And yet, like Chris Brown, he also maintained an inexplicably devoted following among trap fans who presumably found his music relatable. So of course, you’d expect that people regularly denounced him, especially when the grisly details came out. Yes, he’s basically the Chris Brown of trap, except maybe ten times worse. If you must know, one of his most infamous and vile acts was beating up his pregnant girlfriend. X was one of the biggest names in the scene, but also one of the most controversial, thanks to his provocative imagery, fucked up musical themes, and most notably, his extremely violent personal life which includes, among other things, multiple counts of domestic physical and verbal abuse and homophobia. He was mentioned a lot, but that was around the time my music-listening capabilities took a deep dive, so I never really gave him a listen until late last year, when Soundcloud trap became the hot new trend. I must admit, I was never much aware of XXXTentacion when he first broke out around two years ago.
His death caused his biggest single to date, “SAD!” to skyrocket from #7 to #1 on the Hot 100 for a good while. Which, of course, has led to an incomprehensible, almost Biggie-style resurgence in popularity, especially since he’d just dropped his mega-selling second album ? last march. It’s… generally considered taboo to speak ill of the dead, and so it seems like we’ve all collectively lost the right to talk about the infamous XXXTentacion, who was fatally shot on Jby an as-of-now unconfirmed killer.