US rapper Cassidy in car crash

Cassidy's album Split Personality reached number two in the US

US rapper Cassidy is in intensive care in hospital with a fractured skull following a car crash in New York.

Doctors do not believe his injuries are life-threatening. The star was hurt in a crash involving his car and a truck near a recording studio he uses.

A performance alongside Jennifer Lopez scheduled for December will not go ahead, his spokesperson said.

Cassidy, real name Barry Reese, served eight months in prison for involuntary manslaughter and aggravated assault.

Swizz Beats, the rapper's producer and friend, told BBC 1Xtra: "I'm not trying to get too excited about the situation and I want to stay focused and be able to keep everybody else focused and calm."

According to Beats, Cassidy had just finished a new album.

The artist was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and aggravated assault in January, after a man was shot dead behind his house in Philadelphia.

Cassidy had been grossly negligent for supplying guns that killed Desmond Hawkins, said the judge at the trial.