Houston rapper who gave the southern US states their own version of gangsta rap had been recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer

Bushwick Bill, a rapper with influential rap group Geto Boys, has died aged 52. He had been recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Bushwick Bill was born Richard Shaw in Jamaica, moving first to New York before settling in Houston. His Geto Boys career started first as a dancer, calling himself Little Billy – a play on his dwarfism – later becoming a rapper and forming the classic lineup of the group alongside rappers Scarface and Willie D.

The group became notorious for their occasionally ultra-violent “horrorcore” lyrics, though they also frequently wrote about social issues, from opposing the first Gulf war to deprivation and police brutality. They broke into the US mainstream in 1991 with their track Mind Playing Tricks on Me, and became hugely influential for creating a southern US flavour to gangsta rap.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Bushwick Bill performing in Chicago in 1992. Photograph: Raymond Boyd/Getty Images

Geto Boys had their biggest chart success in 1996 with the album The Resurrection, which reached No 6 in the US charts, while in 1999, they earned a new audience through prominent use of their songs in the cult film comedy Office Space.

In 1991, Bill lost an eye after accidentally shooting himself in an argument with his girlfriend. He was pronounced dead, but later regained consciousness while in the hospital morgue. “My toe was tagged and they were pushing me in the drawer,” he recalled in a 2014 interview. “I looked both ways and I saw frozen people to the left and frozen people to the right. I thought I was dreaming, then I saw people in front of me pushing the door closed and I was like, ‘Yo!’” Following his cancer diagnosis this year, he said: “It’s not like I’m afraid of dying, because … I died and came back already, in June 1991. I know what it’s like on the other side.”

A Geto Boys reunion tour had been announced earlier this year, but was cancelled in late May.

Bill’s death was reported prematurely, with his son writing on Instagram on Sunday: “My dad IS NOT dead, he’s still alive and fighting for his life. He needs your continued prayers and support. Certain people have been so quick to write him off as dead so they can capitalize off it.” His publicist has confirmed he died later that evening.