Pioneering U.K. artist Ben Chijioke — better known as Ty — has reportedly passed away. According to The Voice, the Nigerian British MC succumbed to the coronavirus on Thursday (May 7).
The 47-year-old was initially admitted to the hospital with medical complications related to COVID-19 last month. Upon arrival, he was soon put in a medically induced coma to temporarily sedate him in an effort to help his body receive appropriate treatment.
He was eventually taken out of the intensive care unit and thought to be on the mend. Evidently, things took a drastic turn.
Ty was an influential figure within the British music scene. He dropped many well received albums, was nominated for a Mercury Music Prize in 2004 for the album Upwards and worked with several notable artists throughout his 30-year plus-career, including the late Afrobeat pioneer Tony Allen, De La Soul, Rich Medina, Bahamadia, Speech and Zion I.
His latest project, A Work of Heart, arrived in 2018.
“Ty was an exquisite music artist, Hip Hop performer/producer and thoughtful man,” Speech tells HipHopDX. “It tears me up to see such a huge loss to the music and Hip Hop worldwide community. We did numerous songs and shows together. He truly was one of my favorite Hip Hop artists of all time.”
Bahamadia adds, “Brilliant talent … forward thinker was Ty. Honest all around good soul. His presence within the eclectic world music community is unmatched and will be missed. Condolences to Chijioke family, friends and supporters of his art.”
Maseo, whose friendship with Ty stretches back to the ’90s, said, “He was more than a fellow rapper to me. He was my little brother. We’ve been tight since 1995. We were writing music together recently for a project I’m working on. This hurts just as much as Phife … even more because Ty was murdered by COVID-19. I’m distraught!”
Last year, Ty formed a U.K. Hip Hop supergroup called Kingdem with fellow MCs Blak Twang and Rodney P, who performed an acclaimed freestyle on DJ Charlie Sloth’s Fire in the Booth series.
Blak Twang expressed his sadness via Instagram, writing, “KING ‘BENEDICT OBIOMA GODWIN EVERY LITTLE STEP IS A SOVEREIGN.’ Forever in my heart bro… Rest well my guy…. We were blessed with your greatness.
HipHopDX sends its condolences to Ty’s fans, friends and family.
Never heard of him. UK rap is a tiny tiny irrelevant scene. Grime in contrast is huge despite being horrible. But UK drill is best both beats and finally UK rappers actually being able to rap better ..alho UK rappers can never rap as gud as the best u.s. ones .. altho now that many popular u.s. rappers have mediocre skills, it’s ieasier for UK rappers to compete.
Your english is terrible. Please go back to school.
A brother passed away and thats your comment? Get a life.
Ppl literally die everyday
@neverheardof
If you never heard of someone who released five albums that says a lot about you, not them.
If you bothered to listen to Ty you would know he had skills, and lyrics.
And was Hip Hop, not just a “rapper”.
He hosted jams too, and was a friendly and positive influence in Hip Hop.
Your post merely speaks of your own ignorance, not the truth.
Perfect description. RIP
Perfect response to ignorance
This is how they manipulate you into state of fear.. by having all these “celebs” just die from covid-19 (meaning they died from some other reasons, but might have had covid-19 infection while dying). Fear fear fear!!!! Now you sheeple are begging to be quarantined and socially distanced in isolation lol you pathetic sheeple.. don’t forget to take the “vaccine” which will make you infertile and sick so the big pharma companies can make some money off your health while slowly killing you.
All the same…R.I.P bruh
Hercules remember me fool