Award-winning Swedish rapper Einar, who has topped the country’s charts, was shot and killed in Stockholm, police and media said Friday as police hunted for suspects.
The 19-year-old Einar, who raps in Swedish, was the most streamed artist on Spotify in Sweden in 2019.
He was shot several times outside an apartment building shortly before 11 pm (2100 GMT) on Thursday.
Ambulance personnel administered first aid but he died at the scene, Stockholm police spokeswoman Towe Hagg told AFP.
Police have opened a murder investigation.
“We are actively working to figure out why it happened and who can be behind it,” Hagg said.
In line with usual practice, the police have not yet confirmed the identity of the victim. But Sweden’s mainstream media identified him as Einar, whose full name is Nils Kurt Erik Einar Gronberg.
Many of Einar’s songs reference a life of crime, including drugs and weapons. He had public feuds with rival artist Yasin, who in July was jailed for 10 months for his role in a planned kidnapping of Einar in 2020.
The plan was ultimately aborted, but Einar was abducted several weeks later without Yasin’s involvement.
Einar was beaten, robbed, photographed in humiliating conditions and blackmailed, according to prosecutors.
The kidnapping was part of a broader case involving 30 suspects in a criminal network accused of a variety of crimes.
Among the suspects was another rapper, Haval Khalil, who was sentenced in July to two-and-a-half years in prison for complicity in the kidnapping and who has also had public spats with Einar.
