British rapper and producer Dot Rotten, who flourished in the grime scene before crossing over to mainstream success, has died aged 37.

The musician, real name Joseph Ellis-Stevenson, reportedly died in the Gambia. His family confirmed the death to the BBC.

Born and raised in south London, Ellis-Stevenson began producing music in childhood and was still a teenager when he released his debut mixtape This Is the Beginning, in 2007. He became celebrated as one of the core beat-makers in the then flourishing grime scene, with tracks such as Petrol Bomb and Bazooka providing heavy yet spry backings for MCs. He released seven volumes of his Rotten Riddims series, plus a number of other mix tapes.

Rotten was an accomplished MC himself, unafraid of combative tracks that clashed with peers such as Wiley, P Money JME and Stormzy over the years. He crossed over to a wider audience after being signed to Mercury Records in 2011, appearing on Ed Sheeran’s No 5 Collaborations Project EP that year as well as an all-star charity record, Teardrop, released to benefit Children in Need. He was nominated for the BBC’s Sound of … poll in 2012, and later that year released his only solo Top 20 hit, Overload, which leaned towards a dubstep sound and sampled Robert Miles’ trance hit Children.

His debut album for Mercury was not a commercial success and Ellis-Stevenson left the label, changed his artist name to Zeph Ellis, and refocused on production. One of his instrumentals, XCXD BXMB, was used by Kano for his hit track Garage Skank, and he also co-produced I See You Shining, a Top 40 hit for Nines.

Lady Leshurr was among the British rap names paying tribute, writing: “My jaw just dropped … rest in perfect peace Dot Rotten, we’ve lost another GOAT [greatest of all time]”.