S. Florida rapper attacked on stage in San Diego

19-year-old uses stage name XXXTentacion

Broward County is home to some of the most talked about new artists on the nationwide hip-hop scene — and we’re not just talking about Kodak Black.

Among the crop of emerging rappers from Broward is a 19-year-old out of Lauderhill who goes by the stage name XXXTentacion. In April, his breakout single, “Look at Me,” peaked at No. 34 on the Billboard Hot 100. Of course, Billboard isn’t the only barometer of what’s hot anymore; the track has more than 80 million listens on the music-streaming service Spotify, and more than 50 million views on YouTube.

On Wednesday night in San Diego, however, things for XXXTentacion (pronounced X-X-X tenTASS-ee-on) got ugly as he was suckerpunched in a brutal on-stage attack.

While he was performing, another man rushed the stage and pummeled the rapper, sending him to the floor and apparently knocking him out.

Video of the attack was going viral on Thursday. The footage, captured by several fans, is hard to watch.

After XXXTentacion, whose real name is Jahseh Onfroy, is knocked down, security guards swarm the stage as chaos breaks out in the venue.

Fans then begin chanting “F--- Rob Stone,” referring to San Diego rapper Rob Stone. XXXTentacion and Stone apparently have an ongoing feud and fans of XXXTentacion believe somebody from Stone’s crew was behind the attack.

With the aid of several others who appeared to be helping him walk, XXXTentaction later re-emerged on stage, but not to perform.

Later, he took to social media to address the incident.

On Instagram, he used the terms “snuffed me out” and “knocked me out” to describe what happened, but also accused a security guard of setting him up. Much of his commentary is peppered with profanity, which some may find offensive.

“As soon he snuffed me out, my security guard grabbed him,” XXXTentacion said.

He also said it wasn’t just one person that attacked him, but rather, about 6-10 people who came out on to the stage after the initial attack.

On Twitter, he expressed the same sentiment.

The San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper reported that a brawl erupted after the attack and that a 19-year-old man was stabbed. He was hospitalized with a nonlife-threatening injury, police said.

Police received reports of the fight involving about 10 people at the venue at about 8:45 p.m.

The violence prompted a large police response as hundreds of concertgoers streamed out of the venue.

The performance, part of XXXTentacion’s current tour, took place at the Observatory North Park, a historic theater in San Diego that can accommodate 1,100 people. The all-ages show, which started at 7 p.m., was sold out. No arrests were reported. For XXXTentacion, the knockout apparently wasn’t enough to knock him off his music game. On Thursday, hours after the attack, he released some new music.

Onfroy