Violator Exec Chris Lighty Dead From Alleged Suicide

August 30th, 2012 - By Brande Victorian

Source: Zimbio.com

The hip-hop manager behind mega-celebrities like 50 Cent, Mariah Carey, Ja Rule, and Diddy was found dead in his Bronx apartment around 11:30 am, NY Daily News reports.  Authorities believe 43-year-old Chris Lighty died from a bullet to the head in what appears to be a suicide, as a gun was found next to his body.

The native New Yorker has a long history in the entertainment business as founder of Violator Entertainment, helping to build the careers of rappers like Busta Rhymes, Q-Tip, and N.O.R.E. As of last year, the rap business man seemed to have fallen on hard times when he split with his wife of seven years, Veronica, in November. The pending divorce was reportedly taking a huge financial toll on him, not to mention an emotional one, and NY Daily News says he also owed about $5 million to the IRS.

Even Lighty’s most recent messages on Twitter hint that he may not have been in a good place. As far back as July, he began detailing some of his troubles trying to rebuild his empire, and two weeks ago he tweeted, “Slavery is still alive and well in the music business.” Ironically one of his last personal tweets was a RIP message to someone else, while after that he retweeted the introspective message below.

All Hip Hop also indicates that Lighty’s suicide may have been planned as he had an auto-reply email message set up on his account which indicated that he would be hospitalized for an undisclosed ailment as of last night.

As details on this sad story come in, we definitely want to send our condolences to Chris Lighty’s family and all those who knew him.

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  • Rochelle

    My sister graduated high school with his daughter (class of 2008) Tiffany Lighty. His daughter seem like a ver bright beautiful girl. The lived in an affluent suburb in NJ. Prayers to his daughter and family:(

  • STARO

    So young, so much left to do. Depression is a demon that invites other demons to join in: despair and eventually self-anhiliation. It creeps up: a thought, a feeling, a false belief . . . all becomes an irrefutable continuous inner soliloquy of self-loathing and hopelessness. Peace to his family. . .

  • squeezablechic

    I am a nurse working at a mental hospital; and some of the patients are high profile, executives, entertainers, well-known entrepreneurs…etc. Anyone can suffer from depression and still manage to “function” day to day. I just wish people would seek help before it is too late.

  • http://www.facebook.com/Estherevan Esther E. Evans

    He was an beautiful person inside and out.. for the light family our prays to u..

  • realtalk

    I don’t know all about this man’s issues and what he was going through, but (generally speaking)situations like this always reminds me to be careful of how you treat people because you never know what they are going through. Not saying that it will work in every situation, but its always good to remember that. The “bitchy” attitude is so played out!

    • Tamz

      I tell people this all the time. Your actions could be the catalyst that could propel someone to go over the edge or make them smile. We have to be very mindful how we treat others. This is starting to become a common occurrence in the black community (I work in a Psych facility). My condolences to his family and friends.

    • Lael

      So is being cold and dismissal of other peoples feelings.. I aways say I will never treat people the way they treat me. Always treat them better

  • http://twitter.com/MsRedboneBrite Tee Elyse

    Wow!! I really hate to hear this! I just watched A Tribe Called Quest’s docu on Starz not too long ago & immediately recognized him from there. It’s sad when people resort to suicide. Depression is a real issue that many folks don’t know how to deal with and suicide is such a taboo topic that not many people want to address it, but so many people are thinking that that’s the only way to deal with major issues. Prayers go out to his family during this tough time.

    • Kells

      You have to be in a very very dark place to actually commit suicide. Thats sad

    • Kayo

      Many people don’t know how to deal with depression because it isn’t something that one should have to deal with in the first place.

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