Lauryn Hill paid tribute to longtime friend and creative partner John Forté following his unexpected death at age 50, describing their early bond and shared rise in Hip-Hop as “surreal” and unforgettable.

Forté, a Grammy-nominated producer and songwriter best known for his work with the Fugees, was found unresponsive at his home in Chilmark, Massachusetts, on January 12.

A neighbor discovered him on the kitchen floor around 2:25 p.m. He was pronounced dead at the scene. No signs of foul play were found, and the cause of death remains under investigation by the state medical examiner.

Lauryn Hill, who introduced Forté to Wyclef Jean and Pras Michel in the early 1990s, reflected on their early days together in New York City, when Hip-Hop was still finding its voice and the Fugees were just beginning to shape theirs.

“I can’t remember the exact moment I met John Forté—or Forté, as we used to call him—but I know we became fast friends very soon after,” Hill said in a statement. “I loved him. My family loved him.”

She recalled walking the streets of New York with Forté, both of them immersed in the energy of a genre on the rise.

“Our generation of Hip-Hop was young and at the ascent of its epic rise,” she said. “We were both there… participating and taking it all in, full of excitement and possibility.”

Forté, born in Brooklyn in 1975, was a classically trained violinist who blended his Brownsville roots with prep school polish.

Lauryn Hill remembered him as “a gentleman and a scholar with a strong pen, deep soul and kind heart.” She added, “Part Brownsville, part prep school, he had access to a way of expressing himself with a vocabulary and fluency that was very rare for the time.”

Forté’s breakthrough came when Hill introduced him to the Fugees. He went on to co-write and co-produce several tracks on their 1996 Grammy-winning album The Score, which remains one of the best-selling Hip-Hop albums of all time.

He also contributed to tracks like “We Trying to Stay Alive” and “Rumble in the Jungle,” collaborating with artists such as A Tribe Called Quest and Busta Rhymes.

Hill described that era as cinematic.

“I remember that summer like a movie,” she said. “Me, Forté, Chuck and Edwin were everywhere in NYC, in love with Hip-Hop, where it was going and where it could go.”

Their creative chemistry extended beyond music.

“We were inseparable that summer—music and fashion connoisseurs, outside, figuring out the best ways to communicate our particular consciousnesses within that musical landscape,” she said. ‘Our escapades read like a 90s version of ‘Cooley High’ to me.”

Though years passed without seeing each other, Hill said Forté joined the last Miseducation-Fugees tour and stepped on stage “like no time had passed at all.”

They had been in touch just weeks before his death.

“This loss is unexpected and surreal and my heart aches… for his family, for his wife, for his children, for his friends, and for all of us who were blessed to know him,” Hill said. “Love you John. Rest in peace gentle King.”

Forté is survived by his wife, photographer Lara Fuller, and their two children.