24-7 Spyz Founding Vocalist P. Fluid Beaten To Death In NYC

Peter Forrest, who under the stage name P. Fluid became the founding vocalist of NYC rap-rock pioneers 24-7 Spyz, has died. As the New York Daily News reports, Forrest was found beaten to death inside an ambulette he was driving. Police ruled the death a homicide. Forrest was 64.

Forrest co-founded 24-7 Spyz in the South Bronx in 1986. The band gained a following for their genre-jumping approach and high-energy live shows and signed to In-Effect Records. Their debut album Harder Than You dropped in 1988; the lead single was a cover of Kool & The Gang’s “Jungle Boogie.” They followed it with 1990’s Gumbo Millennium, which led to a slot opening for Jane’s Addiction on their Ritual de lo Habitual tour. Forrest left the band after that tour, surprising his bandmates by announcing his departure onstage at the final tour date.

He formed a new band, the P. Fluid Foundation, and later rejoined 24-7 Spyz for 1995’s Temporarily Disconnected, released exclusively in Europe due to the band’s popularity there. He departed the band again after a European tour that year and was not involved with their reunion efforts post-2000. In the 21st century, Forrest started a new band called BlkVampires, who released a song called “Eric Garner.” He was also a founding member of the Black Rock Coalition.

“Music was his life and advancing Black rock was his life,” Forrest’s former girlfriend Chiedza Makonnen told the Daily News. “He was passionate about that. He really helped pave that road for a lot of people to understand that Black musicians aren’t just rappers or R&B or soul, we’re rockers too.”