Rapper whose album ‘Life Story’ went platinum dies at 51

Black Rob, the East Harlem rapper whose “Life Story” stirred and inspired listeners, died Saturday. He was 51.

The artist, whose legal name was Robert Ross, was battling kidney failure, according to accounts from longtime friends D J Self and Mark Curry. He died in an Atlanta hospital.

“A storyteller. An MC. A gentleman every time I saw him,” LL Cool J wrote in a tribute. “Rest in power my brother.”

Black Rob’s debut album, 2000’s “Life Story,” went platinum that year on the strength of its hard-charging lead single, “Whoa!” The album was praised for its storytelling, which drew heavily on the artist’s own life.

Rob was in and out of detention centers beginning at age 12, and earned an associate’s degree while locked up. He spent the time writing the raps that would make him famous.

“As soon as I got up in the morning, I was writing rhymes. Before I went to bed I was writing. In class I was writing. I never fell off doing this,” he said in March 2000. “The only thing that used to hold me up in jail was the rap thing. It helped me get through. It helped a lot of the guys I was locked down with get through.

“I’m already platinum in jail,” he added, months before he went platinum as a free man.

A member of Sean Combs’ Bad Boy Records, “Life Story” made Black Rob an influential figure in New York rap, and he remained popular after leaving the label.

“RIP Black Rob, one of the great millennium-era crime rap novelists ... who endured fire & brimstone to briefly reach the apex, before gravity and the law took hold,” writer Jeff Weiss said Saturday.

Rob battled kidney disease for several years after his last jail stint ended in 2010. Earlier this month, D J Self shared a video of Rob in a hospital bed, in which Rob sent love to DMX. Fans concerned about Rob’s own health reached out, and producer Mike Zombie, along with Curry, set up a Gofundme.

“This Gofundme is to help him find a home, pay for medical help & stability during these trying times,” it read.

Black Rob died Saturday after battling kidney failure.