Rapper Fatman Scoop Dies After Suffering Medical Emergency On CT Stage

HAMDEN, CT — Isaac Freeman, a rapper and radio personality known as Fatman Scoop, has died after suffering a medical emergency while performing during the Summer Concert Series at Hamden Town Center Park on Friday night, according to his family.

Freeman was headlining Hamden's Green and Gold Party on Friday night, the final Summer Concert Series of the 2024 season, when he suffered a medical emergency on stage, Mayor Lauren Garrett said on social media.

“He is being transported by ambulance to the hospital,” Garrett wrote in a post on Facebook. “We will provide updates when they are available. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers.”

DJ and producer Birch Michael, who identified himself as Freeman's tour manager, first posted about Freeman's death on Facebook and Instagram Saturday morning. Freeman's family later confirmed his death on his Instagram account.

"Last night, the world lost a radiant soul, a beacon of light on the stage and in life," his family wrote. "Fatman Scoop's legacy is of love and brightness, it will reside in our hearts and memories forever."

Freeman was from New York City’s Harlem neighborhood and broke out with 1999’s “Be Faithful.” What started as a minor success in the U.S. took off in Europe with a 2003 re-release, hitting No. 1 on the singles charts in the U.K. and Ireland.

The next year, he appeared on the U.K. television series “Chancers,” in which musicians mentored artists who wanted to make it in the U.S., the BBC reported. He also was a contestant on “Celebrity Big Brother 16: UK vs USA,” which was filmed in the U.K. and aired in 2015.

But Scoop — sometimes stylized as Fat Man Scoop or FatMan Scoop — was perhaps best known for his feature role on Missy Elliott’s “Lose Control,” a 2005 song of the summer that also featured Ciara. The track won a short-form music video Grammy at the 2006 award show.

The same year as “Lose Control,” he was featured on Mariah Carey’s “It’s Like That.” He also was featured on tracks from Timbaland, David Guetta, The Situation and Skrillex, among other artists. In 2018, he reunited with Elliott and Ciara for a remix of the latter’s “Level Up.”

Elliott praised Scoop's “VOICE and energy” Saturday on X, saying he had contributed to many songs that made people happy over more than two decades.

“Your IMPACT is HUGE & will be NEVER be forgotten,” she added.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.