Lawson Carl J
Detroit, MI, USA.
Med Probl Perform Art. 2015 Dec;30(4):211-6. doi: 10.21091/mppa.2015.4039.
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.
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.
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.
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.
美国嘻哈和说唱音乐录制艺术家的死亡常常受到媒体的广泛关注。然而，与摇滚、古典、爵士和流行音乐艺术家的死亡不同，这些艺术家的死亡尚未作为一个独特的群体进行研究。这是对一个研究不足的群体——美国嘻哈和说唱音乐录制艺术家的死亡情况进行的开创性流行病学分析。
对1987年1月1日至2014年12月31日期间发生的美国嘻哈和说唱音乐录制艺术家死亡的媒体报道进行分析。记录死者的年龄、性别、种族、死因、艺名以及死亡的城市和州，以便进行分析。
最常报道的死因是他杀。这280例死亡被分类为他杀（55%）、意外伤害（13%）、心血管疾病（7%）、死因不明/未披露（7%）、癌症（6%）、其他（5%）、自杀（4%）和传染病（3%）。报告的平均死亡年龄为30岁（范围15 - 75岁），中位数为29岁；97%为男性，92%为黑人。除一起他杀案件外，其他所有他杀案件均使用枪支作案。
他杀是最常报道的死因。针对嘻哈和说唱音乐录制艺术家的公共卫生关注和指导应与针对非裔美国男性以及15 - 54岁青少年男性的关注和指导相同，因为这些人群的主要死因是他杀、意外伤害和心脏病。鉴于本次分析中他杀死亡占多数，降低过早死亡率的努力应集中在预防暴力和缓解冲突上。
