Three 6 Mafia Lord Infamous Dead From Heart Attack in His Sleep, Band Members Pay Tribute on Twitter [VIDEO]
Three 6 Mafia founding member Ricky "Lord Infamous" Dunigan died Friday, Dec. 20 at the age of 40.
The rapper died in his sleep from a heart attack while at his mother's home, according to Rolling Stone.
"He was home sitting at the table and he just lay his head down and left us," his uncle and bandmate DJ Paul told the magazine.
Lord Infamous began his career alongside DJ Paul back in the early 90s, forming Three 6 Mafia with Juicy J back in 1991. Before releasing their debut album Music Stylez in 1995, they also added Koopsta Knicca, Crunchy Black and Gangsta Boo to the group.
Despite various members of the group departing over the years for their own solo careers, together the group had 10 successful studio albums. They have had various appearances and songs in films and television shows.
The group became the first rap artists to win an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2006 for It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp from the film Hustle & Flow.
Other fellow members from the group took to Twitter to express their grief over Lord Infamous' death.
"R.I.P. Lord Infamous," Juicy J wrote on Twitter Dec. 21.
"He gave us the name #Triple6Mafia he was a pioneer, he was a god, he was my friend. RIP Ricky 'Lord Infamous' Dunigan," Lil Wyte tweeted.
Gangsta Boo appears to have taken the news the hardest, tweeting several times about his bandmate since the news broke.
"I remember when I was 15 I use to call Ricky rapping to him all the time. I thought we'd grow old together to be honest. This is a nightmare," he tweeted on Dec. 22.
Gangsta Boo also tweeted a photo dedicated to his late bandmate. It featured members of the band in an undated photograph, which he captioned, "I called us 'the temptations' after this photo #longlivethe6."
Earlier in 2013, six of the original members of the group, including Lord Infamous, reunited to become Da Mafia 6ix. Their debut album as a newly formed group is slated for a March 2014 release, though it is unclear if that will be affected by the rapper's death.
The rapper previously suffered from a stroke and heart attack in 2010.
