Attrell Cordes, aka Prince Be, dead: PM Dawn co-founder dies at 46

Attrell Cordes, better known as Prince Be of P.M. Dawn, has passed away at the age of 46.

The singer-rapper, who suffered from diabetes, died of kidney disease at a New Jersey hospital on Friday, his rep confirmed to PEOPLE.

The news was also confirmed on the band’s Facebook page, by Cordes’ cousin, Gregory Lewis Carr II — whose stage name is Doc. G: “Prince Be Rest In Peace Forever More, Pain from diabetes can’t harm you anymore,” he wrote. “My Heart is at Peace B-Cuz U suffered so long, Tell Grandma I said Hi & Stay Blisstatic & Strong. -Love Doc.G”.”

Cordes formed P.M. Dawn in New Jersey in the late ’80s with his brother Jarrett (a.k.a. DJ Minutemix), and with their brand of hip-hop and R&B, they shot to fame in 1991 with the critically admired gold album Of the Heart, of the Soul and of the Cross: The Utopian Experience. The album’s second single, “Set Adrift on Memory Bliss,” which sampled Spandau Ballet’s “True,” hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The 1992 single “I’d Die Without You” (which appeared on the soundtrack for the Eddie Murphy film Boomerang as well as on 1993’s The Bliss Album…?), hit No. 3, and another Bliss Album single, “Looking Through Patient Eyes,” reached No. 6.

P.M. Dawn would release two more studio albums in the 1990s that did not achieve the same commercial success. Despite suffering a stroke in 2005, Cordes appeared with P.M. Dawn on NBC’s music competition series Hit Me, Baby, One More Time later that year.

He is survived by wife Mary and children Christian, Mia, and Brandon.