As a toddler, John Forté was a violin prodigy from a foul a part of Brooklyn who earned a scholarship to an unique non-public highschool within the Northeast. His life took him from working as an A&R govt at an indie label to out-of-nowhere industrial success with the Fugees after which to disappointment as a solo artist.
Then he was nabbed in a sting as he helped facilitate the transport of $1.4 million price of liquid cocaine. He was 26 when he was convicted and despatched to federal jail for 14 years.
On Monday, Forté was discovered useless in his dwelling in Chilmark, Mass., on Martha’s Winery, the Related Press reported. A neighbor discovered him unresponsive in his kitchen a little bit earlier than 2:30 p.m. and known as authorities, based on the MV Instances. He was 50.
He was additionally the recipient of a uncommon commutation from President George W. Bush, who in 2008 lower off Forté’s sentence after seven years and despatched him dwelling to renew his musical profession and create the household he had longed for at 23.
The Chilmark police chief, Sean Slavin, advised varied shops that there was no “readily obvious reason behind dying” but in addition no proof of foul play. Forté’s dying is being investigated by the state health worker’s workplace in Massachusetts, per the Winery Gazette.
“This one hurts,” Fugees founding member Wyclef Jean wrote Tuesday on social media with a video of himself and Forté performing an acoustic set. “my brother @john_Forté has joined the Angels legends by no means Die take a look at the smile R I P my Refugee brother.”
Born Jan. 30, 1975, within the Brownsville a part of Brooklyn, Forté didn’t have a fancy upbringing, saying in a Could 1998 interview (posted on YouTube in 2016 by the Interview Channel) that his neighborhood had been “declared a conflict zone” by the NYPD. He reminisced about his mom shopping for him solely generic “plastic” sneakers, then shared among the discomfort he skilled when he moved into the nicer Brooklyn Heights neighborhood after he had some musical success.
“It’s loopy, while you inform them you went to college,” he stated, “and so they assume you meant reform college.”
However Forté was truly “an inquisitive 8-year-old who performed the violin in a youth orchestra and even had a recital on the vaunted Brooklyn Academy of Music,” based on GQ. He picked up no matter was enjoying on the radio at dwelling — jazz, soul, random songs — then determined that rap was his “lifeline” to a different world.
Forté additionally earned a scholarship to the Phillips Exeter Academy, a boarding college in New Hampshire. Ben Taylor, the son of Carly Simon and James Taylor, additionally attended the non-public highschool, however Ben Taylor and Forté didn’t meet till years later. All of them grew to become quick associates after they did meet, and the “You’re So Useless” singer would play a crucial position when Forté’s life went sideways.
At 16, he discovered himself in a studio watching and studying from Gang Starr, with the rapper Guru and producer DJ Premier, as they created their music. Forté earned point out within the liner notes of Gang Starr’s album. “I used to be like, ‘Oh man, Keith [Elam, a.k.a. Guru] remembered me,” he advised GQ. “That gave me the instruments that I wanted to not simply rap, however to additionally make music.”
After Exeter, he studied the music enterprise at New York College, based on the New York Instances, and roomed with rapper Talib Kweli.
Forté linked with the Refugee Camp All Stars in 1993, when he was 18, via mutual associates he knew from working as an A&R govt for indie rap label Rawkus Data. He met Lauryn Hill first — they dated briefly, he stated within the 1998 interview — then Wyclef Jean and Pras Michel.
“I submitted beats, we did ‘The Rating.’ I used to be a part of the nominations when it got here all the way down to the Grammys,” Forté stated. “It made me really feel actually proud to be a part of a company that in truth was a household.”
“The Rating” went to No. 1 world wide and has offered round 22 million copies. It was the Fugees’ second and ultimate album.
John Forté performs at a legal justice reform fundraiser in Washington, D.C., in Could 2018.
