Fat Boys trio released some of the most commercially successful hip-hop albums of the 1980s and helped accelerate the genre’s absorption into pop culture, died on Thursday in Miami. He was 52 years old.
His death was confirmed by Rock the Bells, a SiriusXM station where he had been a host. No cause was given.
In the mid-1980s, the Fat Boys were among the most well-known groups in hip-hop; their 1987 album “Crushin ‘” went platinum and featured a collaboration with the Beach Boys, “Wipeout”, which was their biggest hit, reaching 12th place on the Billboard Hot 100. That year, the group starred in a complete comedy , “Disorders”.
Hip-hop was just beginning to be accepted into the mainstream of American pop culture, and the group’s cheerful rhymes, accessible dance routines and winning comic approach made them effective ambassadors for such hits as “Jailhouse Rap”, “Stick ‘Em “And” Can You Feel It. “Some of his songs were about food and played with his image of harmless heavyweights.
Prince Markie Dee was born as Mark Anthony Morales on February 19, 1968. He formed Disc 3 in the early 1980s along with Darren (the Human Beat Box) Robinson and Damon (Kool Rock Ski) Wimbley, friends from the east section of New York from Brooklyn. They won a talent show in 1983 at Radio City Music Hall, and signed a management contract with the show’s promoter, who suggested they change their name to Fat Boys.
Its size has become its trick, its business card and its accelerator. Their manager once organized a promotional contest in which fans could guess the collective weight of the group.
The group released seven complete albums; in addition to his platinum “Crushin ‘,” three were gold. In 1984, Fat Boys appeared on the Fresh Fest tour, the first hip-hop arena tour. Four years later, the group recorded a new version of “The Twist” with Chubby Checker. The trio also appeared in the films “Krush Groove” and “Knights of the City” before breaking up in the early 1990s. Mr. Robinson died in 1995 at the age of 28 after he fell off a chair while rapping with friends and lost awareness.
Prince Markie Dee released a pair of solo albums in the 1990s, the first of which spawned the hit single “Typical Reasons (Swing My Way)”. At the same time, he was starting to work as a songwriter and producer for Uptown Records, collaborating with Father MC and Mary J. Blige. He helped write and produce Blige’s hit “Real Love” in 1992 and worked on his debut album, “What’s the 411?” He also worked on songs and remixes for Destiny’s Child, Mariah Carey and others.
Information about the survivors was not immediately available.
Later in his career, Mr. Morales was a radio personality at WMIB-FM and WEDR-FM in Miami and SiriusXM. But he was best known for being one of the Fat Boys when the group’s songs were apparently everywhere.
“I was walking and suddenly I heard music bouncing off the walls,” wrote rapper Fat Joe on Instagram, recalling how the Fat Boys beatboxing – “huh huh huh ha huh” – was “the first song they played at the party block to summon you to appear. “
He called Morales “a great guy, a legend and a pioneer”.