Founding member of rap group Three 6 Mafia has died of an apparent heart attack at age 40 this past Friday night. Ricky “Lord Infamous” Dunigan died in his sleep at his mother’s house in Memphis, Tennessee. Dunigan was not currently sick but did fall victim to a stroke and heart attack back in 2010.
He, DJ Paul, and Juicy J came together in the early 90s to form what was rap group Three 6 Mafia. In 1991, their debut album, Music Stylez, was born. In 2005, they were the first rap group to be nominated and win an Academy Award for their Best Original Song from the Hustle and Flow movie soundtrack, “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp”.
“He was a legend in the game, truly ahead of his time,” DJ Paul told Rolling Stone. “He was such a great lyricist and he always came with these different styles in his rap and his flow.”
He also told Rollingstone.com that “Lord Infamous was the kind of person that never cared about having a lot of money or this or that. He just liked to make music, he liked to rap, and he liked to make people happy.”