(Paul Morigi / Related Press)
After working with the Refugee Camp All Stars and the Fugees, Forté launched a solo album in 1998. The document landed like “a brick,” promoting solely 80,000 copies, he advised previous pal Kweli on “The Individuals’s Social gathering” in 2021. For Forté, it was possibly the primary disappointment in his life, he stated.
“Partially abandoning the simply embraceable sound he included on recordings with the Fugees and Wyclef Jean, Forté contains some tracks with morbid story strains on his debut album,” The Instances stated of “Poly Sci” in 1998. “When creating potential pop tunes, Forté excels with light-hearted material and instrumentation. Nonetheless, when the Brooklyn native shifts to gritty themes and backdrops, his enchantment diminishes quickly. Luckily, his softer picks redeem this album.”
After the document failed, Forté advised Kweli, “As an alternative of wanting within the mirror and self-examining — what can we do to proper this ship? — I didn’t look within the mirror. I didn’t look within the mirror in any respect.” He stated he determined that these round him had failed him, when in truth he had “made that album in a vacuum,” with out asking for enter from individuals whose opinions may need helped him.
He expressed his frustrations to his label, Ruffhouse Data, which responded by dropping him.
So Forté figured he may do it on his personal, which led to him assembly a person in a membership who had “an operation” and stated he may jump-start the musician’s recording profession. That led to him “changing into a center man, connecting him to couriers to move no matter wanted transporting.” The person wished him to seek out ladies to hold medicine into the USA.
“With solely having my hubris as my information, what I allowed myself to obtain — it didn’t end result within the healthiest decisions,” he advised GQ.
“That home of playing cards fell,” Forté advised Kweli. “It wasn’t me signing as much as that, to swiftly change professions. … I used to be compartmentalizing and justifying it, as a result of I used to be [also] going into the studio.” He had determined the dangers had been acceptable.
Then at some point he did one thing that he, as a intermediary, had by no means executed earlier than, he stated: He went to Newark Worldwide Airport to select up two of the couriers. What he didn’t know was the ladies had been busted at an airport in Houston the day earlier than and had been now cooperating with the federal authorities. He was driving right into a sting.
“After they picked me up, they simply bagged me. All the things, time stood nonetheless that day,” he advised Kweli, choking up barely. “After which all the pieces modified.”
A second album, “I, John,” adopted in 2002, with Carly Simon singing on one duet. However by that point, Forté was imprisoned on a 14-year federal sentence — “168 months,” he stated — after being convicted of aiding and abetting possession with intent to distribute 5 kilograms or extra of cocaine.
Forté advised the courtroom he thought he was selecting up cash within the suitcases, not $1.4 million price of liquid cocaine, based on paperwork reviewed in 2008 by ABC Information. The sentence fell on the low finish of controversial obligatory federal sentencing pointers.
Simon, his buddy Ben’s mother who posted bail for him, was among the many high-profile individuals who pushed for Forté’s early launch, telling ABC Information upon his commutation that the 2001 sentence was too harsh for a first-time drug offense. Hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons and Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah additionally pushed for Forté’s launch from a low-security federal jail in Pennsylvania.
“He’s a rare younger man. And he was the primary time I met him. He’s much more so now,” Simon advised ABC Information on Nov. 25, 2008, a day after then-President George W. Bush commuted Forté’s sentence.
Forté spent the primary a part of his sentence within the regulation library, attempting to determine a authorized trick to get out. He additionally realized to play acoustic guitar with the assistance of one other inmate.
“There’s the conclusion facet that some prisons will not be bodily,” he advised the Winery Gazette, which might grow to be his native paper, in 2010. “There are lots of individuals whom I’ve encountered since returning, a few of them feign indifference and others act as if they might haven’t any clue about what it might be prefer to be in jail, however they’re in an abusive relationship or they’re in a dead-end job or they’re struggling with their well being. All of us should undergo some type of jail — some are non secular, some are psychological and a few are bodily.”
