The topic of death is a recurring theme in popular music, and hip-hop is no different.
Over the years, there have been a number of rappers who have seemingly predicted their
own deaths.
Here is just a sampling of those artists who foretold their own fates.
Fans were shocked and saddened when Chicago rapper-singer Juice Wrld passed away on December
8, 2019 at the age of 21 from an accidental drug overdose.
While he was alive, he didn't shy away from his battle with addiction.
During a 2019 appearance on the No Jumper podcast, he spoke about first being introduced
to drugs, as he revealed,
"It was something that I was into early, lowkey, due to music, 'cause I was a music head, so
like in sixth grade, seventh grade, I'm hearing songs about sipping lean."
Lean is a drink made up of cough syrup, Sprite, and occasionally hard candy that has been
referenced in lyrics by multiple rappers.
Juice Wrld also named Atlanta rapper Future as someone who influenced him to experiment
with drugs, as Future's music made him want to sip lean when he was about 11 or 12.
Juice Wrld referenced his drug struggles in his own music, on songs like "Lean Wit Me,"
"Different," and, "Legends."
In the latter, he mentions not making it past 21, and he also references the 27 Club, a
group of musicians like Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, and Jimi Hendrix who died at the age
of 27.
XXXTentacion was fatally gunned down at the age of 20 during a robbery attempt on June
18, 2018, in Deerfield Beach, Florida.
He'd seemingly predicted his own death in an Instagram Live video, in which he said,
"If [I die] and I'm not able to see out my dreams, I at least want to know that the kids
perceived my message and were able to make something of themselves and able to take my
message and use it and turn it into something positive and to at least have a good life."
"If I'm gonna die or ever be a sacrifice, I want to make sure that my life made at least
5 million kids happy."
Before he made that video, X made a name for himself by addressing topics like loneliness
and depression, while connecting with fans who related to his music.
He also suffered through some legal troubles, like an arrest for domestic battery in 2016,
but his star was growing in the music industry, as he managed to release two albums before
his death.
A month after his passing, four men were indicted for the shooting.
April 25, 2002 was a dark day for the music world, as that was the day that TLC's Lisa
"Left Eye" Lopes was killed in a car crash at the age of 30.
It was the second car accident she'd been involved in in a matter of weeks, as she was
also in a van that struck and killed a 10-year-old boy less than a month earlier.
Lopes' brother Ronald spoke about her final days in the TV special Autopsy: The Last Hours
of Lisa Left Eye Lopes, as he noted that Lisa associated the boy's death with what she felt
was her own impending demise.
"I think Lisa felt like death was coming.
Maybe it got this boy by accident instead of her."
Several months before her death, it was reported that Lopes signed a record deal with Tha Row,
a label started by Suge Knight after he launched Death Row Records.
There were also reportedly tensions between Lopes and her fellow TLC members Tionne "T-Boz"
Watkins and Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas around that time, which Thomas addressed after Lopes's
death.
As she put it on CNN's TalkBack Live in 2002,
"She was our sister, you know?
And no matter what we went through, we're sisters.
You know sisters argue, and they kiss and make up and that's just how our relationship
was...Through us, people will always remember Lisa.
We'll always be a group.
It doesn't stop."
Mac Miller was adored by his legions of fans, which was abundantly clear from the long lines
at exhibitions held for him in various cities after his death.
When he passed away from an accidental drug overdose on September 7, 2018 at the age of
26, plenty of people mourned the loss.
While he was alive, he was often candid about his drug use, and in 2015, he told Billboard
that he was afraid that drugs would kill him.
As he put it,
"It just eats at your mind, doing drugs every single day, every second."
Miller was also open about his struggles with substance abuse in his music.
In his song "What Do You Do," off his 2014 mixtape Faces, he mentioned another celebrity
who struggled with addiction, as he rapped,
"A drug habit like Philip Hoffman will probably put me in a coffin."
In 2014, Philip Seymour Hoffman died of acute mixed drug intoxication at the age of 46,
making his and Miller's ends eerily similar.
There have been a lot of rappers who died far too young, but not many of them have achieved
the mythical status of someone like Tupac Shakur.
On September 7, 1996, he was shot in Las Vegas while driving with former Death Row Records
head Suge Knight.
He died less than a week later.
He was only 25.
Throughout much of his career, he talked openly about death.
The music video for his song "I Ain't Mad at Cha," which was released shortly after
his passing, features him being shot and killed after leaving a party with actor Bokeem Woodbine.
As Woodbine recalled to XXL in 2011,
"It was even more eerie because we shot it probably six months before it was released
[...] About a week or two after he passed [and] they dropped it.
And I was like, 'Wow, I don't even have the words for it.'
Even to this day, it's definitely eerie."
Shakur also seemed to predict his own death during a 1994 interview with Entertainment
Weekly.
When he was asked where he saw himself in 15 years, he replied,
"Best case [scenario]?
In a cemetery.
Not in a cemetery sprinkled, in ashes smoked up by my homies."
