FUSE TV - Three 6 Mafia Co-Founder Lord Infamous Dead at 40

Three 6 Mafia co-founder Ricky "Lord Infamous" Dunigan passed away Friday night at the age of 40 after suffering a heart attack in his mother's Memphis home, Rolling Stone reports.

DJ Paul, the rapper's bandmate and uncle, confirmed the news.  "He was at home sitting at the table and he just lay his head down and he just left us," Paul said. The rapper had suffered a stroke and heart attack in 2010, but had not reported any recent health issues. 

"We don't know yet [if the two incidents were related]," Paul told HipHopDX. "It probably did. A lot of times people have heart attacks and a lot of people survive heart attacks and usually when they have that second, third one, it's pretty much over with."

Lord Infamous formed Three 6 Mafia with Juicy J and DJ Paul in 1991, with Mystic Stylez, the group's debut album, released four years later. Lord of Terror, the rapper's debut solo album, was released in 1994. 

Earlier this year, Infamous reunited with four of the six original Three 6 Mafia members to form Da Mafia 6ix, who released their debut mixtape 6ix Commandments in November. DJ Paul said that Lord Infamous had been working on a new Da Mafia 6ix album set for release next year.

"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 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."