Fresh Kid Ice
Fresh Kid Ice performs with the 2 Live Crew perform onstage at the 2010 Vh1 Hip Hop Honours at Hammerstein Ballroom in 2010 in New York City. Getty

Rapper Fresh Kid Ice has died aged 53 in a Miami hospital, it has been reported.

He helped form hip-hop group 2 Live Crew in the 1980s, after he joined forces with DJ Mr Mixx and Amazing Vee and later, Luther Campbell.

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His real name was Chris Wong Won and he was considered a pioneer for Asian rappers.

His group's seminal album, As Nasty As They Wanna Be, was the first ever to be deemed legally obscene by the government and he was arrested with fellow group member Campbell after a live performance in Florida 1990.

The Supreme Court ruled in favour with 2 Live Crew in 1992 but the case led to parental advisory labels on album covers.

Suffering from unspecified health issues, Won died at 7.50am on Thursday (13 July) in a Miami hospital the group's manager said, according to TMZ.

In an interview he gave the Miami New Times in 2014, Won said his group's music had value even if the authorities did not like it.

"Our music is party music told in the way that guys and females talk behind closed doors. It's locker room talk, and we knew it was protected under the First Amendment."

Campbell tweeted: "People we lost a legend."