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DJ Clark Kent, the veteran New York rap producer and scene fixture, has died after a three-year battle with colon cancer. Kent’s family announced his passing in an Instagram statement this afternoon. Kent was 58.
DJ Clark Kent was born Rodolfo Franklin, and he got his start as New York rapper Dana Dane’s DJ in in the late ’80s, when he was in his early twenties. In the early ’90s, his remixes appeared on singles from artists like K-Solo, Troop, and the R&B group Levert. For a while, he had an A&R position at Atlantic. In 1995, he produced “Player’s Anthem,” a hit from Biggie Smalls’ group Junior M.A.F.I.A. A year later, Kent produced three tracks on Jay-Z’s classic debut album Reasonable Doubt: “Cashmere Thoughts,” “Coming Of Age,” and the Biggie collaboration “Brooklyn’s Finest.” Later, Kent took credit for introducing Jay-Z to Dame Dash, Biggie Smalls, and Foxy Brown. He also produced “Sky’s The Limit,” Biggie’s posthumously released 1997 hit.
In the late ’90s, DJ Clark Kent produced tracks for rappers like Rakim, Canibus, and Lord Tariq and Peter Gunz, and he hosted famous DJ battles at New York’s New Music Seminar. He co-produced “Loverboy,” a #2 hit that Mariah Carey released in 2001. Kent was more of a hip-hop gadfly and sneaker-world impressario in his later years, but he co-produced more recent tracks like Kanye West and Lil Pump’s 2018 hit “I Love It.” Check out some of his work below.