Ty, a celebrated U.K. rapper who received a Mercury Prize nomination for his 2003 album, Upwards, died Thursday (May 7) due to complications from COVID-19. He was 47.

The artist, born Benedict Chijioke, had contracted the disease around March/April, according to a GoFundMe campaign launched last month (April 8) to help raise funds for him. His condition had been improving, according to a post on the campaign dated April 19, and he had been released from his intensive care unit and moved into a "normal ward." He then contracted pneumonia, which "worsened his recovery and ultimately Ty's body couldn't fight back anymore," the post reads. 

Prior to this episode, upon his initial admission to the hospital, Chijioke had been put into a medically induced coma to temporarily sedate him in order to help him recover. He was put on a ventilator after waking from the coma. 

"This is a shock to everyone," Diane Laidlaw, the organizer for the GoFundMe campaign and a close friend of Chijioke, wrote in a post announcing the rapper's death. "I actually have no words or clear way of thinking and hope this comes out correctly when I post it … The family would like to say a big thank you to everyone who has reached out and expressed their concern since he was admitted in hospital but right now they would value having their privacy, so they can mourn privately. They just need time to process."

Read: Resources for Music Creators & Professionals Affected By COVID-19: Asia, Europe & The U.K.

Born to Nigerian parents in London in 1972, Chijioke was known for his storytelling skills and sharp wit, with his music taking "a tangibly British take on the U.S. boom-bap style of hip-hop," The Guardian writes.

He released his debut album, Awkward, in 2001. But 2003's Upwards marked his breakthrough into the mainstream. In addition to peaking at No. 35 on the U.K. Independent Albums Chart in his homeland, Upwards received a nomination for the Mercury Prize, the coveted annual award celebrating "the best of U.K. music and the artists who produce it," according to the organization's website.

Chijioke would go on to release three additional albums, including Closer (2006), Special Kind Of Fool (2010) and A Work Of Heart (2018); his albums featured collaborations with American hip-hop artists like De La Soul and Speech of Arrested Development, as well as U.K. rappers and producers like Roots Manuva, Sway and others. 

In addition to his solo work, The Guardian reports, Chijioke was an artist associate of The Hip-Hop Shakespeare Company, "a music theatre production company aimed at exploring the social, cultural and linguistic parallels between the works of William Shakespeare and that of modern day hip-hop artists," according to the organization's website. He also experimented with spoken word and was a founding member of the U.K. hip-hop supergroup Kingdem, alongside rappers Blak Twang and Rodney P.

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