Fat Boys member, radio host Prince Markie Dee dies at 52

FILE - Mark "Prince Markie Dee" Morales appears at the premiere of his film "Disorderlies," in New York, on August 14, 1987. Dee, a member of the Fat Boys hip-hop trio who later formed his own band and became a well-known radio host, has died at 52. His death was announced Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021 by the SiriusXM station Rock The Bells, which did not provide a cause of death. (AP Photo/Ed Bailey, File) (Ed Bailey, AP1987)

NEW YORK ā€“ Prince Markie Dee, a member of the Fat Boys hip-hop trio who later formed his own band and became a well-known radio host, has died. He was 52.

His death was announced Thursday by the SiriusXM station Rock The Bells, which did not provide a cause of death.

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Born Mark Morales in Brooklyn, Prince Markie Dee was a prolific songwriter and founding member of the Fat Boys, a group known for beatboxing that released several popular albums in the 1980s such as the platinum record ā€œCrushin.'ā€

Their 1984 debut album, ā€œFat Boys,ā€ went gold, their next two albums sold millions of copies and they were featured in the films ā€œKrush Grooveā€ and ā€œDisorderlies.ā€

Morales, Darren Robinson and Damon ā€œKool Rockskiā€ Wimbley were known as Disco 3 when they won a rap contest in Brooklyn in 1984. That win led to a record deal and a European tour during which they generated high room-service bills that earned the ire of their promoter, who started calling them ā€œfat boys,ā€ a 1995 obituary for Robinson noted.

Morales formed his own band in 1993, Prince Markie Dee & The Soul Convention, which released the R&B hit ā€œSwing My Way.ā€

ā€œPrince Markie Dee was more than a rapper," the manager of the Fat Boys, Louis Gregory, wrote on Twitter. ā€œHe was one of my very best and closest friends. My heart breaks today because I lost a brother.ā€

Morales also worked with several other pop stars, including Destiny's Child and Jennifer Lopez, and as a radio host in Miami.


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