The specter of death was constant in Chynna’s life and music. Three years ago, she attracted a cult following with a record called music 2 die 2; her final project, released last year, was named in case i die first. With songs like “seasonal depression,” “Flatline,” and “Reaper,” her music was often shrouded in melancholy. In 2016, she battled with opioid addiction and seemingly won, marking three months of sobriety with her cloudy EP, Ninety; the following year, her mother, Wendy Payne, passed away at 51. She had lost many friends—including her mentor, A$AP Yams—before that.

Chynna, whose full name was Chynna Rogers, died on April 8. Her cause of death was an accidental drug overdose. She was 25.

“We need to be able to cope and deal with it more,” she once said when asked about her preoccupation with death. “It’s just a part of life.”

But things feel especially hard right now, after a parade of deaths in music and countrywide lockdowns to mitigate the spread of a deadly virus. “We can’t even go to funerals,” fellow Philadelphia rapper Tierra Whack pointed out shortly after news of Chynna’s passing broke. But we can revisit her discography, which includes music to think to, music to mourn to, and music to live to.

“Selfie” (2013)

Chynna cruises on a glittery old school beat on this hookless early single, rapping with a cool relentlessness for more than three minutes straight. She’s Philly to the core, big upping local legends State Property in her bars and fawning over a perfect hoagie in the video. While her music would become less traditional moving forward, here, she proves herself to have a solid foundation in hip-hop.

“Regina George” (2015)

On this track from 2015’s I’m Not Here. This Isn’t Happening, the haze that covered Ninety and music 2 die 2 hadn’t set in yet. Chynna is awake, confident, and bloodthirsty: “Know I’m a deity, nigga don’t play dumb/You calling out for me, might need a seance,” she spits.

“So Much More” (2016)

Ninety’s “So Much More” stands out as a lovelorn and optimistic kicker to a project that creeps with lethargy. “A lot of it was written at the darkest times of my opiate use,” Chynna said. Over spaced out snaps and crunchy synths, she musters what little energy she has left to tell someone, “I want to see you this weekend/Still feel your energy when we not speaking.../I love you so much more than what I bargained for.”

“practice” (2017)

On “practice,” you can hear the influence of Chynna’s A$AP Mob brothers. In the chaos of sirens and distorted sounds, she maintains mafiosa insolence. There aren’t many women in rap who can match her combination of lyrical proficiency and genuine angst, and she knows it. “You an actress/You a bitch/Hit for practice, kill for kicks,” she says, shrugging off the competition.

“asmr” (2019)

The rapper’s mischievous smiles in the video for “asmr,” from her final release, would seem to contradict the song’s sense of resignation. But that resignation also sounds a lot like peace. “Shit ain’t bad forever, is it though?” she raps. “It’s too bad you didn’t get it though.”