Musical prodigy found success with Fugees

Grammy nominee served prison time before starting family on Martha's Vineyard.

- BY CHRISTIE D'ZURILLA

ANDY KROPA Invision PRODUCER John Forté, pictured in 2013, worked on the Fugees' second album.

As a child, John Forté was a violin prodigy from a beleaguered part of Brooklyn who earned a scholarship to an exclusive private high school in the Northeast. His life took him from working as an A&R executive at an indie label to out-of-nowhere commercial success with the Fugees and then to disappointment as a solo artist.

Then he was nabbed in a sting as he helped facilitate the transport of $1.4 million worth of liquid cocaine. He was 26 when he was convicted and sent to federal prison for 14 years.

On Jan 12 Forté was found dead in his home in Chilmark, Mass., on Martha's Vineyard, the Associated Press reported. A neighbor found him unresponsive in his kitchen a little before 2:30 p.m. and called authorities, according to the MV Times. He was 50.

He was also the recipient of a rare commutation from President George W. Bush, who in 2008 cut off Forté's sentence after seven years and sent him home to resume his musical career and create the family he had longed for.

The Chilmark police chief, Sean Slavin, told various outlets that there was no "readily apparent cause of death" but also no evidence of foul play. Forté's death is being investigated by the state medical examiner's office in Massachusetts, per the Vineyard 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 never Die look at the smile RIP my Refugee brother." Born Jan. 30, 1975, in the Brownsville part of Brooklyn, Forté didn't have a posh upbringing, saying in a May 1998 interview (posted on YouTube in 2016 by the Interview Channel) that his neighborhood had been "declared a war zone" by the NYPD.