With Slain Rapper, Issues of Violence vs. Creativity
To hear his friends and collaborators describe him, the singer and rapper XXXTentacion was an inspirational legend in the making at the time of his death at 20.
Last month, to promote his clothing line, Bad Vibes Forever, his mother appeared in a video to say “his message was essentially to heal” and that he was “spreading love and light to the world.” A week later, a news release for a major-label single called him the “voice of his generation.”
“He’s going to go down as a Tupac,” said Sebastian Baldeon, a producer, D. J. and songwriter known as Diablo, who worked with XXXTentacion when they were both starting out in South Florida. “The music he was putting out was so good, and so beautiful, and the fact that he was taken from society and his family and his friends left such a big impact on people.”
X X XTentacion, born Jahseh Onfroy, had built a huge audience before he was fatally shot during an attempted robbery in Florida in June. His first two albums generated nearly 5.5 billion streams, according to Nielsen Music, and he had more than eight million Instagram followers for his posts, which like his music, addressed depression and anger.
But he was also awaiting trial on charges of battery, false imprisonment and witness tampering, and his accuser — an ex-girlfriend who prosecutors said was pregnant during some of the alleged abuse — said in a deposition that he threatened to kill her “every day.” Since his death, what was once a moral debate over the music industry’s complicity in his rise to stardom has turned into a battle over his legacy. Before the release of his album “Skins” on December 7, his team hit the media circuit to portray him as a martyr, not a monster.
“Skins” comes with an appearance by Kanye West and a striking marketing campaign. XXXTentacion’s mother, Cleopatra Bernard, along with his manager and entertainment lawyer, have collected industry awards on his behalf and discussed his artistic gifts in interviews.
News of the charges coincided with his rise to fame, and he seemed to defend himself and criticize his accuser in songs like “Moonlight” and “Numb.” After his death, recordings emerged from around the time of his arrest in 2016, in which he took responsibility for stabbings and seemed to admit to abusing his former girlfriend.
“I disgust myself every day,” he said on the tape. “And, you know? It’s funny — I love it.”
Hilary Rosen, a former chairwoman of the Recording Industry Association of America, said XXXTentacion’s music is “rooted in such a horrible reality and inextricable from his personal behavior that it makes it a moral dilemma just to listen to him.” She added, “I am appalled that there has been so little condemnation of his behavior from the industry.”
Katie Ray- Jones of the National Domestic Violence Hotline, said, “It’s discouraging when people who have a history of being abusive are then idolized.”
The comedian Eric Andre was among many on social media who have criticized XXXTentacion’s behavior, and the rapper Vic Mensa freestyled a verse at the BET Awards rhyming “loser” with “domestic abuser.”
XXXTentacion’s supporters have been equally passionate: In a Twitter post after his death, the rapper Jidenna likened him to Malcolm X, who also engaged in violent behavior in his early days, concluding, “I believe in change for the young.”
In a Miami New Times interview shortly before his death, XXXTentacion recalled growing up under difficult circumstances, saying he fought at school to make his mother notice him. Expelled from middle school, he was enrolled in a troubled-youth program.
Jonathan Hay, a Los Angeles crisis publicist, said that XXXTentacion’s team was “doing the right thing as far as business and promoting the brand.” But, he added, “They have a platform right now with X where they can do something to do some good.”