{"id":1547324,"date":"2026-01-14T17:27:41","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T14:27:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1547324"},"modified":"2026-01-14T17:27:41","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T14:27:41","slug":"john-forte-rapper-and-fugees-producer-dies-at-50","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1547324","title":{"rendered":"John Fort\u00e9, Rapper and Fugees Producer, Dies at 50"},"content":{"rendered":"
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News<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

John Fort\u00e9, Rapper and Fugees Producer, Dies at 50<\/h1>\n
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Fort\u00e9 was a key member of the Refugee Camp All-Stars collective and contributor to classic Fugees album The Score<\/em><\/div>\n
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By <\/span>Jazz Monroe<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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John Fort\u00e9, 2014 (Michael N. Todaro\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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John Fort\u00e9, the rapper and producer who emerged as a key contributor to the mid 1990s New York hip-hop scene and close collaborator of Fugees, was found dead at his home in Chilmark, Massachusetts, on Monday (January 12), The Associated Press<\/em> reports. There was no sign of foul play or a \u201creadily apparent cause of death,\u201d Sean Slavin, the Chilmark police chief, said in a statement, adding that the state medical examiner\u2019s office would investigate.<\/p>\n

In a tribute posted to her Instagram, Lauryn Hill wrote \u201cFort\u00e9 was a gentlemen and a scholar with a strong pen, deep soul, and kind heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fort\u00e9 was born in Brownsville, Brooklyn, in 1975, and studied classical violin as a child, eventually becoming first violin in a youth orchestra. As much enamored with jazz, soul, and Vivaldi as he was with hip-hop, he nonetheless found his way into rap circles. Chancing into a spot in the studio where Gang Starr were recording second album Step in the Arena<\/em>, he learned beatmaking by watching DJ Premier and began experimenting with rap as a way of \u201csuperhero-forming,\u201d as he told GQ<\/em>\u2019s Marcus J. Moore in 2020.<\/p>\n

After graduating from Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire on a violin scholarship, Fort\u00e9 returned to New York to attend NYU as a music business major. He mingled with fellow New York musicians including Talib Kweli, his then-roommate and future collaborator, eventually dropping out of college to work in A&R at nascent rap label Rawkus. He introduced Kweli to the label, where he joined the likes of Mos Def and Pharoahe Monch; Kweli would later return the favor, releasing Fort\u00e9\u2019s 2020 album, Riddem Drive<\/em>, on his Javotti label.<\/p>\n

Fort\u00e9 befriended Lauryn Hill through his connections at Rawkus. The pair bonded over music, and Fort\u00e9, then a relative unknown juggling music with his industry day job, got his commercial breakthrough when Hill and Pras invited the 21-year-old to appear on Fugees\u2019 classic second album, The Score<\/em>. Fort\u00e9 contributed vocals and production to \u201cFamily Business\u201d and \u201cCowboys,\u201d as well as joining the remix of lead single \u201cFu-Gee-La\u201d that appeared on its B-side. A year later, having picked up a Grammy nomination for his work on The Score<\/em>, he was one of many Fugees associates\u2014collectively known as the Refugee Camp All-Stars\u2014to appear on Wyclef Jean\u2019s 1997 solo debut, The Carnival<\/em>, guesting on two songs including lead single \u201cWe Trying to Stay Alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

In another instance of the community and camaraderie that characterized his life and career, Fort\u00e9 had Jean produce his own debut album, Poly Sci<\/em>, in 1998. Its commercial failure rattled him, however, and Fort\u00e9 fell into a depression. \u201cThe opportunity presented itself for me to involve myself in a criminal enterprise,\u201d he told GQ<\/em>, \u201cparticularly as a middle man between [an associate] and encouragers, carriers who would carry anything that needed carrying.\u201d In 2000, he was arrested at Newark International Airport and charged with possession of liquid cocaine and drug trafficking. He received a 14-year prison sentence.<\/p>\n

His release was thanks in no small part to Carly Simon. At the invitation of her son Ben Taylor, Fort\u00e9 had visited their Martha\u2019s Vineyard home one weekend and ended up staying all summer, getting together with Simon daily for mutual songwriting workshops. When Fort\u00e9 was arrested in 2000 and given one phone call, he dialed Simon\u2019s number. In addition to putting up $250,000 towards his bond, Simon \u201cbuttonholed old political friends, sought out new ones,\u201d and sold \u201cFree Forte\u201d merchandise to benefit his legal fund after his incarceration, as The Times<\/em> reported in a 2005 profile. (At the time, Fort\u00e9 blamed himself: \u201cI don\u2019t think I got smart until I got here,\u201d he told The Times<\/em> from prison.) Led by Simon, a coalition formed to campaign for Fort\u00e9\u2019s release. Two years later, George W. Bush commuted his sentence; he was released almost seven years early.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Fort\u00e9 came back to music, sometimes performing with just an acoustic guitar\u2014the instrument he learned to play in prison. He had released a second solo album, I. John<\/em>, in 2002 while awaiting his sentencing, and returned with the EP Stylefree<\/em>\u2014including his first collaboration with Ben Taylor\u2014in 2009 and the album Water Light Sound<\/em> two years later. He wrote \u201cSomething to Lean On\u201d as the inaugural theme for the Brooklyn Nets in 2012, and kept his collaborative spirit alive with a string of duets and co-writes, including a 2018 track with fellow Martha\u2019s Vineyard resident and flamenco artist Peter More.<\/p>\n

His 2020 album, Riddem Drive<\/em>, featured another song with both Taylor and Kweli, \u201cBeing Is Believing.\u201d In 2021, he released the final studio album of his lifetime, Vessels, Angels & Ancestors<\/em>\u2014a response to the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery. The album, he told GQ<\/em>, was \u201ca testament of mindful, loving awareness. How you can see the atrocity and still believe that we are stardust, that we are divine\u2026. That\u2019s what I\u2019m wrapping up in my art right now. I\u2019m trying to do that in the most loving, collaborative, open way possible, because it feels better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fort\u00e9 went on to score and soundtrack the documentary Kerouac\u2019s Road: The Beat of a Nation<\/em>, which premiered last year at Tribeca. He is survived by his wife\u2014the photographer Lara Fuller\u2014and their two children.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

Source URL: http:\/\/pitchfork.com\/news\/john-forte-rapper-and-fugees-producer-dies-at-50\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

News John Fort\u00e9, Rapper and Fugees Producer, Dies at 50 Fort\u00e9 was a key member of the Refugee Camp All-Stars collective and contributor to classic Fugees album The Score By Jazz Monroe January 14, 2026 John Fort\u00e9, 2014 (Michael N. Todaro\/Getty Images) John Fort\u00e9, the rapper and producer who emerged as a key contributor to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1547326,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[54],"class_list":["post-1547324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-pitchfork-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1547324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1547324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1547324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1547326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1547324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1547324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1547324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}