“‘Til one by one, we were gone” – Jeni Fujita

I did not expect to learn of John Forté’s passing on January 12th any more than any other rapper who I’ve memorialized. I am surprised that I’m only now hearing about it four days after he passed and feel like in some strange way that epitomizes the yin and yang of his career. He went from the highest of highs one could achieve in the music industry to doing a federal bid just two years later. He went from being celebrated once he was pardoned to being almost an afterthought not long after. His story is a complex and colorful one and if you were looking for someone to script a movie about he’d certainly making for a more memorable and compelling tale than most. Who could even portray him though? Only John Forté could truly capture the essence of John Forté.

Rappers who have used their real name in rap tend to be few and far between — so rare in fact they are memorable off the top of my head. Craig Mack (RIP), Keith Murray, Joell Ortiz, Omar Credle (O.C.), Missy (Melissa) Elliott, and (Nelust) Wyclef Jean to list just a few. That last one is not a coincidence. It’s very likely that had the two not crossed paths we wouldn’t remember Forté today. He was born in Brownsville (home of the brave) on January 30th, 1975. He studied violin as a child and earned a scholarship to attend Phillips Exeter Academy as a result. You might ask why he didn’t end up in a prestigious orchestra instead of becoming a rap star; well, that’s what makes John so interesting.

Forté decided to attend NYU and enroll in a music business major. One of the first of many unique coincidences of John’s life was that he was college roommates with Talib Kweli (Greene), yet another real name emcee who would go on to prominence in hip-hop. When he decided college wasn’t his bag, the music industry was still calling to him, and he wound up being a producer on “The Score” after Lauryn Hill introduced him to her Fugees friends. Imagine that — being a childhood prodigy on the violin, being college roommates with one of rap’s all-time greats, and then being nominated for a Grammy for producing three tracks on one of rap’s greatest albums. It was like everything that Forté touched turned to gold.

That level of success so young and so fast may have gone to Forté’s head. His friendship with The Fugees and membership in the Refugee All-Stars collective should have made his solo album “Poly Sci” a slam dunk. To tell his story accurately is not to glaze his album posthumously. It was a dud. It was underwhelming. Nobody was impressed by the production, the rhymes, or the single “Flash the Message” remaking Nena’s pop hit “99 Red Balloons.” It’s not a terrible album but it was a commercial flop, never managing to break 100K units at a time when by association alone he should have by all rights been gold or platinum. Desperate to recover from this crushing defeat and a lack of interest from his label in fixing his career (who subsequently dropped him) Forté made a much bigger mistake.

Arrested at Newark International Airport for accepting a briefcase with $1.5 million in liquid cocaine inside, Forté was hit with charges of both intent and conspiracy to distribute cocaine. He was convicted and sentenced to the mandatory minimum of 14 years. In yet another of his life’s unusual turns, his biggest advocate came famed singer and songwriter Carly Simon, who believed Forté was railroaded at his trial and that mandatory sentences for drug related offenses were disproportionate to the crimes committed. After years of campaigning for him to receive a pardon, President George W. Bush finally commuted his sentence on November 24th, 2008. Four weeks later he was a free man again.

Life was relatively good for John from this point on. He married and had two children. He did a wide variety of projects from teaching to motion pictures to composing music for TV shows. I think the most notable thing about it all is how quietly he did it. After the heights of both fame and infamy, Forté was content to be at home in Chillmark, MA with his family, where he reportedly had a recording studio to indulge in whatever passion projects he had. Songs, videos and albums came out here and there but never with an excessive amount of fanfare. Even though he could have been bitter about how he had the golden ticket to success and lost it, he seemed content in interviews and openly acknowledged the bad decisions he had made. John was at peace with it. Hopefully he’s at peace now too. My condolences to his family, friends and fans on his sudden passing.