MIAMI (CelebrityAccess) — Christopher "Fresh Kid Ice" Wong Won, a founding member of Miami Bass group 2 Live Crew, died on Thursday. He was 53.
According to CNN, Won's agent DJ DBo, told CNN confirmed Won's death. He did not elaborate on a cause of death for the artist, but stated that he had been battling illness for some time.
Fellow 2 Live Crew member Luther Campbell confirmed Won's death on social media, writing: "My Condolence goes out to the family Chris Wong Wong Fresh Kid Ice of the 2 Live Crew who just passed away people we lost a legend."
Won was one of the founding members of 2 Live Crew when the group formed in California and is the only member of the group to have appeared on all of their albums. Won was also one of three members of the group who were arrested on obscenity chages for performing material from their album "As Nasty As They Wanna Be" at Club Futura in Hollywood, Florida in 1990. The trio would later be acquitted and the legal furor surrounding their arrest resulted in brisk sales for the album and paved the way for the inclusion of parental advisory labels of albums.
In addition to his long tenure with 2 Live Crew, Won also released a solo album, 1992's "The Chinaman" and launched his own record label Chinaman Records, which helped to launch the career of rapper Flo Rida.
In recent years, Won battled numerous health issues. In 2009 and he suffered from a pair of strokes that left him with limited mobility and speech issues.
