WorldStarHipHop Founder Lee 'Q' O'Denat Dies

Late Monday night (Jan. 23), the founder of controversial hip-hop website WorldStarHipHop passed away, according to TMZ.

The influential 43-year-old was at a San Diego massage parlor when he became unresponsive. The L.A. Times reports paramedics arrived on the scene and tried to administer CPR, but he was pronounced dead by 5:30 p.m. The coroner's office says Q died of heart disease, with obesity being a contributing factor.

Q founded WSHH in 2005, often posting mixtapes, footage of fights and music videos. He was a controversial figure, as many criticized WorldStar as highlighting the worst aspects of black culture. But his platform came to be respected as a pioneering video website in online hip-hop, and his death is a loss for the rap community as a whole. Many artists gauged their popularity by how many views their videos got on the website, and to this day its YouTube page often exclusively premieres new songs and videos from artists.

Below you can read WSHH's statement on Q's death.

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