So far, the coronavirus has resulted in nearly 50,000 deaths in the US. Now, the hip-hop community has suffered a loss due to the pandemic: Fred The Godson, who was a 2011 XXL Freshman, has passed away at 35 years old after he was given a COVID-19 diagnosis. A representative of Fred The Godson confirmed the rapper’s death to Complex.
Fred’s last social media post came on April 6, when he shared a photo of himself in a hospital and wearing a ventilator. He wrote, “I’m in here wit this [COVID-19] sh*t! Please keep me in y’all prayers!!!! #godisgreat.” Days before, he shared a photo of himself wearing a face mask and captioned the post, “Good morning y’all! Through it all we all are still “BLESSED” hope I all have a blessed Wednesday!”
On April 8, Fred’s wife, LeeAnn Jemmott, said a doctor told her Fred might not make it, saying, “It was just like — he’s gone and he’s gonna die, that’s it. I don’t even know how I felt, I just felt like I was going to die.”
The next day, Jemmott told XXL the rapper was “progressing” and believed he was “going to make it.” She said, “Fred is currently in the ICU. He is Cov-19 positive on a ventilator. However, he is progressing! He went in having difficulty breathing on Monday evening (April 6). Tuesday morning (April 7), I received a call he was not going to make it because his lungs were not working. He was then put on a ventilator, and as of today (24 hours later), the doctors already weaned him down from 100 percent support to 40 percent support of ventilation. He is fighting and he is winning. He has no sign of infection. His heart is strong and working well. His kidneys have been affected, but as of today, he has started dialysis to clean the toxins out of his blood. Fred is going to make it. God is good!”
Fred had been productive in 2020. In January, he teamed with former SNL star Jay Pharoah to re-imagine the 2011 Denzel Washington film Training Day on an EP of the same name. In March, he also released a new mixtape, Payback.