Jessica Owen, mother of St. Paul rapper Alexis “Lexii Alijai” Lynch, said the cause of her daughter’s death remains under investigation by Minneapolis police.
“I have to wait until they get their part done,” Owen said Friday, after declining to speculate on details.
Minneapolis police said they are awaiting an official determination from the Hennepin County medical examiner’s office, which conducted the autopsy on the 21-year-old rising star in the national hip-hop scene. Alexis Lynch died in Minneapolis on New Year’s Day, drawing international headlines and an outpouring of grief from the music community, but a cause of death has not been announced.
“We work with the medical examiner’s office and we are awaiting their ruling on the nature and cause of death,” Minneapolis police spokesman John Elder said Friday. A Hennepin County spokeswoman said the medical examiner is awaiting toxicology reports.
Police officers were called to the Loews Hotel in downtown Minneapolis about 2 p.m. Jan. 1, according to police reports. Lynch had spent the night with others at the hotel. She was dead when officers arrived.
Owen said she raised her daughter in St. Paul, where she attended Como Park Senior High School and Creative Arts Secondary School, though the two women had recently been living in Burnsville.
Under the stage name Lexii Alijai, Lynch had built an online following that blossomed as a result of live performances and professional collaborations. She joined the singer Kehlani on the 2015 song “Jealous,” which was included in Kehlani’s mixtape “You Should Be Here,” nominated for best urban contemporary album at the 2016 Grammys.
“She’s performed everywhere all throughout the United States — at South by Southwest, Soundset, the Super Bowl (festivities) when it was here in Minneapolis,” Owen said.
Lexii Alijai’s music is available on SoundCloud, a music sharing website, where she has more than 40,000 followers. On YouTube, Lexii Alijai has close to 20,000 subscribers.
Her first professionally produced album, “Come Back Soon,” is tentatively scheduled to be released on or about Feb. 19, her birthday. Owen said performers hope to organize a tribute concert at the First Avenue concert venue in Minneapolis in 2020.
Lynch, who is Lakota through her mother’s family, was memorialized with an open-casket funeral that was held over a period of four days at the Minneapolis American Indian Center on Franklin Avenue. The ceremony, which began Jan. 3, drew dozens of mourners.
“We had a drum group everyday,” Owen said. “I just want to thank everybody for all their love and support. Her fans meant a lot to her. The love that she got from them was amazing. They truly do love her. … She was truly an amazing young woman beyond music.”
At her funeral, Lynch was remembered by her Lakota name, “Black Horse Woman,” which was derived from her grandfather Art Owen’s service with the 11th Armored Calvary Regiment — the Black Horse Regiment — during the Vietnam War, her mother said.
Her father, Roger Troutman Jr. Lynch, died in 2003. Her grandfather, Roger Troutman, was a founder of the Dayton, Ohio, band Zapp, which featured funk music and influenced West Coast hip-hop through music sampling. She is survived by an older sister and older brother.
Lynch was represented by management in Los Angeles and Miami. Julieanna Goddard, manager with 1AM Media in LA, has opened a GoFundMe fundraising account to help the family with funeral expenses at tinyurl.com/LexiiAlijaiFund.
