Chris Lighty of Violator Management Dies: Today in Hip-Hop

It was six years ago today that legendary hip-hop executive, Chris Lighty, died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Lighty was one of the most important businessmen and music executives in hip-hop history. He founded Violator, an artist management company, that represented hip-hop artists such as 50 Cent, Nas, LL Cool J, Busta Rhymes, Missy Elliott and Mobb Deep.

In his early years, he was the tour manager of such seminal hip-hop acts as A Tribe Called Quest and The Jungle Brothers, as well, as working under Russell Simmons at Rush Management.

Later in his career, Lighty would go on to broker some of the most lucrative deals in hip-hop history including endorsement deals for LL Cool J with the Gap, A Tribe Called Quest and Busta Rhymes with Sprite and perhaps most notably, Vitamin Water's $4.1 billion dollar deal that reportedly netted 50 Cent in the range of $100 million dollars.

In his career, Lighty left a sizable imprint on the hip-hop landscape. With that in mind, it came as no surprise that folks from across the music industry took some time to pay tribute to the management veteran. In one particularly notable instance, 50 Cent and Fat Joe squashed their nearly decade old beef by performing at the 2012 BET Hip-Hop Awards together.

XXL wishes to give our condolences to the Lighty family and wish the best to all the friends and family that were touched by Chris Lighty in life.

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