Proof was a staple in Detroit's hip-hop scene before becoming nationally famous.
He was also a standout member of the group D12 and Eminem's best friend.
But on April 11, 2006, he was tragically gunned down at C.C.C. club on Detroit's 8 Mile Road.
Before his death, he predicted his fate in the D12 song "40 Oz.," as he rapped,
"I'm in the club to beef, you gotta murder me dead."
During the incident that led to Proof's death, he got into a verbal altercation with a man
named Keith Bender Jr. over a pool game around 4:30 A.M.
Proof then allegedly shot Bender, and then Bender's cousin Mario Etheridge, who was also
the club's bouncer, opened fire on Proof.
Days later, it was reported that Proof's lawyer refuted police reports that claimed he shot
first.
Around that same time, Eminem addressed his friend's death in a statement:
"You don't know where to begin when you lose somebody who's been such a big part of your
life for so long.
Proof and I were brothers.
He pushed me to become who I am.
[...] Not a day will go by without his spirit and influence around us all.
He will be missed as a friend, father and both the heart and ambassador of Detroit hip-hop."
Mobb Deep member Prodigy was known for crafting gritty street tales that were just as vivid
as any big screen crime drama.
But behind the music, he suffered from sickle cell anemia, a condition in which cells don't
get enough oxygen and then change into the shape of a sickle.
This illness is known to cause a lot of pain, which the New York rapper talked a lot about
while he was alive.
He passed away in Las Vegas on June 20, 2017 at the age of 42 from accidentally choking
on an egg while hospitalized for his sickle cell.
In 2017, Prodigy talked about seeing a mysterious figure during an interview on the Viceland
show The Therapist.
He didn't think that the image meant death was coming for him, but it scared him nonetheless.
As he recalled,
"When I laid down to go to sleep, all the lights would go off in my room, and I'm laying
there, and I seen a black shadow walk across my room.
The only way I can describe what it looked like, it looked like a black Spider-Man."
Lil Peep passed away in Tucson, Arizona on November 15, 2017 at the age of 21 in an accidental
drug overdose.
He was in the city at the time to perform at a concert.
He's yet another rapper who predicted his own death in a song, one in which he also
seemed to be crying out for help, as he rapped on "Tonight":
"I need help, real soon I'ma die in my room."
Peep's official cause of death was the "combined toxic effects of fentanyl and alprazolam,"
while other drugs like Xanax and cocaine were also found in his system.
He spoke about his drug use during a 2017 interview, as he said that he was getting
something of a grip on his addiction.
As he explained,
"I have horrible anxiety.
That's why I took a Xanax before this interview.
I used to abuse it really badly [...] I was really bad earlier this year, and last year,
and the year before that.
I feel better now.
Being in London helps a lot, away from L.A.
All the drugs are free in L.A. I mean, they're still free here, there's just less of them."
The Notorious B.I.G. talked about his death pretty much from the start of his career.
He was ultimately gunned down at the age of 24 while leaving a party in Los Angeles on
March 9, 1997.
His 1994 debut album is titled Ready To Die, so that's obviously one big example of mortality
being a major topic for him.
On that particular record, he rapped about death on tracks like "Suicidal Thoughts."
And his second album, Life After Death, which was released a little over two weeks after
his passing, includes songs like "You're Nobody (Til Somebody Kills You)."
But perhaps the biggest prediction of his death occurred during an interview that was
shown on A&E's Biggie: The Life of Notorious B.I.G.
"I think somebody's trying to kill me.
I be waking up paranoid.
I be really scared."
To this day, there haven't been any arrests made in relation to Biggie's homicide, although
multiple theories about who was behind the shooting have been put forth.
Meanwhile, his friend and collaborator Sean "Diddy" Combs, who was in a separate vehicle
when Biggie was killed, has experienced survivor's guilt.
"I think I'll always feel some sort of, you know responsibility because I'm in this thing
with him.
You know what I'm saying?
He's my artist."
Theodore Joseph Jones III, known in rap circles as Young Greatness, was shot and killed on
October 29, 2018, in his hometown of New Orleans.
"You wouldn't expect that coming- happening with him, you know, 'cause dude wasn't into
nothing but his music, and his daughter."
The rapper, who had record deals with Quality Control Music and Cash Money Records, reportedly
moved to Houston because of the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina.
He was back in town at the time for a funeral.
Greatness was apparently concerned for his safety in New Orleans, but he nevertheless
decided to return, despite hearing about violent threats against him.
During a 2016 interview with DJ Vlad, he mentioned the possibility of being killed.
As he put it,
"If I have to go see my kids or I have to go see my auntie or I have to go see my grandmother
or my mother, that's what I'm going to do.
I don't care who's saying what or who's saying they're going to do what.
I'm going to have to die going out brave."
In March of 2019, three individuals were arrested in connection to Greatness' death: 38-year-old
Donald Reaux, 18-year-old Donny Maxwell, and 16-year-old Lovance Wix Wix.
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse and mental health, please
contact SAMHSA's 24-hour National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357)