German rapper Denis Cuspert, who once performed as Deso Dogg with DMX, quit performing in 2010 and converted to Islam.
Now The New York Times reports that Cuspert, as an ISIS recruiter in Syria, was killed this month by a U.S. airstrike in Syria.
A State Department release in February called Cusbert a “foreign terrorist fighter” who appeared in several recruiting videos. He apparently held a severed head in one video.
He was two days short of turning 40.
“I can confirm that an Oct. 16 airstrike near Raqqah killed Denis Cuspert,” Elissa Smith, a Department of Defense spokeswoman, said in an email statement Friday. “Cuspert was a foreign terrorist fighter and operative for ISIL who used social media to take advantage of disaffected youth and potential Western recruits.
“His death contributes to our efforts to stop foreign fighter recruitment,” she said.
Anti-Islamophobia campaigner and rap artist “Deso Dogg” dead at 39.
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— Basima Faysal (@BasimaFaysal) October 30, 2015