Andre Harrell, the influential record producer and executive, Dies at 59.

Born: September 1960, Harlem, New York, United States
Who died on the 8th of may 2020.

Andre Harrell, an influential music executive who launched Uptown Records and hired Sean "P. Diddy" Combs as an intern, has died, reports say. He was 59.

DJ D-Nice first announced his death on an Instagram Live, and Billboard and Variety separately confirmed it, citing unidentified sources. No details of his death were available. 

Harrell, who was born in New York City, was half of a minor 1980s hip-hop duo, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but quickly joined the ranks of music executives, first at Russell Simmons' Def Jam Records, where he rose to general manager, and then at Uptown Records, the New York-based label he founded. 

There, he nurtured rappers Heavy D & The Boyz, R&B quartet Jodeci and singers Al B. Sure and Mary J. Blige, among others. And he discovered Combs, hiring him as an intern before promoting him to talent director. (After Harrell fired Combs in 1993, he went on to create the Bad Boy label.) 

Harrell also helped develop TV projects through MCA, his record label's distribution partner, including Fox's "New York Undercover." 

In the mid-1990s, Harrell had a brief stint running Motown Records, then he formed his own label in the early 2010s. More recently, Combs hired him as an executive at his Revolt cable network, where he produced an annual music conference. And last December, BET announced plans for three-part miniseries called "Uptown," tracing the history of Harrell's label.

After the news spread of his death, Dj Khaled took to his Instagram page to thank the music executive.