According to reports, US rapper Fatman Scoop passed away on Friday night after collapsing mid-performance at a free event in Connecticut.

The artist, whose true name is Isaac Freeman III, was performing as the main act at the Green & Gold Party in Hamden, Connecticut, when he experienced a medical emergency. He was born in New York. In a video that was uploaded on X, he could be seen telling concertgoers to "make some noise" before collapsing behind the DJ booth.

The 53-year-old rapper was brought to a nearby hospital and later declared dead. He is best recognised for his work with Missy Elliott and Ciara on the 2005 hit song Lose Control and on Mariah Carey's It's Like That.

The American hip-hop duo Crooklyn Clan produced the re-release of Be Faithful, which peaked at number one on the charts in 2003 and gave Fatman Scoop his first hit in the UK and Ireland. In Denmark and Australia, it made the top 10.

It took years for the song, a mashup of Faith Evans' Love Like This, which was created from a looped sample of Chic's 1978 song Chic Cheer, to get approved for widespread release because it had so many more samples.

A number of other well-known musicians, including as Janet Jackson and Whitney Houston, worked with Fatman Scoop. He was chosen in 2004 to serve as a mentor for six British musicians on the Chancers TV show in the UK. In addition, he started his own ice cream shop and starred in the anime series The Boondocks.

His death comes 13 months after the Houston rapper Big Pokey died upon collapsing on a stage in a bar in Beaumont, Texas, according to the musician’s publicist. The rap star, best known as part of the Screwed Up Click collective, was 48.

Of the most famous oversize rap stars of the 1990s, including Big Punisher, only Fat Joe survives.