Over half of dead hip-hop stars were slain
There is much mystery surrounding the death of Tupac Shakur, killed in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas in 1996.
Was Shakur’s murder gang-related? Was it part of the East Coast/ West Coast hip-hop rivalry — perhaps related to the unsolved murder of Christopher Wallace, aka Biggie Smalls?
Few think Shakur’s death was an occupational hazard, however.
But that’s a thesis driving Music to Die For: How Genre Affects Popular Musicians’ Life Expectancy, a piece on the Conversation website written by Dianna Theadora Kenny, professor of psychology and music at the University of Sydney.
Kenny, who examined the deaths of more than 13,000 pop musicians, looked for patterns.
Did blues musicians kill themselves more often than metal musicians? Did country artists die younger than punks?
Among Kenny’s shocking findings: More than 50 per cent of hiphop musicians in her sample were murdered.
“Murder accounted for 6 per cent of deaths across the sample, but was the cause of 51 per cent of deaths in rap musicians and 51.5 per cent of deaths for hip hop musicians, to date,” Kenny wrote.
The rollcall of famous musicians undone before their time is indeed intimidating.
Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, Patsy Cline, Aaliyah: plane crashes.
Kurt Cobain shot himself. Marvin Gaye’s father shot him. Charlie Parker, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Dee Dee Ramone were victims of substance abuse.
Metallica’s Cliff Burton: Bus crash. The Minutemen’s D. Boon, T. Rex’s Marc Bolan, Duane Allman: Car crashes.