John Forté, Grammy-Nominated Recording Artist and Fugees Collaborator, Dead at 50

John Forté, a celebrated recording artist who worked closely with the Fugees, has died. He was 50.

The musician died on Monday, Jan. 12 in his home in Chilmark, a town on Martha’s Vineyard, according to MV Times. A cause of death has not been determined.

According to the outlet, the Chilmark police department said a neighbor discovered Forté alone on the kitchen floor and called the police at 2:25 p.m. on Monday. By the time police arrived, he was not responsive and not breathing. He pronounced dead at the scene and no foul play was suspected.

“It is such a small community, this death hits close to home. It’s the upside and the downside to living on such a small Island,” Chilmark Police Chief Sean Slavin told the outlet.

The outlet also reported that the musician suffered a serious health setback one year ago when he was hospitalized after a seizure.

Growing up in Brooklyn, the musician’s journey with music began when he picked up the violin and enrolled in New Hampshire’s Phillips Exeter Academy. Later enrolling in New York University, where he roomed with rapper Talib Kewli, Forté dropped out to work for the underground hip-hop label Rawkus Records.

In the early 1990s, he was introduced to the Fugees by Lauryn Hill — and he went on to co-write and produce several songs for the group’s Grammy-winning 1996 album The Score. The album earned him his first Grammy nomination at 21.

From there, Forté toured with the Fugees and contributed to Wyclef Jean’s debut solo album The Carnival in 1997. In 1998, Forté released his debut solo album Poly Sci, which was produced by Jean.

However, just two years later, Forté was arrested at Newark International Airport with liquid cocaine and charged with possession and intent to distribute. In 2001, a judge sentenced him to 14 years in prison under mandatory minimum drug laws.

While serving time at a low-security prison in Pennsylvania, he continued writing and recorded his second album I John, which featured collaborations with Carly Simon and Herbie Hancock.

Simon and her son Ben Taylor became vocal supporters for Forté and drew national attention to his case, calling his punishment excessive. His sentence was then cut short by President George W. Bush in November 2008 and he was released from prison four weeks later.

In a 2008 essay published in Vanity Fair, Simon called Forté her “godson.” “I first met him through Ben Taylor, my son, who conveyed all the buzz: Brooklyn-born Forté had worked with the Fugees and recorded a tour de force debut solo album,” she wrote at the time.

She added, “But then, life changed things. A 14-year prison sentence, on drug charges, came down on him, and I got involved, convinced the punishment was hugely unfair. Soon, my daily routine revolved around working for his freedom.”

In the years before his death, Forté became a prominent member of the music scene in Martha’s Vineyard, where he lived with his wife and two children. He also did the original score for the Breonna Taylor documentary Bree Wayy: Promise, Witness, Remembrance. In 2021, he released his latest album Vessels, Angels & Ancestors.

“Unlike past projects, I wasn’t burdened down by self-doubts like ‘I don’t know if I can do this,'” Forté told Billboard of the album in 2021. “Early on, I realized I had to get out of my own way and ride downstream with the experience.”