French rap artist Werenoi, Cameroonian roots, passed away last Saturday at only 31 years old. He was supposed to participate to a showcase in Lyon the night of his death.
If the official reasons of the death are not known yet, it is true that Werenoi’s health suddenly took a turn for the worse in the last few days. Werenoi, real name Jérémy Bana Owona, was born in France (Melun) in 1994. He was awarded masculine revelation of the year in 2023. He was also the artist who sold the most albums in France in 2023 and 2024. Rather discreet about his private life because he considered that he was already saying a lot in his texts, Werenoi is gone while he was on top.
His last album “Diamant Noir” was released in 2025, and the dedicated tour was pending. Before that, the rap artist released two other solo albums: “Carré” in 2023 and “Pyramide” in 2024. He collaborated with many artists including Ninho, Lacrim, SDM, Damso, Gazo and Aya Nakamura.
This is not the first time that a rap artist has passed away at the peak of his career. Of course, when talking about this, the first names that come to mind are those of Christopher Wallace, aka The Notorious BIG, and Tupac Amaru Shakur. Both rap artists were gone when they were respectively 24 and 25 years old. Unfortunately, the list cannot be summed up to only two names: rap singers like Proof, Mac Miller, Luv Resval and J Dilla had to bid farewell too early.
When the announcement of Werenoi’s death was made, homages did not take long to follow. His producer paid him homage on social network X, and many artists, who collaborated (or did not) with Werenoi, did the same. In 2004, D12 was singing “Good die young” to pay homage to Bugz, a former member of Eminem’s group who got shot in Detroit (like Proof) at 21 years old in 1999. The age of 31 definitively looks like too young to leave this world.
Guillaume Mahot