Jimmy Spicer, who in the protean era of recorded hip-hop released a handful of songs that would become part of the genre’s bedrock, died on Friday in a Brooklyn hospital. He was 61.

His daughter Leticia Ricks said the cause was lung and brain cancer. Mr. Spicer disclosed his cancer diagnosis in the summer of 2018 and began a crowdfunding campaign to help pay for his treatments.

His rap career was brief, and his songs were sparsely released, but they featured phrases and tropes that would enter hip-hop’s core catalog.

His debut single, “Adventures of Super Rhyme (Rap),” released in 1980, was part of the first wave of hip-hop singles that arrived in the wake of Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight,” and is widely regarded as the first true storytelling rap.