Dying is an unfortunate side effect of being a rapper
the average age of a rapper at the time of their death
is under thirty years old.
Some unlucky deaths
occur even earlier than that.
Since rap has such close ties to the gang world,
it's likely that a lot of young rappers
simply haven't become successful enough
to get out of that life before it takes them.
Other rappers get caught up in drug culture and addiction.
Whatever the cause of death,
losing these talented musicians so young is tragic.
Here are some of the best recent rappers
that were gone by the age of 21.
Pop Smoke
Brooklyn-born rapper Pop Smoke
was one of the biggest acts to come into the rap scene in 2019.
Growing up in New York,
he was lucky enough to live around rappers and producers.
He started hanging out with them as a teenager,
learning all about the recording process,
from the equipment to the writing.
He got to know more and more people in the industry,
and with their help,
he started making remixes
and putting them online.
With a lot of positive attention from friends and family,
as well as online fans,
he started writing original songs.
He created a unique sound
that was an immediate hit with listeners.
In July 2019,
Pop Smoke's debut mixtape,
Meet the Woo,
was released under Victor Victor Worldwide
and Republic Records.
It topped out on the Billboard 200 at 105
but did surprisingly well in Denmark,
hitting their number 31 spot.
The lead single,
"Welcome to the Party,"
brought tons of fame and money his way,
and when Nicki Minaj released a remix of it,
his name went mainstream.
Fans wanted more,
so more singles from the tape came out too
"Flexin" and "Dior"
were the top tracks.
On February 7, 2020,
the follow-up mixtape,
Meet the Woo 2,
was released under the same labels
and debuted at an incredible #7
on the US Billboard 200.
With features from Fivio Foreign,
Lil Tjay,
Quavo,
and more fellow rappers,
the mixtape was a massive hit
so big
that five days later,
he released a deluxe edition
with even more features from Nav,
Gunna,
and PnB Rock.
Sadly,
Pop Smoke would only be able to enjoy that success for one week
because on February 19, 2020,
he was shot and killed during a home invasion.
Let's go back to the beginning.
The story of Pop's early death
begins the day before the murder took place.
The rapper was riding the high of the success
of the Meet the Woo series.
He was working with established artists
and was even setting up to work on his debut studio album.
He made a post to Instagram,
showing off a couple of gift bags
that were given to him.
One bag had a tag
that clearly showed his home address.
All of his followers saw it,
and not all of his followers were fans.
A couple of hours later,
he made another IG post
an image of him and a friend
hanging out in his car
in the driveway of his house,
posing with stacks of cash.
The temptation of all that cash
and knowing exactly where to get it
was too much for some teenaged followers,
so a group decided that they'd head over
and take what they wanted.
Four teens
aged 15-19
entered the home with loaded guns
to look for money,
jewelry,
and anything else of value.
They found Pop Smoke alone
and started firing,
hitting the rapper several times.
A friend in the house called 911
as the intruders fled,
and Pop was rushed to
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Hollywood.
He was pronounced dead
a few minutes after arriving at the ER.
All four intruders have caught
murder and robbery charges
and are currently locked up
on one million dollar bail.
Lil Peep
Gustav Elijah Ahr,
aka Lil Peep,
was born in 1996 in Pennsylvania
but grew up mostly in New York.
His father wasn't around much,
but other than that,
he seemed to have a pretty good life.
He went to school and got good grades,
even making the dean's list.
He didn't really like going to school, though,
so he later dropped out,
deciding to get his GED online instead.
Since he didn't have school to deal with,
he was free to make music.
After a while,
he had a pretty healthy following
on YouTube and SoundCloud.
At seventeen,
he got a face tattoo
and moved to Los Angeles to follow his passion for music.
Without any money,
Lil Peep was mostly homeless,
bouncing between friends' couches
and park benches.
But living in LA
exposed him to members of the hip-hop industry
that would help get him started.
With their industry know-how,
he released his debut mixtape,
Lil Peep; Part One,
in 2015.
It grabbed thousands of plays in its first week,
catapulting Peep into real fame.
He joined First Access Entertainment in 2016
in a venture to "invest
and advise him on his career."
In other words,
they would manage him,
make sure he got paid well,
and would take a cut from his success.
With a big company behind him,
he was putting out song after song
and even started touring in 2017.
After that tour was finished,
Peep decided to move to London,
where he could get away from all the drama back home
and just focus on making music.
He recorded a ton,
putting out tons of mixtapes and an EP.
