A spokesperson for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health has confirmed to Billboard that MC/model Chynna Rogers’ official cause of death was an accidental drug overdose. She was 25.
At press time, no further details were available about the nature of Rogers’ death.
“Chynna was deeply loved and will be sorely missed,” her family said in a statement on Thursday. A statement from her management team at True Panther read: “Rest In Peace Chynna. Heartbroken. All the love to those she left behind. Goodbye angel.”
Rogers got her break as a model, signing to Ford Models at the age of 14. Soon after, she became friends with A$AP Mob founder A$AP Yams and New York City awaited. It was the late Yams who gave Rogers the confidence to pursue a career in music.
In the 2013, she enjoyed viral success with “Selfie,” followed by 2014’s “Glen Coco” and her I’m Not Here. This Isn’t Happening EP (a Radiohead reference), in July 2015. Rogers talked openly about her struggles with substance abuse and addressed her addiction with on the 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.”
Billboard has reached out for additional comment.
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