Sidney Brown, the producer and DJ who labored with the likes of Drake, Beyoncé, and Lil Wayne underneath the identify Omen, has died. Brown was present in his Harlem, New York residence on Saturday, September 13, by his sister, Nicole Iris Brown. “He was holistic and wholesome. So we don’t know of him being sick, so that is all fairly sudden,” she stated in a press release to NBC News. Brown was 49.
Born in Harlem in 1976, Brown produced for artists within the Roc-A-Fella Information orbit all through the late ’90s and early ’00s. He labored on Memphis Bleek’s Coming of Age, Mýa’s Moodring, and Fabolous’ Avenue Goals, amongst others. Brown additionally composed the rating for Paper Troopers, the 2002 rap comedy produced by Roc-A-Fella’s movie studio that gave Kevin Hart his big-screen debut.
In 2006, Brown made the beat for “Inform It Like It Is” from Ludacris’ Release Therapy, which gained Finest Rap Album on the 2007 Grammy Awards. A couple of years later, he met Drake by means of Noah “40” Shebib, and ended up co-producing “Shut It Down,” a The-Dream duet off the Canadian rapper’s 2010 debut Thank Me Later. Brown and Shebib would reunite on Lil Wayne’s “I’m Single” and once more on “Mine,” Beyoncé’s personal Drake duet from her 2013 self-titled album.
Brown’s final credited work as a producer was on Action Bronson’s 2015 LP Mr. Wonderful, although he continued to DJ at native bars and eating places. “I hope folks will keep in mind that he was prepared to assist the youthful technology,” his sister advised NBC. “He was all the time large on serving to youthful folks begin their careers and get themselves into the sport. It was about simply the music, irrespective of who the artist was.”
