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Chris Kelly‘s Kris Kross partner Chris Smith and music producer Jermaine Dupri, who discovered the ’90s rap duo in a shopping mall when they were teens, were among the mourners gathered at the funeral for Kelly in Atlanta on Thursday afternoon.
Services, held at Jackson Memorial Baptist Church, also drew rapper Da Brat and sisters LaTocha and Tamika Scott, formerly of the band Xscape, The Associated Press reports.
“He just wanted to smile,” said Tamika Scott of Kelly, 34, who died May 1 of an apparent drug overdose.
“That’s all he wanted. He was known to be a happy person,” she added.
Kris Kross soared to fame with the multi-platinum 1992 album Totally Krossed Out, which included the No. 1 hit “Jump,” among others. Earlier this year, Kelly and Smith — who were known for wearing their clothes backwards and baggy — performed at the 20th anniversary party for Jermaine Dupri’s So So Def label.
“To the world Chris was MacDaddy but to me, he was a son I never had,” Dupri said in a statement last week. “As much as you may think I taught him, he taught me. God has blessed me to be in the presence of so many naturally talented people, and Chris was one.”
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