Prince Markie Dee, Founding Member of Rap Trio Fat Boys, Dies at 52 - The New York Times

The group’s lighthearted rhymes and winning comedic approach helped speed hip-hop’s absorption into pop culture.

Prince Markie Dee, who as a member of the trio Fat Boys released some of hip-hop’s most commercially successful albums of the 1980s and helped speed the genre’s absorption into pop culture, died on Thursday in Miami.

In the mid-1980s, Fat Boys were among hip-hop's best known groups; their 1987 album “Crushin’” went platinum and featured a collaboration with the Beach Boys, “Wipeout,” that was their biggest hit, reaching No.

In 1984, Fat Boys appeared on the Fresh Fest tour, the first hip-hop arena tour.

Prince Markie Dee released a pair of solo albums in the 1990s, the first of which spawned the hit single “Typical Reasons (Swing My Way).” At the same time, he was beginning to work as a songwriter and producer for Uptown Records, collaborating with Father MC and Mary J.

But he was best known for being one of the Fat Boys when the group's songs were seemingly everywhere