Troubled South Korean rapper Iron found dead outside an apartment block in Seoul
- The 28-year-old, who owed his fame to a TV hip-hop talent contest, released one album, Rock Bottom, that controversially included a track about a rape fantasy
- He was given suspended prison sentences for drug use and assaulting a girlfriend, and last month was reported to have attacked a minor with a baseball bat
South Korean rapper Iron was found dead in Seoul on Monday.
The 28-year-old singer, who was born Chung Heon-chul, was taken to hospital after being discovered bleeding outside a Seoul apartment building by the building’s staff.
He was pronounced dead after arriving at the hospital and police are investigating the cause of his death.
Police told South Korean media outlet Dispatch that it was not clear whether Chung had committed suicide.
Chung rose to fame as a contestant on the South Korean hip-hop competition show Show Me the Money 3 in 2014, but his reputation had been tarnished by convictions for violent assault and drug use.
In 2018, he was sentenced to eight months in prison for physically abusing a girlfriend in 2016, although the sentence was ultimately suspended. Late last year he was fined more than US$4,500 for spreading false rumours relating to the former girlfriend.