Jordan Groggs Of Injury Reserve Dead At 32

Taylor Hill/Getty Images for Governors Ball

Jordan Groggs Of Injury Reserve Dead At 32

Taylor Hill/Getty Images for Governors Ball

Jordan Groggs, a member of the Phoenix rap group Injury Reserve, has died. The group confirmed his death on their social media accounts today, posting his photo with the caption, “REST IN POWER Jordan Alexander Groggs a loving father, life partner and friend.” They also shared a GoFundMe for Groggs’ family, which elaborates, “Groggs’s heart has touched everyone he has came across. He will live on through his family, supporters, and the communities he was apart of. Jordan Alexander Groggs is survived by Anna and their four children Joey, Jayden, Toph, and Ari.” Groggs was 32. No cause of death has been revealed. Stereogum has reached out to Injury Reserve’s management for further comment.

Groggs, who rapped under the name Stepa J. Groggs, began collaborating with Injury Reserve’s Nathaniel Ritchie sometime circa 2012, when Groggs was working at a Vans store run by Ritchie’s mother. As they bonded over music, Groggs became a mentor figure for Ritchie, who was still a teenager at the time. After producer Parker Corey came into the fold, they solidified into a trio with Groggs and Ritchie rapping over Corey’s increasingly futuristic beats. The trio built up a following in Arizona’s DIY scene and the online rap underground, releasing a string of acclaimed mixtapes and EPs and eventually signing to Loma Vista for last year’s self-titled debut album. Their most recent release was a trio of standalone tracks early this year called “Hoodwinked” and “Waste Management,” and “Rock N Roll.”

In Injury Reserve’s music, Groggs was a gruff, hardened presence who grounded the group’s outré impulses with a more traditionalist hip-hop swagger. Away from the microphone he was much more quiet. When I interviewed Injury Reserve at SXSW last year, he barely said a word; meanwhile both Ritchie and Corey said they spent years catching up to Groggs’ hip-hop acumen. Check out Groggs in action via some recent Injury Reserve videos below.

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