ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, December 12, 1995 TAG: 9512120049
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: NEW YORK
TYPE: NEWS OBIT
SOURCE: Associated Press
Darren Robinson, a 450-pound rap star with the trio the Fat Boys, died Sunday at home while working on a comeback album. He was 28.
Robinson was known as the ``human beat box'' because of his extraordinary percussive grunts.
The cause of death was under investigation. But Linda West, a manager for the group, said Robinson had recently been diagnosed with lymph edema, a fluid buildup, and was fighting the flu.
Robinson and the other Fat Boys, Mark ``Prince Markie Dee'' Morales and Damon ``Kool Rockski'' Wimbley, agreed about 10 days ago to do a reunion album, said another manager of the group, Charles Stettler.
Robinson was working on the album in his home studio when he died, Stettler said. Robinson had completed his voice tracks, and Morales and Wimbley will finish the project and dedicate it to him, Stettler said.
The group, discovered at a Brooklyn rap concert in 1983 and originally called Disco 3, was renamed by an angry promoter after the performers ran up enormous room-service bills on their first European tour. The trio weighed more than 800 pounds.
The group's first album, ``Fat Boys,'' went gold, their next two albums sold millions of copies, and they were featured in the movies ``Krush Groove'' and ``Disorderlies.'' The Fat Boys broke up in 1991.
Robinson is survived by a son, his parents, a brother and two sisters.
LENGTH: Short : 37 linesby CNB