HAMDEN, Conn. — Hip-hop artist Fatman Scoop, who collapsed onstage while performing in Connecticut last month, died of heart disease, the state medical examiner's office has determined.
The official cause of death for the performer, born Isaac Freeman III, was hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, a spokesperson for the Connecticut medical examiner's office said Wednesday.
Fatman Scoop, 53, collapsed while performing in Hamden on Aug. 30 and was taken to a hospital.
His family said later on Instagram that “the world lost a radiant soul, a beacon on stage and in life.”
A New York City-born rapper and hype man, Fatman Scoop was known for his single “Be Faithful,” which topped charts in Europe in the early 2000s, and for his contributions to hits by Missy Elliott, Mariah Carey and others.
With a gravelly voice and dance-floor-friendly sensibility, Fatman Scoop was a mainstay of club playlists around the turn of the millennium. But if the world knew him as the “voice of the club,” his family cherished him as “the laughter in our lives, a constant source of support, unwavering strength and courage,” his relatives said.
“His music made us dance and embrace life with positivity," his family members said. "His joy was infectious and the generosity he extended to all will be deeply missed but never forgotten.”
In 2004, he appeared on the U.K. television series “Chancers,” in which musicians mentored artists who wanted to make it in the U.S., the BBC reported. He also was a contestant on “Celebrity Big Brother 16: UK vs USA,” which was filmed in the U.K. and aired in 2015.
But Scoop — sometimes stylized as Fat Man Scoop or FatMan Scoop — was perhaps best known for his feature role on Elliott’s “Lose Control,” a 2005 song of the summer that also featured Ciara. The track won a short-form music video Grammy at the 2006 award show.
The same year as “Lose Control,” he was featured on Mariah Carey’s “It’s Like That.” He also was featured on tracks from Timbaland, David Guetta, The Situation and Skrillex, among other artists. In 2018, he reunited with Elliott and Ciara for a remix of the latter’s “Level Up.”
