Rich Cronin

Rich Cronin (born August 30, 1974, West Roxbury, Boston, Massachusetts - died September 8, 2010) was an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and producer. He was a founding member of Lyte Funkie Ones (LFO) and served as the primary songwriter. In 2002, LFO took a hiatus. Rich formed the band Bad Mood Mike and toured with O-Town. He also wrote songs for Aaron Carter, Brooke Hogan, and the group Natural (2). In 2006, the Jonas Brothers covered his song "6 Minutes" from LFO's second album. He also had an acting role on the TV show Raising Dad (2001-02) during this time. In 2005, he was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia and underwent stem cell transplantation. By 2006 his cancer was in remission. In 2006, Rich partnered with Doug Ray (Toothpick (2) from the pop-rap group Bad Ronald) to create the hip-hop group Loose Cannons (10). They branded their style of hip-hop as "frat rap". In addition to putting on live shows, they made a cameo in the movie Community College (2009). Rich joined the VH1 reality show Mission Man Band, which aired from 2007 to 2008. The show had Rich living in the same house as Bryan Abrams of Color Me Badd, Jeffrey Timmons of 98 Degrees, and Chris Kirkpatrick of *NSYNC. They went on to form the supergroup Sureshot and collaborated with R&B producer Bryan-Michael Cox. This collaboration resulted in the songs Story of My Life, Work That Out, and Withoutcha, which were featured on the show, but not commercially released. In 2009, LFO reunited for their Boys of Summer tour, which also featured indie rock and acoustic acts like Rookie Of The Year, Go Crash Audio, and Kiernan Mcmullan. In the summer of 2010, Cronin suffered a relapse and passed away on September 8, 2010. Prior to his passing, he established The Rich Cronin Hope Foundation for Leukemia. The Foundation is dedicated to the care, compassion and life enrichment of individuals and families impacted by leukemia. The crux of its mission is to promote awareness about the disease and the simple ways healthy individuals can potentially save a life. The foundation is still actively adding donors to the Be the Match registry through bone marrow drives. About a week after his passing, his single "It Only Gets Better" was released.