Fresh Kid Ice

Christopher Wong Won (May 29, 1964 – July 13, 2017), better known by his stage names Fresh Kid Ice and The Chinaman, was a Chinese Trinidadian-American rapper, Miami bass recording artist, producer, author, and Asian hip hop pioneer. Wong Won was a co-founder and original member of controversial rap group 2 Live Crew, appearing on all of the group's albums from 1985 to 1998. Wong Won was born and spent his early childhood in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, before emigrating to the United States and settling in Brooklyn, New York with his family when he was 12. In his early twenties, Wong Won received recognition as a rapper while enlisted in the United States Air Force, with fellow Airmen Amazing Vee (Yuri Vielot) and Mr. Mixx (David Hobbs), with whom he co-founded 2 Live Crew. Early 2 Live Crew singles gained traction in Florida, so much so that Miami-based concert promoter, Luther Campbell, invited them to perform in Florida. After achieving a level of success performing in Florida, Wong Won and Hobbs relocated there. By 1986, the group released the single "Throw The ‘D’", with Wong Won solely writing and performing the rap. It is now considered the blueprint of Miami bass. Later that year, 2 Live Crew released their Gold debut studio album, The 2 Live Crew Is What We Are with rapper Brother Marquis (Mark D. Ross) and Campbell as the group's producer and hype man. The album established the group's signature style of comical sexually explicit lyrics. 2 Live Crew's third studio album As Nasty As They Wanna Be (1989), went Platinum, and was met with considerable controversy which helped turn the group into a major rap act. A U.S. District Court in Florida ruled the album legally obscene, with all band members, charged and criminally prosecuted, but all later acquitted. 2 Live Crew would release five subsequent studio albums, at varying degrees of success, with different line-ups, but Wong Won would appear in all incarnations of the group. Wong Won was the first prominent Asian and Asian American rapper, releasing his first solo album, The Chinaman in 1992. In the early 2000s, he released three additional solo studio albums and is credited with discovering rapper Flo Rida. During 2006-07, he and Ross reformed 2 Live Crew. The duo began to tour, release singles and made announcements of two new albums which remained unreleased. During this time, he published his autobiography My Rise 2 Fame (2015). The following year, he left group. In 2017, he released his final project Breaking Glass Ceilings Volume 1., and died in Miami, Florida of cirrhosis of the liver on July 13.