Mister Cee, New York Radio DJ and Notorious BIG Producer, Dies at 57

Calvin LeBrun, the New York radio DJ better known as Mister Cee, has died, the hip-hop station Hot 97 he says, citing his family. The cause of death has not been disclosed. Mr. Cee was 57 years old.

Mister Cee grew up in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn and, in 1988, was featured on the debut album by one of the neighborhood's brightest young stars, Big Daddy Kane. Cee was the DJ Long live Kaneand is the subject of the album's penultimate track, “Mr. Cee's Master Plan.” Cee continued his work with Kane in the early 1990s, gaining credits in the 1989s He's a big daddy1990s Chocolate flavor1991 PRINCE OF DARKNESSand of 1993 Looks like a job for….

Cee is also often is credited with the discovery another pillar of Brooklyn hip-hop, the Notorious BIG “I knew it was dope,” Cee reminded of the late legend last year. “I didn't think it would become what it became before he died. All I did at the time was try to listen to anyone and everyone. Big Daddy Kane, Masta Ace, I'd try to push them Biggie like you gotta listen to this guy. If we had the wear and tear of what we're doing now as adults, me and Masta Ice could take out Biggie or me and Kane.” Finally, Mister Cee served as executive producer on Notorious BIG's landmark 1994 debut, Ready to die.

In addition to his work as a producer, Mister Cee spent decades as a DJ at popular New York hip-hop radio station Hot 97 (WQHT-FM, 97.1). Writing for DJ in 2013, The New York TimesJon Caramanica called Cee “the station's institutional memory and living connection to history, the one reliable purveyor of classic hip-hop.” Cee was so admired for his work with the station that fellow Brooklyn promoter Jay-Z called out him and Funkmaster Flex on 2009's “DOA (Death of Auto-Tune)”: “I only made it for Flex and Mister Cee”.

Despite his success, Mr. Cee left Hot 97 in 2013 after several arrests for inciting oral sex from transgender prostitutes. DJ used his resignation as an opportunity to speak openly about his sexuality in an interview with Ebro Darden that Jody Rosen called “A watershed moment for hip-hop culture, which is slowly shedding its longstanding homophobia.”