The Tragic Death Of Rapper JayDaYoungan

At just 24 years old, Javorius Scott set himself up for a prominent rap career. According to HollywoodLife, he dropped out of high school at 18 to focus his efforts on the music industry, and began making songs under his stage name, JayDaYougan. His ambition and confidence paid off: At age 20, his album "Forever 23" made it onto Billboard's Top 200 chart.

In the subsequent years, the rapper's popularity would continue to grow. "23 Island," a single off of his 2019 album, garnered over 121 million streams on Spotify. His following on the platform grew to 1.3 million monthly listeners. 

Tragically, JayDaYoungan's up-and-coming career was cut far too short. News broke on July 27 that the rapper was in the hospital with life-threatening injuries. Later that night, it was revealed that he had died. The rapper, who was considered for a spot in XXL Magazine's 2018 freshman class of emerging artists, is now having his death reported on by the very same outlet. 

According to NBC News, JayDaYoungan was shot on the evening of July 27 in his hometown of Bogalusa, Louisiana. In 2019, the rapper seemed to make reference to the somewhat dangerous nature of his birthplace, which has a violent crime rate over double the national average. "You gotta know what you doing," he said in a video with Genius. "And if you ain't from the trenches, just stay away from the trenches."

According to TMZ, the Bogalusa police department was alerted to a shooting at around 6 p.m. During the incident, both JayDaYoungan and Kenyatta Scott Sr. — a man identified by the PD as a "close family member" in a Facebook press release — were hit. While the rapper succumbed to his injuries at the hospital, the latter was reported to be in stable condition. 

Although no motive or suspect has been made known to the public, XXL Magazine noted there was an additional shooting that night that police thought could be related. The outlet also drew attention to the rapper's sister on Twitter, who has released a series of heartbreaking messages following the news. "I can't believe I'm even typing this," read one. "[L]iterally my brother .. my brother ... my eyes are so puffed out. I can't stop crying .. why did you leave me like this babe."