Canadian rapper Jon James McMurray died at age 34 on Saturday, October 20, while shooting a dangerous stunt for a music video.
“His passion for making music videos and performing stunts were combined, and Jon pushed music in a new direction that was unchartered territory. He died filming for a project he had been working on for months,” McMurray’s management team said in a statement to Canadian Press on Monday, October 22. “His final act included performing an airplane stunt that included rapping while walking onto the wing.”
Although McMurray’s team said he “had trained immensely for this stunt,” as he “got further onto the wing of the plane, it caused the small Cessna to go into a downward spiral that the pilot couldn’t correct. 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.”
The statement also honored the former professional skier as “an incredibly passionate person” who “filled everyone around him with positivity, and never spoke poorly about another person.”
“He truly had a heart of gold,” the message continued. “Jon would want to be remembered as a beacon of light to follow your dreams, and would want everyone to continue to be inspired through his music and life message.”
Jon is survived by his wife, Kali James, parents Doug McMurray and Jen McMurray, and his brother, Jared McMurray.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to honor Jon’s memory and raise funds “to help his people get his stuff out there to the world in the right way.”
