John Forté, a Grammy-nominated musician from Brownsville, died on Monday at his home in Massachusetts. He was 50 years old.
The recording artist and producer, best known for his work with the Fugees and as a member of the collective Refugee Camp All-Stars, was found dead Monday afternoon at his home in Chilmark, Mass., police confirmed to the New York Daily News.
Law enforcement didn’t provide a cause of death, but said there were no signs of foul play, the newspaper said. Family friends confirmed to the Martha’s Vineyard Times that Forté was hospitalized a year ago after suffering a seizure and had since been taking medication to control the threat of a grand mal seizure.
Born on Jan. 30, 1975, Forté grew up in Brownsville and studied classical violin. He told officials and students at Phillips Exeter Academy, where he attended high school, that he attended P.S. 327. A school music program invited students to pick out a musical instrument to learn and "an 8-year-old Forté debated his options: Wait on the long line outside the rock band room and risk going home empty-handed or make the less popular choice," according to a school article about Forté.
“I walked into the orchestra room, and I walked out with a violin,” he recalled. “I took that home and it changed my whole trajectory. Music gave me the ability to participate in a way that made me feel so empowered, and like I belonged.”
Forté rose to first chair in his school’s orchestra and performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, according to the article.
He attended New York University as a music business major but eventually dropped out to work at Rawkus Records, the Daily News reported.
In the early 1990s, he was introduced to The Fugees by Lauryn Hill and went on to co-write and produce several songs for their multi-platinum 1996 album The Score, for which he earned a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year.
The rapper and instrumentalist also worked on Wyclef Jean’s The Carnival before later releasing a handful of his own solo albums, including Poly Sci in 1998, I, John in 2002 and 2021’s Vessels, Angels and Ancestors.
In 2000, Forté’s career took a dramatic turn when he was arrested at Newark Liberty Airport after being caught carrying suitcases containing $1.4 million worth of liquid cocaine. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison on possession and drug trafficking charges, but had that term cut in half by a 2008 commutation granted by President George W. Bush.
Forté explained in a 2020 UPROXX interview that disappointing sales numbers for Poly Sci led to a falling out with his record label and ultimately to him getting involved with the wrong people.
“Time stood still that day,” he recalled of his arrest.
Forté is survived by his photographer wife, Lara Fuller, and their two children, daughter Wren, 8, and son Haile, 5.
