ANOTHER NAME FROM THE MTV ERA HAS LEFT THE BUILDING: Vanity Dead at 57, Prince Protege Known for ‘Nasty Girl:’

[Denise Katrina Matthews] struggled with drug abuse, which took its toll on her health. At one point she suffered renal failure and, according to a Jet feature on the singer, required peritoneal dialysis five times a day.

Following a 1994 crack cocaine overdose that left her with near-renal failure, Matthews renounced her stage name and became a born-again Christian, at one point saying, “When I came to the Lord Jesus Christ, I threw out about 1,000 tapes of mine — every interview, every tape, every video. Everything.” Following a 1997 kidney transplant, she devoted herself to evangelism, speaking at churches.

RIP.