Young Dolph and Death in the Music Industry

Young Dolph Performing at the Astroworld Festival in 2019. Source: (SUZANNE CORDEIRO/AFP via Getty Images)

It’s been two months since Adolph Thornton Jr., better known as rapper Young Dolph, was killed during a shooting in his hometown of Memphis, Tennessee. Thornton was shopping at Makeda’s cookies on November 17th when two suspects fired numerous rounds into the store, killing him.

The rapper’s death will be added to the growing list of hip hop artists who have lost their lives prematurely in recent years. Some of those include Pop Smoke, XXXTentacion, Nipsey Hussle, King Von, and more. It seems as though every few months another tragic death occurs and the public must begin the cycle of mourning again.

However, it is not just rappers who often die before they reach old age. The premature deaths of pop artists across numerous genres is a phenomenon that has recently received more attention under an academic lens. Unfortunately, researchers have found that it is nothing new for pop artists to die young. However, some have noted that the ways in which they are dying is indeed unprecedented.

Greg Hall, a physician and professor at Case Western Reserve University, made some concerning discoveries about the 252 people who make up the Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Artists of the rock & roll era. Among those who have died, the average age at death was 49 years old. This is four years below the average life expectancy in the Central African Republic, the country which holds the distinction of having the lowest life expectancy in the world. The study goes on to say that given the average life expectancy of 76 years in the U.S., only 44 of the 252 people on the list should have died by 2016. Instead, 82 have perished from varying causes, nearly double what would be expected.

Another study from professor Dianna Kenny at the University of Sydney with a much larger sample size of over 12,000 popular musicians adds to Professor Hall’s findings. Professor Kenny found that artists were between five and ten times more likely to die from accidental causes, up to seven times more likely to die by suicide, and up to eight times more likely to die by homicide when compared to the general U.S. population. Other interesting findings from Kenny include her dispelling of the popular “27 Club” myth in addition to her discovery that the genre of music that a popular artist belongs to is more of an indicator of their eventual cause of death than their sex or age.

This last finding may provide some insights into the deaths of rappers mentioned earlier, as Kenny found that artists producing music in those two genres were at a significantly higher risk of dying by homicide than the general public.

Source: Dianna Kenny for the Conversation

It is clear that artists in popular genres are dying younger and from different causes than the U.S. population as a whole, but why? A study published in the British Medical Journal found that among deceased musicians, those with more “adverse childhood experiences” (ACEs) were more likely to die from substance abuse or other risk-related causes. Another study from two North American professors found that artists are more likely than the general population as a whole to have lived through these adverse childhood experiences. Combining these two studies, some have posited that perhaps young people are more likely to seek risky careers in the music business to move past these negative childhood experiences, only to fall victim to the long term effects of ACEs later in life.

Fans of rap might be unsatisfied with this broad answer to explain why their favorite artists are passing before reaching old age. For them, it might be more helpful to examine the hip hop industry more closely. The drug-related deaths of Juice WRLD and Lil Peep in addition to the shooting deaths of Pop Smoke and Young Dolph among others shine a light on the fact that the industry rewards risk-taking behavior, further shown by Peep’s explanation of his heavy use of the drug lean as simply part of “the culture.”

Producers and labels in the hip hop industry often seek out artists who they feel embody the risk-taking culture of the genre with disastrous outcomes. Lil Peep’s mother is now suing her son’s management, claiming that they encouraged his use of drugs and even aided the young rapper in obtaining them. Unfortunately, players in the industry also know that these young artists are also to some extent expendable, allowing them to push musicians to their limits knowing that they will be able to replace them with a new SoundCloud rapper in the event of their untimely demise.

Perhaps it is time for policy change aimed at better protecting young artists across all genres from predatory practices in the music businesses. Maybe, premature death is simply a tragic but inevitable consequence of fame and stardom. Whatever the case, it is clear that more needs to be done to protect our artists.