Rapper and model Chynna Rogers‘ cause of death has been determined to be due to an accidental drug overdose, a spokesperson for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health tells HollywoodLife. The-up-and-coming Philadelphia-born rapper was just 25 when she sadly died on April 8. “I can regrettably confirm Chynna passed away today,” her representative John Miller wrote in an email to HollywoodLife. He went on to add that “Chynna was deeply loved and will be sorely missed” by her family.
Chynna got her start in the entertainment industry at just 14 years old when she was scouted by Ford Models at New Jersey’s Six Flags Great Adventure. The 5’10” beauty ended up at the agency’s New York City office the next day to sign an agreement, and went on to become a fixture at New York Fashion Week. In 2015, she starred in a spring DKNY campaign that ran in a slew of international fashion magazines including Vogue and Elle.
She also had talent beyond the catwalk. As a teenager, Chynna took a chance and reached out to the late A$AP Yams — born Steven Rodriguez — while still a high school student. “I didn’t know the word ‘intern’ yet, but I was like, ‘Do you want someone to follow you around?’” she said in Jan. 2018 interview with Pitchfork. A$AP Yams remains an influential force in music to this day, having had a hand in the careers of A$AP Rocky and A$AP Ferg. After developing a friendship, the A$AP leader encouraged Chynna to try rapping.
She released her first single “Selfie” back in 2013, and which quickly built buzz in the indie scene. She followed up the track with single “Glen Coco” — which got Chris Brown‘s attention — before dropping her first EP in 2015 titled I’m Not Here. This Isn’t Happening. She followed up the project with mixtape Ninety, four-track EP music 2 die 2, and EP in case i die first. She frequently addressed her issues with addiction through her music, and talked openly about it.
“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, ‘B****, you better get high before you start throwing up and acting like a fool,’” she revealed in the same Pitchfork interview. The star went on to be sober for three years. “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 [drugs], because I don’t feel like that,” she said to VIBE magazine at a 2018 Red Bull event. She credited her family for being a support system to help her stay sober, and later opened up about the death of her mother not posing a threat to her sobriety. “My mom would be really tight with me if I used her as excuse to fall off,” she said to Pitchfork in 2018.