According to Busta Rhymes’ Twitter feed, personal DJ and legendary figure, Roc Raida passed away early Saturday (September 19) afternoon. Raida died due to complications of a mixed martial arts sparring accident, where he injured his spine. 

After 2 operations he was doing better, but than his heart stopped. He is survived wife, 3 daughters, 1 son,mom, sister and brother.

Busta twittered earlier today, “I am sorry 2 say that on this day at 2:05 Sept 19th we lost another incredible life…Dj Roc Raida died 2day my personal Dj is gone… I just wanna thank everyone 4 ur love and support and ur prayers…We will never let ur name die Roc…We love u and will 4ever miss u…RIP.”

Roc Raida was not only an important figure and personal friend to Busta Rhymes, but to the entire hip hop culture as well. He became part of the DJ’ing conglomerate, The X-Ecutioners in the 80’s and was crowned “Grandmaster” during the DMC World Championship in 1995. He later would be inducted into the DMC Hall Of Fame in 1999.

To date, he’s released 6 solo LP’s and 6 more with The X-Ecutioners. Not only was Raida one of hip hop’s finest turntable assassins, but he’s  produced records for Busta Rhymes, Big L, Ghostface, Big P un, Jungle Brothers and Linkin Park.