Rapper and Model Chynna Dead at 25

Chynna Rogers, the Philadelphia rapper and model best known as just “Chynna,” has died. Rogers’ family confirmed her death in a statement, saying that “Chynna was deeply loved and will be sorely missed.”

Rogers’ death comes just four months after the release of her EP, If I Die First. According to Pitchfork:

Rogers began her career as a model, signing with Ford Models when she was 14. She found a mentor in A$AP Yams as a teenager, and her affiliation with the A$AP Mob ignited her efforts to build a career as a rapper. She released her first singles in the early ’10s, finding online success quickly with 2013’s “Selfie” and 2014’s “Glen Coco.” She followed those with a few EPs, including 2015’s I’m Not Here. This Isn’t Happening and 2016’s music 2 die 2. She later said her music was “for angry people with too much pride to show how angry they are.”

Rogers had been open about her struggles with substance abuse, both in interviews and on her 2016 mixtape, Ninety:

“I felt crazy. I didn’t want to be a statistic. I didn’t want to go out that way and people be like: ‘I told you so,” or glamorize it [drugs], because I don’t feel like that,” the The “Seasonal Depression” rapper told VIBE in 2018, several years after getting clean. “It was nerve-wracking to be open, but when you see how many more people who are dealing with the same thing, it’s good to have some kind of example of someone you didn’t expect to be going through it.”