XXXTentacion: Suicidal Satanist or Misunderstood Mastermind?
“I’m in pain, wanna put ten shots in my brain,” Jahseh Onfroy moans on his first studio album, 17.
Since the 19 year old rapper became one of the loudest voices on the Soundcloud streaming platform, he has also had an almost unheard of rise in 2017. Being locked up, releasing his Revenge mixtape, dropping Members Only Vol. 3 with the rap collective he leads, being chosen as an XXL Freshman, his hit single Look at Me! going platinum, and dropping a debut album, Onfroy has had a busy year. Though it would make sense to name his album 17 after the incredible year he had, it is in fact named because of a past birthday wish: “I blew out my candles and my wish was to be dead by the time I was seventeen years old.” Obviously, his wish hasn’t come true, which should delight his fan base of millions.
Not all are so supportive of this rapper's rise, however.
A beef with Drake that taken negatively by many of the Toronto native’s fans and older rappers across the grid garnered the younger artist much attention, even more so because the flow of the song he had accused Drake of biting was his biggest song to date, Look at Me! This, along with Onfroy tweeting out how he would do unspeakable acts with Drizzy’s mother, earned him a reputation among the mainstream that most of his fans already knew: XXXTENTACION is fearless. More recently, an altercation involving the rap group Migos had gained X more attention, supposedly stemming from a couple of disagreements that Onfroy and Migos’s Offset had. The young man took to his minimalist social media account on Instagram to display bruises and take shots at the Atlanta natives, telling them, “You can’t come to Broward County”, where Onfroy himself hails from.
For all the bad press, XXXTENTACION, also going by Young Dagger Dick or (As most prefer) simply, X, has grown into the habit of being the front runner of calling out his own haters. This could be why he gets so many commenting on his posts calling for him to follow through with what he has threatened to do since he appeared on the internet and end his own life. These haters, with only a like or retweet from X, can get all the clout they’ve ever dreamed of in an instant. To be sure, his loyal fan base is also out to tear them apart, but if someone is willing to endure the backlash, they are sure to have garnered a nice number of followers from the ordeal as well.
Since the 19 year old rapper became one of the loudest voices on the Soundcloud streaming platform, he has also had an almost unheard of rise in 2017. Being locked up, releasing his Revenge mixtape, dropping Members Only Vol. 3 with the rap collective he leads, being chosen as an XXL Freshman, his hit single Look at Me! going platinum, and dropping a debut album, Onfroy has had a busy year. Though it would make sense to name his album 17 after the incredible year he had, it is in fact named because of a past birthday wish: “I blew out my candles and my wish was to be dead by the time I was seventeen years old.” Obviously, his wish hasn’t come true, which should delight his fan base of millions.
Not all are so supportive of this rapper's rise, however.
A beef with Drake that taken negatively by many of the Toronto native’s fans and older rappers across the grid garnered the younger artist much attention, even more so because the flow of the song he had accused Drake of biting was his biggest song to date, Look at Me! This, along with Onfroy tweeting out how he would do unspeakable acts with Drizzy’s mother, earned him a reputation among the mainstream that most of his fans already knew: XXXTENTACION is fearless. More recently, an altercation involving the rap group Migos had gained X more attention, supposedly stemming from a couple of disagreements that Onfroy and Migos’s Offset had. The young man took to his minimalist social media account on Instagram to display bruises and take shots at the Atlanta natives, telling them, “You can’t come to Broward County”, where Onfroy himself hails from.
For all the bad press, XXXTENTACION, also going by Young Dagger Dick or (As most prefer) simply, X, has grown into the habit of being the front runner of calling out his own haters. This could be why he gets so many commenting on his posts calling for him to follow through with what he has threatened to do since he appeared on the internet and end his own life. These haters, with only a like or retweet from X, can get all the clout they’ve ever dreamed of in an instant. To be sure, his loyal fan base is also out to tear them apart, but if someone is willing to endure the backlash, they are sure to have garnered a nice number of followers from the ordeal as well.