After his commutation, Forté went again to New York and resumed his musical profession, usually enjoying acoustic guitar. He recorded a canopy of Kanye “Ye” West’s “Homecoming” with Kweli and started instructing. In 2009 he launched “StyleFree, the EP,” and noticed the only “Play My Playing cards for Me” seem within the 2010 film “Simply Wright,” starring Queen Latifah and Frequent. The tune “Nervous” was used within the 2010 film “Stomp the Yard 2: Homecoming.”
By 2012, he had written and recorded “One thing to Lean On,” which grew to become the inaugural rap theme tune for the Brooklyn Nets when the NBA franchise moved from New Jersey to New York and altered its identify.
He additionally appeared within the 2012 film “The Russian Winter,” about his journey from Brooklyn to Exeter to jail and a visit he took to Russia after his launch.
Forté discovered his technique to Martha’s Winery by the use of some previous associates: Simon and Taylor. “After I got here dwelling [from prison] and bought again on my ft, despite the fact that I used to be residing in New York, I’d come as much as the Winery every time I may. It nonetheless had that gravity. And you understand, Carly and Ben. They’re household,” he advised Martha’s Winery Arts and Concepts in 2025.
After transferring to the island in 2015, he met Lara Fuller, a contract photographer who two years later would grow to be his spouse after which the mom of his kids, son Haile and daughter Wren. The 2 tied the knot on Martha’s Winery, Individuals stated.
“I’m 23 however I’ve child fever,” he’d stated in that video interview from 1998. “I actually wish to be a dad, you understand, I need my little children within the studio with me, speaking about, ‘My dad is cool.’ … I’m severe, man, it might be very nice to have a pleasant lady and a pleasant household that you just go dwelling to. … However I don’t wish to rush issues. I’m younger and I’m single.”
Forté launched his ultimate album, “Vessels, Angels & Ancestors,” in 2021.
He additionally scored the 2024 documentary “Paint Me a Highway Out of Right here,” about ladies imprisoned at New York’s Rikers Island and the 50-year journey of a portray from the jail to the Brooklyn Museum, in addition to HBO’s revival of “Eyes on the Prize,” a six-part collection concerning the Black expertise in America because the civil rights motion.
As of final yr, Forté was nonetheless in contact with the Fugees and was performing reside, balancing these efforts together with his film soundtrack and scoring work, which additionally included contributions to “The Different Guys” and “Star Trek: Discovery.” And he stated one other documentary about his life was within the works. Petter Ringbom and Marquise Stillwell are listed on IMDb Professional as administrators of “Settling the Rating,” which is in manufacturing.
John Forte, heart, performs at a lounge throughout the Sundance Movie Pageant in Park Metropolis, Utah, in January 2010.
(Katy Winn / AP Pictures for Gibson Guitar)
“What I discovered myself doing most not too long ago is truthfully simply feeling empowered,” Forté advised Martha’s Winery Arts and Concepts. “I’ve launched a bunch of music over time. However I’ve solely formally launched 4 albums. In between I did a bunch of singles and collaborations. Previously, if I wished to do an album, it was like a public non-public partnership with the label — ‘Hey, I’m searching for a associate to assist me land this aircraft.’
“Now I’m all the time writing songs. However there’s a second for me in my course of the place the songs that I’m engaged on are clearly linked. ‘Oh, I feel I feel I’m truly in the course of an album right here.’ … [Y]ou know I’m doing two motion pictures in the intervening time. And I’m additionally engaged on [Texas-based musician] Peter Extra’s new EP, which we’re ending up, which is gorgeous.”
Household associates advised the MV Instances that Forté had a seizure final yr that required hospitalization and had been taking drugs since then to stop a grand mal seizure.
Forté is survived by his spouse, his 8-year-old daughter and his 5-year-old son. A GoFundMe marketing campaign to lift cash for the kids had raised greater than $66,000 of its $90,000 objective as of Wednesday afternoon.
