Born Denise Matthews, she rose to fame in the 80s when she was discovered by Prince, and he selected her to lead the new "girl group" he founded, Vanity 6. While the group didn't cross over to the pop charts in a big way, they did place a few singles in the R&B and Dance Music charts. Their most successful was their debut single, "Nasty Girl".
Vanity then left Vanity 6, and recorded two solo CDs. Each one managed to put hits onto the R&B and Dance charts, most notoriously "Pretty Mess", which was a song about her lover leaving a "pretty mess" on her dress.
A few months ago she set up a GoFundMe page, and said she'd been diagnosed with sclerosing encapsulating peritonitis -- an inflammation of the small intestines. She also battled crack addiction in the '90s, and after a 1994 OD her kidneys were shot. She had to undergo nearly daily dialysis treatments.