Mortality in American Hip-Hop and XXXX Recording Artists, 1987-2014.

@entity1 @entity541 @entity5 @entity299 @entity204 @entity166 @entity130
BACKGROUND: The deaths of American hip-hop and @entity541 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 @entity541 music recording artists. METHODS: Media reports were analyzed of the deaths of American hip-hop and @entity541 music recording artists that occurred from January 1, 1987 to December 31, 2014. The decedents' age, sex, race, cause of @entity204 , stage names, and city and state of @entity204 were recorded for analysis. RESULTS: The most commonly reported cause of @entity204 was homicide. The 280 deaths were categorized as homicide (55%), @entity130 (13%), cardiovascular (7%), undetermined/undisclosed (7%), @entity5 (6%), other (5%), suicide (4%), and @entity166 (3%). The mean reported age at @entity204 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 @entity204 . Public health focus and guidance for @entity541 recording artists should mirror that for African-American @entity1 and adolescent males ages 15-54 yrs, for whom the leading causes of @entity204 are homicide, @entity130 , and @entity299 . Given the preponderance of homicide deaths in this analysis, premature mortality reduction efforts should focus on violence prevention and conflict mitigation.
