It is a sad news for Filipinos as the King of Rap, Francis Magalona, has died today, March 6 at 12 noon because of Leukemia he started to battle in August 2008. He is survived by his wife, Pia Arroyo-Magalona and daughter Maxene Magalona.

Bio of Francis as written in Wikipedia:

A sibling of nine brothers and sisters, Francis Magalona was the son of late Philippine movie screen legends Pancho Magalona and Tita Duran. The late Senator Enrique Magalona was his grandfather.

Starting out as a breakdancer in the early 1980s, he followed in his parents footsteps and ventured out into acting, appearing in several Filipino movies; he branched out to emceeing and released the groundbreaking album Yo! in 1990 garnering the nationalistic hit Mga Kababayan (My Countrymen), making Yo! the first commercially released Pinoy rap album in the Philippines.[1] While rapping politically conscious and thought-provoking rhymes in both English and Tagalog, the album was a total success and helped instantly catapult Filipino hip hop from underground to mainstream status and also marked the birth of Makabayang or Nationalistic rap in Filipino hip hop.

Prayers from CelebrityCatch.tv goes to Francis and his family.