Legendary hip-hop and R&B producer Chucky Thompson dies, aged 53
Carl E. “Chucky” Thompson, the hip-hop and R&B producer best known for his work with Bad Boy Records, has died, aged 53.
As a member of Bad Boy’s in-house production team the Hitmen, Thompson was responsible for some of the biggest hits of ’90s hip-hop and R&B, including the Notorious B.I.G.’s ‘Big Poppa’, Nas’ ‘One Mic’ and Faith Evans’ ‘You Used To Love Me’. He also produced tracks for the likes of Usher and Mary J. Blige.
“It is with a very heavy heart that I can confirm the passing of Chucky Thompson,” Thompson’s publicist Tamar Juda said. “To anyone in his orbit, you know how generous he was with his energy, creativity and love. Both the music industry, and the world has lost a titan.”
Thompson was born in Washington, D.C. on 12th July, 1968. After spending time playing in Chuck Brown’s go-go band the Soul Searchers, and becoming involved in the music industry, he eventually connected with Sean Combs, aka P. Diddy, who had just been fired from Uptown Records and was in the process of founding his own label, Bad Boy Records.
Combs asked Thompson to produce a track for ‘My Life’, the followup to Mary J. Blige’s debut LP ‘What’s the 411?’, when he was 24. Impressed by his work, Blige asked for Thompson to produce the full LP, for which he earned a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Album.
The producer Young Guru paid tribute to Thompson following the revelation of his death, writing: “There is nothing I can write that will take away this pain. I have to say RIP to my mentor, my big brother, the man who changed my life forever.”
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