Model and rising hip-hop artist Chynna Rogers died of an accidental drug overdose in her native Philadelphia on Wednesday, a representative from the Philadelphia Department of Public Health told TheWrap on Thursday. She was 25.
Rogers was born in Philadelphia but also lived at the time of her death in Bushwick, Brooklyn. In the past, Rogers had been open about her battles with opioid addiction.
Rogers’ manager John Miller confirmed the hip-hop artist’s passing in an email to TheWrap on Wednesday and also issued a statement via her family saying, “Chynna was deeply loved and will be sorely missed.”
Rogers began her modeling career at age 14 after she was discovered and signed by Ford Models. Her music career started just a year later, when she linked up with Harlem-based rap collective A$AP Mob (which counts rap star A$AP Rocky among its most notable members). Rogers’ early singles, “Glen Coco” and “Selfie”, released in 2013 and 2014, drew millions of views on YouTube and soon became viral hits. She released her debut EP, “Ninety,” in 2016 shortly after her 22nd birthday.
Rogers’ January release, an EP called “in case i die first,” drew praise from reviewers including Pitchfork, which described her work as “letting the world in on a late-night car-ride therapy session, full of convoluted, introspective thoughts where Chynna is both the shrink and patient.”
A 2018 Pitchfork feature on Rogers described her struggles with drug addiction: “In early 2016, as her music was racking up thousands of streams and views, Chynna was in the throes of an opiate addiction: the result, she says, of suppressing negative feelings rather than facing them head-on.”
Samson Amore contributed to this report.