Bad Boy Legend Craig Mack Dead at 46

Long Island rapper Craig Mack, who found fame as one of Sean “Diddy ” Combs’s first artists on Bad Boy Entertainment, died in South Carolina Monday at the age of 46.

The “Flava in Ya Ear” hitmaker died of heart failure at a hospital near his Walterboro, S.C., home according to his longtime producer Alvin Toney. “God bless my friend,” he said. “He was a good friend of mine.”

Last week, Toney spent time with Mack in order to film a documentary that would detail Mack’s journey from rap to the church.

“Nobody got to understand his story. I wanted the world to know the talent he had. It was something I wanted people to enjoy, but it was cut short because he was very religious and wanted to go to church,” Toney said.

The New York Daily News reports that Mack did not expect to live long after battling an undisclosed illness.

In the ’90s, Mack met Diddy at the Manhattan club Mecca who promised to sign him if he could freestyle to Mary J. Blige. He did and went on to record his crown jewel, “Flava in Ya Ear,” which earned him a 1995 Grammy nomination. The single’s remix included one of the first appearances by Biggie Smalls.