R.I.P. Philadelphia Rapper Chynna

Tributes to the 25-year-old have poured in from Vince Staples, James Blake, A$AP Mob, Kehlani and more

BY Calum SlingerlandPublished Apr 9, 2020

Philadelphia rapper Chynna Rogers — known best as Chynna — has died. Rogers's family confirmed her passing yesterday (April 8) through management, writing in a statement, "Chynna was deeply loved and will be sorely missed." A cause of death was not revealed. She was 25.

UPDATE (4/9, 4 p.m. ET): NBC News now reports that Chynna died of an accidental drug overdose, per the Philadelphia Department of Public Health.

Chynna Rogers began her career as a model at age 14, after being discovered by a Ford Models scout at the Six Flags Great Adventure amusement park in Jackson, NJ.

At 15, she began a friendship with A$AP Yams after asking to be his intern over Twitter. He would encourage the Philadelphia native to write her own rhymes, and her A$AP Mob affiliation would prove valuable in launching her own career.

Chynna found early success with singles "Selfie" in 2013 and "Glen Coco" in 2014, following with early EPs including 2015's I'm Not Here, This Isn't Happening and 2016's Music 2 Die 2. Her 2016 mixtape Ninety, was released three months after overcoming an opiate addiction.

"I realized I didn't have control of the situation anymore the day that I didn't even feel like getting high, and my body was like, 'Bitch, you better get high before you start throwing up and acting like a fool'," she would tell Pitchfork in 2018. "It was really frustrating. It got to the point where I had to do something just to be able to get onstage and do my job. I didn't like that. That was taking it too far, because it stops being fun and starts being because you have to, and that's when you need to chill."

Chynna's final release was EP in case I die first, which arrived in December. She had toured the effort throughout Europe before the end of 2019.

Find tributes from Chynna's friends and contemporaries below.

Latest Coverage