Rapper Craig Mack, who passed away aged 46 after suffering heart failure Monday, belonged to a South Carolina church that has been called a cult, and, whose leader is accused of molesting children. Mack, who is from New York, and had 90’s hits like Flava In Your Ear, was sick and knew his death was imminent according to close friends. He had been a member of the Overcomer Ministry for most of the past decade, after turning away from his life of rap fame that started with him joining Sean (Diddy) Combs’ Bad Boy Records. The leader, Brother Ralph Gordon Stair, is a self-proclaimed prophet of the Ministry, whose congregants live on a self-sustaining farm while they await the second coming of Jesus.
Stair stands accused of molesting young girls and women at his compound. Stair, 84, was arrested in December on charges of assault with intent to commit first-degree criminal sexual conduct, third-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor, kidnapping, first-degree burglary, second-degree burglary and three counts of criminal sexual conduct, according to the Daily News. He was granted a $750,000 bail in February.
The Ministry posts many of its sermons online, and in a 2012 video, Stair calls to Mack. The rapper denounces his previous life of “wickedness” and says he was instead following a path of “righteousness.”
“Craig Mack is dead. We have somebody who used to be Craig Mack. He didn’t join anything. God joined him,” Stair says in the video, embracing Mack.
Stair had been investigated by the state since October, when a video surfaced of him cupping a 12-year-old girl’s breasts whole saying ‘I’m gonna touch those things till nobody else can,’ he says in video obtained by Live 5 News.