Internet presence aside, X’s music style is another that alienates him from the mainstream. Though it is prevalent on the streaming service, Soundcloud rappers have created their own genre of aggressive rap. Dark, heavy beats that call to mind a quaking subwoofer; violent lyrics, at times snarled, and even screamed more often than rapped, over them; all wrapped up with quite often a metalcore or Satanic inspired artwork. Most of X’s highlights, for example, #IMSIPPINTEAINYOHOOD, East Side Soulja (Later renamed RIP Roach when released on his Revenge mixtape), and his biggest hit, Look at Me! In the intro of one of his Soundcloud releases, X declares: “If your grandmother is trying to read in the house, you might want to turn this song down. If not, well, you’ll see.” This cautionary bit is followed by flat out screams from X and frequent collaborators Killstation, Robb Bank$, and Craig Xen as they launch into the song Deathwish. This message rings true for most of X’s catalog, released and unreleased, but most of the haters don’t look any farther than these songs, that even fans can acknowledge that can barely be called rap at all. An unreleased track, and the first that X ever posted to Soundcloud, Vice City, and his verse on the second track of Members Only Vol. 3 find him rapping traditionally, and very skillfully, showing us that he cannot be put into a box. X brands himself as an artist that doesn’t conform to a single genre. In fact, he has released a whole EP, titled Willy Wonka Was a Child Murderer, in which he estranges himself from rap altogether in favor of an alternative rock and metal vibe. He even croons tenderly on some tracks, such as Teeth and Emoji. He is at his most unrecognizable on the first single from his debut album, Revenge. An acoustic guitar leads to Onfroy asking himself, “If I could act on my revenge, then, would I?”
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XXXTENTACION’s 17 opens with a message for the listeners. “Here is my pain and thoughts put into words,” he says, deep voice level from wherever he recorded the message from. This is immediately realized with a track about his best friend who committed suicide, named after her: Jocelyn Flores. Uncredited vocals from Shiloh Dynasty set the tone, before X launches into the song, singing along with Shiloh and then rapping a verse , giving the album an undisputed standout right from the start. In the preceding tracks, the rapper that grew to fame with his aggression and energy is found nowhere. A tender side to the nineteen year old appears, and proves resoundingly that he is the last artist of the new wave that no one can put in a box.
In the wake of his debut, X had two more projects on the way, the long anticipated Bad Vibes Forever, and his I Need Jesus mixtape, also announcing a third project simply called Ugly. He announced on his Instagram that there would be some big features on his next project, though it was unclear which one would be coming next. The weeknd caused a bit of a stir within X’s fan base when he captioned one of his recent posts ‘UGLY’, leading to speculation that he would be one of these features.
In the wake of his debut, X had two more projects on the way, the long anticipated Bad Vibes Forever, and his I Need Jesus mixtape, also announcing a third project simply called Ugly. He announced on his Instagram that there would be some big features on his next project, though it was unclear which one would be coming next. The weeknd caused a bit of a stir within X’s fan base when he captioned one of his recent posts ‘UGLY’, leading to speculation that he would be one of these features.
A wave of memes and hate arose when X posted a photo of himself, eyebrows shaved and hair freshly dyed gray, sporting a new tattoo of a tree in the middle of his forehead, likely to promote his Ugly project. Not a week later, he reportedly signed a deal with Atlantic for six million dollars, a decision not all of his die-hard fans frenzied about, and he received criticism for his more conformative sound as heard on 17. Not long after he took to his social media once again to announce that he broke off the deal.
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Weeks later, XXXTENTACION announced that he had finished making music, tired of being mentally abused and bullied. Onfroy urged his fans to download all of his music from Soundcloud while they still could, because he was planning on deleting it all, but never carried through with the promise. A few days after he announced he was retiring, he posted a song that sounded like his old music, with the heavy beats and screaming, with PnB Rock commenting, ‘wait until they hear my verse’, alluding that he and X had worked together. The caption read, “I said I’m done making music, but I don’t consider this music.” His underground fans found themselves overjoyed.
Whichever path XXXTENTACION chooses, it’s become very obvious that he will be one of the loudest voices in the music industry for many years to come.
Whichever path XXXTENTACION chooses, it’s become very obvious that he will be one of the loudest voices in the music industry for many years to come.
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