British rapper Derek B has died at the age of 44 after a heart attack, according to reports released today.
The hip-hop artist, who was born by the name of Derek Boland, was born in London, England, was believed to have become the first "home-grown" artist in his music genre to appear on British televised music programme Top of the Pops, and was one of the first hip-hop artists in the United Kingdom to have significant chart success in the UK Singles Chart, achieving songs that reached the top 20 of the chart, including the likes of "Good Groove" and "Bad Young Brother" in 1988. He was also partly responsible for writing the Anfield Rap, which was a track recorded for Liverpool F.C., an English football club. The record reached number 3 in the UK Singles Chart.
The man released a debut album called "Bullet From A Gun" in 1988, which, at its peak, reached number 9 in the UK Album Chart. It remained in the chart for a total of nine weeks. Ben Chijioke, who is another British hip-hop recording artist known normally by his stage name Ty, spoke to BBC News about the effect which this artist had on the music world. "He definitely broke the door down," he said. "He was one of the first artists that I saw get to such a level through rap, and be on Top of the Pops, be on children's programmes, be on the world stage. He was one of the ones to do it first, when it was thoroughly unacceptable from the mainstream perspective. At the time, he was absolutely groundbreaking. He definitely broke the door down."
Zane Lowe is a disc jockey on BBC Radio 1. On his page on social networking website Twitter, he has been quoted as saying the following: "Oh man. Derek B was a massive album for me. Sad day RT. RIP DEREK BOLAND (WAG CLUB) :(". In a separate message sent three hours later, Zane wrote the following: "Respect to Derek B. Bad Young Brother on R1. Sounded huge."

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British rapper Derek B dies at age 44