His debut studio album,
Come Over When You're Sober, Pt. 1,
was released on August 15, 2017.
It was his first and only album.
In September 2017,
Lil Peep started his first-ever world tour,
beginning in the UK
before moving on to Germany,
and then back home to the US.
On November 15,
Peep was in Tucson, Arizona,
for a tour stop.
In the hours before the show was supposed to start,
the rapper started posting to Instagram,
saying that he had taken a bunch of magic mushrooms
and concentrated THC.
That might set you up for a bad time,
but it won't kill you,
so people who saw it
didn't overthink it.
But when he started posting about taking a bunch of Xanax pills,
followers were concerned.
He even showed a video clip of him
taking an unidentified pill.
A final post was captioned,
"When I die, you'll love me."
He then went to take a nap just before 6pm.
His manager checked on him a couple times
and found him to be sleeping soundly
and breathing fine.
But the third time he checked,
Peep wasn't breathing.
Medics arrived
and pronounced him dead at the scene.
The final cause of death
was ruled to be an accidental overdose.
He was positive for weed,
cocaine,
painkillers,
and several opioids,
including oxycodone.
Several tributes followed his death at age 21,
with artists like Trippie Redd,
Lil Uzi Vert,
Dua Lipa,
and Post Malone
coming out to give their condolences.
Juice Wrld
Juice Wrld first entered the music scene in Chicago
in 2015
with the track "Forever," at seventeen.
Inspired by a unique blend of musicians,
including Fall Out Boy,
Black Sabbath,
Wu-Tang Clan,
and Megadeth,
he brought "emo rap" to mainstream listeners.
His artistic style was unique in hip hop
and has been called "rock leaning"
and "gender bending."
His lyrics are targeted to broken hearts and hurt feelings,
which converted some rock and punk listeners
to the hip-hop side of music.
But there's a reason his lyrics were so dark and sad
his mother says that he had been dealing with anxiety and depression throughout his life.
He also had a long history of drug abuse.
In an interview that
"drugs open doors to feel emotions
that you probably wouldn't feel.
It can destroy you
utterly destroy you."
He fought hard to stay off pills like
Xanax and Percocet,
saying,
"I smoke weed,
and every now and then,
I slip up
and do something that's poor judgment.
I have a lot going for me."
He did have a lot going for him,
that's true.
In 2017
he managed to get a $3 million record deal
at Interscope Records,
and in 2018,
his first major track,
"Lucid Dreams,"
was released as a single,
and a video was shot.
The song peaked at #2
on the US Billboard Hot 100,
and today,
it is the 20th most streamed song on Spotify
with nearly a billion and a half streams.
It also has 614 million views on YouTube
as of December 2020.
On December 8, 2019,
Juice was leaving Los Angeles to head home to Chicago.
However,
local police had been tipped off
that the private plane taking Juice and his crew
to Midway International Airport
was also bringing a lot of illegal items,
like weapons and drugs.
Law enforcement was waiting when the plane arrived,
and they jumped on board to do a search.
Juice got a bit freaked out
by what they were going to find on him,
so he swallowed a bunch of prescriptionless Percocet pills
to hide them.
The police found three handguns
and seventy pounds of marijuana on the plane,
but they hadn't even finished their search before things went south.
While the cops were searching,
Juice WRLD started having a seizure.
They suspected that it was due to an opioid overdose,
which was correct,
and gave him two doses of Narcan.
They were able to get him to the hospital,
but he was pronounced dead soon after arriving.
A month later,
it was found that he had over- -dosed on oxycodone and codeine.
There was controversy following the rapper's death
when Louisiana rapper Boosie Badazz
blamed the pilot for Juice's death.
the one who told the ****** people who had guns on the plane
you the one that made em
to ****** people come search the plane
ask why he swallowed that shit
the rat
the ***** snithches
it's a worldwide ***** epidemic
snitches
When the pilot noticed what his passengers were bringing on board
like a large number of drugs and guns
he contacted authorities.
That's how the police knew to be waiting for the plane.
Boosie went so far as to threaten the pilot
with violence in an interview.
I want to beat that pilot ***** ass
somebody need to beat that ***** pilot ass bro
Juice's mother hopes that her son's death
will help others in their fight against addiction,
saying,
"Addiction knows no boundaries,
and its impact goes beyond the person fighting it."
She later started the Live Free 999 Fund
to support programs for disadvantaged youth
and other underserved groups in her son's memory.
They focus on addiction treatment
and counseling for anxiety and depression.
Well, that's all for today!
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