’90s Kris Kross rapper Chris Kelly dead at 34

UPDATE: According to the police report a 911 call placed that night Chris’ mother stated he had ingested a “speedball,” which is a combination of heroin and cocaine.

Rapper Chris “Mac Daddy” Kelly, who was most famous for being half of the 1990s rap duo Kris Kross, was pronounced dead early this afternoon after he was reportedly found unresponsive in his Atlanta, Georgia home. A spokeswoman for the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Officer tells The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Kelly, 34, was taken to Atlanta Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. At this point the cause of death is still unknown. An autopsy is scheduled for Thursday morning.

Kelly was an Atlanta native and was only 13 when he was discovered, along with Chris Smith, by Jermaine Dupri when the two performed at Greenbriar Mall in 1990. Dupri signed the duo, who went by the stage name Kris Kross, to his So So Def label. In 1992 Kris Kross delivered with their smash hit “Jump,” which stayed in the Billboard Top 100 for eight weeks.

Kris Kross followed “Jump” with another hit, “Warm It Up,” which help propel their debut album Totally Krossed Out to multi-platinum status.

Though they were never able to have the level of success they enjoyed with their first album, Kris Kross continued to record together all the way up through their 1996 album, Young, Rich and Dangerous. Kelly and Smith reunited in February for the So-So Def 20th Anniversary All-Star Concert held at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta, which they kicked off with the very first performance. (Click here to watch their great performance!)