Malik Basit The Founder of ‘Roots’ Passes Away At 47!

Rapper and founder of The Roots pass away at 47. The news was officially confirmed by the group in their twitter handle.

The post saw: “We regretfully inform you of the passing of our beloved brother and long time Roots member Malik Abdul Basit,” the statement read. “May he be remembered for his devotion to Islam and innovation as one of the most gifted MCs of all time. We ask that you please respect his family in our time of mourning.”

View this post on Instagram

It is with heavy hearts and tearful eyes that we regretfully inform you of the passing of our beloved brother and long time Roots member Malik Abdul Basit. May he be remembered for his devotion to Islam, His loving brotherhood and his innovation as one of the most gifted MCs of all time. We ask that you please respect his family and extended family in our time of mourning such a great loss.

A post shared by The Roots (@theroots) on Jul 29, 2020 at 12:04pm PDT

The band’s spokesperson also confirmed the news, but the nature of death is still unclear.

Basit sang in the name of Malik B., and was associated with the Philadelphia band from the start of 1999 and later exited from there after some misunderstanding of the song “Water” from ‘The Roots album,’ “Phrenology.” It was penned by Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter, the song depicts Basit’s battle with addiction.

Further, Basit began producing solo material and many years later post his exit he was part of various songs in Roots albums.