Mortality in American Hip-Hop and Rap Recording Artists, 1987-2014
BACKGROUND:
The
deaths of American hip-hop and rap recording artists often receive considerable
media attention. However, these artists' deaths have not been examined as a
distinct group like the deaths of rock, classical, jazz, and pop music artists.
This is a seminal epidemiological analysis on the deaths of an understudied
group, American hip-hop and rap music recording artists.
METHODS:
Media
reports were analyzed of the deaths of American hip-hop and rap music recording
artists that occurred from January 1, 1987 to December 31, 2014. The decedents'
age, sex, race, cause of death, stage names, and city and state of death were
recorded for analysis.
RESULTS:
The most
commonly reported cause of death was homicide. The 280 deaths were categorized
as homicide (55%), unintentional injury (13%), cardiovascular (7%),
undetermined/undisclosed (7%), cancer (6%), other (5%), suicide (4%), and
infectious disease (3%). The mean reported age at death was 30 yrs (range
15-75) and the median was 29 yrs; 97% were male and 92% were black. All but one
of the homicides were committed with firearms.
CONCLUSIONS:
Homicide
was the most commonly reported cause of death. Public health focus and guidance
for hip-hop and rap recording artists should mirror that for African-American
men and adolescent males ages 15-54 yrs, for whom the leading causes of death
are homicide, unintentional injury, and heart disease. Given the preponderance
of homicide deaths in this analysis, premature mortality reduction efforts
should focus on violence prevention and conflict mitigation.
- 1Detroit, MI, USA. GlobalLawson@gmail.com.
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