Promoting Broward

Fueling the recognition of and interest in Broward is the fact that artists are rapping about the places in Broward County where they grew up, and they’re being explicit and specific in their references to local places and culture.

It means listeners all over the world are hearing — many of them for the first time — vivid and often realistic accounts of a very different kind of South Florida lifestyle, one that exists a few miles inland but a world away from the gleaming hotels and condos along the beaches.

Kodak Black, the most famous of Broward’s new wave of rappers, frequently references Golden Acres, as well as the slang terms “Ugly Corner” and “1800 Block,” all of which reference the neighborhood in and around the public housing projects off Hammondville Road where he grew up.

XXXTentacion, whose given name is Jahseh Onfroy, also is a huge name.

XXXTentacion represents a more experimental, punk-infused and indie rock-influenced sub-genre of hip-hop known as SoundCloud rap, named after the online music streaming service where many of the artists post their music.

Onfroy, now 20, started making music in his bedroom and posting it online. His breakout track “Look At Me!” was released in December 2015, drawing more than 110 million listens on SoundCloud, 85 million views on YouTube and 220 million listens on Spotify.

Kodak and X have become the poster boys for Broward’s popularity. At one point in the same week of August 2017, Black’s “Project Baby Two” was No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 200 albums chart while “17,” XXXTentacion’s debut album, hit No. 1 album on Apple Music.

And in March, X’s second album, “?,” debuted at No. 1 on Billboard.

“It’s great, we deserve it. We’ve been working hard for like the past four years, to be real,” said the Lauderhill producer known as Khaed, who works with XXXTentacion. “People think it’s been overnight but it’s not. We’ve always been working.”

But trouble may be brewing as the music industry tries to distance itself from sexual abuse, harassment and violence against women.

Kodak has been in custody in Broward County since his most recent arrest in January. The bulk of the charges in that case, which included a child neglect allegation, were dropped. Leftover were some lesser charges that, taking into account he was on house arrest and probation at the time, are expected to keep him behind bars until fall, his lawyer Bradford Cohen has said.

But more seriously, Kodak is accused of sexually assaulting a woman in a South Carolina hotel room. The case has yet to go to trial. If convicted, he faces a maximum of 30 years in prison.

Meawhile, XXXTentacion is accused of viciously assaulting his pregnant ex-girlfriend, among other charges. He’s slated to go on trial in Miami. The music-streaming service Spotify announced this month that it was removing XXXTentacion’s music from its curated and algorithm-generated playlists.

Cal Hickox, editor at Genius.com, a music website, has been observing the path Black and XXXTentacion have been on.

“The big question to me is how far can these guys go, considering their legacies are always going to be tainted by these charges?” Hickox says. “So that’s the question going forward, I think.”