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After being arrested for soliciting male sex workers, the legendary producer launched a “new sexual revolution” campaign where he encouraged people to use protection and not hide who they are.
Influencial hip-hop producer and DJ Mister Cee has died, his colleagues announced Wednesday. He was 57.
The Brooklyn-born artist was a DJ for Big Daddy Kane, and later served as an associate executive producer on Ready to Die, the debut album of the late Notorious B.I.G, also known as Biggie Smalls. Cee is often credited with discovering Smalls, who is widely considered one of the greatest rappers of all time.
Cee was also the host of his own radio show on at 94.7 The Block NYC. The station said in a statement on Instagram that "we’ve lost one of the most important figures in the industry."
Cee was arrested in 2011 on charges of public lewdness, accused of having sex with a 20-year-old man in public. He then temporarily left his hosting job at Hot 97 in 2013 after arrests in connection with soliciting prostitutes, some male.
Cee would soon after reveal in an interview with Hot 97 that he had same-sex sexual encounters, though he said he did not consider himself gay or bisexual. He partnered with the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) just a week later for a “new sexual revolution” campaign where he encouraged people to use protection and not hide their sexuality.
The campaign aimed to fight "the long-standing stigma of alternative sexual preferences in the hip hop world," according to the organization. Cee told the foundation that everyone should be proud and honest about who they are, citing HIV and STD rates among youth, Black, and Latino groups.
“With the grace of family and good friends around me, they made me feel comfortable to exercise my human right for sexual freedom instead of finding myself being self-detained by the discrimination, judgment, criticism, and even violence from my own community,” he said in a statement at the time.
Cee added that opening up about his experiences was “the most difficult thing I have ever done in my life,” but that it made him "free."
“I opened up to y’all today, I gave you all of me,” he said. “Now I want you to give all of yourself: Are you good? Are you healthy? Are you free? I can tell you today, that today I’m free.”
