C-Knight, a founding member of Long Beach G-funk rap crew Dove Shack, has died at age 52. The news was confirmed by TMZ on Tuesday (Nov. 7), when a member of the rapper’s family reportedly told the gossip site that the MC born Arnez Blount had died that day after being taken off life support several weeks after suffering a stroke; at press time Billboard could not independently confirm the details of Knight’s death.
The site earlier reported that Knight’s father said his son was hospitalized on October 18 after his blood sugar drastically spiked due to diabetes. The rapper reportedly subsequently suffered a stroke and went into cardiac arrest while getting dialysis in the hospital, was resuscitated and put on life support in an unresponsive state that he never re-emerged from.
Knight was best known for his smooth flow as part of the Long Beach, CA crew — which also featured rappers B-Roc and 2Scoops — whose affiliation with g-funk icon Warren G. manifested on the song “This Is the Shack” on G’s 1994 classic debut album Regulate… G Funk Era album; the song also served as Dove Shack’s public debut.
In 1995, the trio released their full-length debut, also titled This Is The Shack, on G-Funk Entertainment/Def Jam Recordings; the album peaked at No. 68 on the Billboard 200 album chart. The collection spawned one charting single, the slow-rolling “Summertime in the LBC,” which hit No. 54 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart after being featured in the 1995 hip-hop doc The Show. In addition to the Warren G-produced “This Is the Shack,” the group’s debut featured two songs produced by Run-DMC’s Jam Master Jay (“Bomb Drop,” “East Side Party”).
C-Knight released the solo album Knight Time in 2001 and Dove Shack issued their second, and final, album, Reality Has Got Me Tied Up, in 2006.
B-Roc paid tribute to his fallen comrade in an Instagram post featuring a picture of the two and the message, “This is like f–king nightmare I swear this s–t hurt different and I don’t want to talk about s–t to nobody so please just let me be and pray for us… On my soul I love you bro and I already don’t know what the f–k to do wit u being gone.”
Watch the “Summertime in the LBC” video below.