Music icon Sly Stone, the pioneering bandleader of Sly and the Family Stone, has died after a "prolonged battle" with COPD.

The musician played a leading role in introducing funk, an Afrocentric style of music driven by grooves and syncopated rhythms, to a broader audience through his band Sly And The Family Stone.

The funk music icon died following a "prolonged battle" with COPD and other underlying health issues, his family said.