Hip-hop manager Chris Lighty dead after shooting himself outside his Bronx apartment: cops
Lighty, 44, a longtime manager of 50 Cent, Diddy, Ja Rule and Mariah Carey, was arguing with his estranged wife
By Joe Kemp / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Thursday, August 30, 2012, 2:27 PM
Updated: Friday, August 31, 2012, 10:51 AM
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Chris Lighty and his wife, Veronica, celebrate during her birthday dinner at Tao in April, 2009.
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Hip-hop mogul Chris Lighty killed himself Thursday after a heated argument with his estranged wife in the Bronx, police sources told the Daily News.
Lighty — a longtime manager who worked with the likes of 50 Cent, Busta Rhymes, Diddy, Ja Rule and Mariah Carey — walked away from the argument after declaring “I’m tired of this,” before shooting himself in the head behind his South Riverdale home about 11:30 a.m., the sources said.
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Cops found Lighty, 44, the founder and chief of Violator Management, lying faceup on the basement patio in a pool of blood with a 9-mm. pistol at his side, the sources said.
The shocking suicide followed a wild spat between Lighty and his 36-year-old wife, Veronica, who filed for divorce last year.
READ MORE: LIGHTY’S CAREER FORMED BY THE STREETS
Moving trucks were at the home, as the veteran music manager prepared to move out of the three-story townhouse, sources said.
Law enforcement sources said Lighty’s wife of seven years told police he was facing financial woes that include a $5 million debt to the IRS. However, The Associated Press reported that Lighty paid off most of what he owed by selling a Manhattan apartment for $5.6 million in October.
Johnny Nunez/WireImage.com
Chris Lighty, shown here with Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs in 2006, was found dead outside his Bronx apartment Thursday.
Lighty still owed more than $330,000 in state and federal taxes, the AP reported. And in April, he was sued by City National Bank for not paying them after he had overdrawn his account by $53,584.
His 17-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son were in the W. 232nd St. home and left when the argument erupted. They were in a park nearby when Lighty, H who has three other children, stepped outside and pulled the trigger, sources said.
READ MORE: ROCKY ROAD OF HIP-HOP INDUSTRY TAILOR-MADE FOR A MAN LIKE LIGHTY
“It’s just devastating,” said Dan Charnas, author of “The Big Payback: The History of the Business of Hip-Hop” who featured Lighty in the final chapters of his book. “He was the personification of hip hop’s growth into the world.”
Charnas recalled how the kid from the Bronx River Houses evolved into a successful businessman.
“He wasn’t on the straight and narrow, but because the people around him were, they helped him transform his life,” the writer said.
Charnas added that Lighty, “learned to restrain whatever demons he had. Maybe in the end his circumstances weakened his restraints.”
Lighty — who was reportedly worth an estimated $30 million — helped launch the careers of several artists, including brokering a multimillion-dollar deal for 50 Cent.
Kurt Nice
Kurt Nice aka Kurtiss Jackson is a behind the scenes pioneer in the Hip Hop Kulture, creating the first nationally distributed video mix tape series, Shades of Hip Hop, in the late 1990s. Since touring the country with the Stop the Violence Movement and the Temple of Hip Hop as KRS-ONE’s National Marketing Director, Kurt Nice has been a constant commentator on conscious Hip Hop and its relevance to the new rap music of today, through radio and cable appearances. contact Kurt at info@hiphoplives.net
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Kurt Nice aka Kurtiss Jackson is a behind the scenes pioneer in the Hip Hop Kulture, creating the first nationally distributed video mix tape series, Shades of Hip Hop, in the late 1990s. Since touring the country with the Stop the Violence Movement and the Temple of Hip Hop as KRS-ONE's National Marketing Director, Kurt Nice has been a constant commentator on conscious Hip Hop and its relevance to the new rap music of today, through radio and cable appearances. contact Kurt at info@hiphoplives.net
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