A Canadian rapper met an untimely death while filming a daring music video that involved rapping while on the wing of a plane.
Jon James McMurray, who is known by his stage name Jon James, was with a team filming videos of plane stunts and parachuting on Saturday.
Ryan Desrochers, McMurray’s manager, said that the 34-year-old rapper had trained intensively for the stunt. Rory Wayne Bushfield, a friend of McMurray who knew him since childhood, also said that the rapper trained for months.
Unfortunately, as McMurray walked farther out onto the wing of the small Cessna plane, the aircraft went into a downward spiral that the pilot could not correct.
“He planned for everything,” Bushfield said, according to The Star . “It should have been straightforward. It’s one of those things. We’re not really sure what happened.”
The pilot and the plane landed safely but McMurray died instantly after he fell off the plane’s wing. The musician’s body was found in a Westwold hay field, northwest of Vernon.
“His final act included performing an airplane stunt that included rapping while walking on the wing,” Desrochers said, according to USA Today . “Jon held onto the wing until it was too late, and by the time he let go, he didn’t have time to pull his chute. He impacted and died instantly.”
McMurray was known for incorporating stunts into his music videos.
The rapper was born in Calgary. He became an accredited professional skier but after suffering from broken back and shattered heel, he focused his attention on his music career.
McMurray left behind his wife Kali James McMurray, father, Doug McMurray, mother Jen McMurray, and brother Jarred McMurray.
The Jon James team has set up a GoFundMe page for the late singer. It said that a portion of the money raised will be used for costs associated with the musician’s “Celebration of Life,” which his family will have instead of a traditional funeral.
The rest of the fund will be used to release all of the rapper’s remaining music and video content.
“He has hundreds of tracks and new albums that he recorded and prepared for us to release in the event of his death,” the GoFundMe page reads.
“The funds raised on GoFundMe will be completely dedicated to production of Jon’s music and video content specifically to be made into series, which had been planned in the event of this tragic ending.”
As of this writing, the campaign has raised $2,750 of the $699,000 goal.
