*The cause of death of 25-year-old up-and-coming rapper and model Chynna has been revealed.
A spokesperson for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health tells PEOPLE that the young artist — born Chynna Rogers, who passed away in her home in Philadelphia on Wednesday, died of an accidental drug overdose.
The Philadelphia native began her career as a model when she was 14 after signing with the famed Ford Models. She hit the music scene in 2013 after she released her hit track “Selfie” and “Glen Coco” in 2014. Chynna released her first EP, “I’m Not Here. This Isn’t Happening” in 2015 and followed up with “music 2 die 2” in 2016.
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She opened up about her struggles with drug addiction in a 2018 interview with Pitchfork.
“I usually don’t express myself or get open about things until it’s in hindsight, and I’m not dealing with it anymore. That’s why I didn’t tell people that I was a drug addict until I got out of rehab,” she told the outlet. “I see a lot of artists decide they want to go through s— with their fans, and that’s cool because it gives your fans something to hold onto. But I need to handle it myself first, and then, when I’ve figured out how I want to word it, we can talk about it — y’all not about to go through it with me.”
She continued, “I did end up talking about it, because there are a lot more people dealing with this s— than you think, and they should know that someone who looks like me or does this could have the same problem as the fiend on the corner.”
Chyna also said of her past addiction problems: “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 released her final EP, titled “in case i die first,” in December 2019.
“Chynna was deeply loved and will be sorely missed,” her family shared with PEOPLE in a statement.
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