In recent years, a crop of rap upstarts has emerged from the underbelly of SoundCloud, many with rap sheets that run longer than their careers. Their king? Florida rapper XXXTentacion, AKA 20-year-old Jahseh Onfroy, whose talent and criminal activity have coincided while he continues to become a major force within hip-hop.
His 2015 debut single Look at Me! racked up 80m streams, fuelled by unpleasantly explicit bars such as: “I took a white bitch to Starbucks/ That little bitch got her throat fucked/ I like to rock out like I’m misfit/ My emo bitch like her wrist slit”. Often dark and violent, Onfroy’s art reflects his life, and with every twist and turn, his fans seem to follow him. Numerous gun charges, coupled with allegations of false imprisonment, aggravated battery and threats domestic violence of his pregnant ex-girlfriend have chequered his reputation. He has pleaded not guilty to these allegations. While many artists craft songs that channel their anger, in Onfroy’s case where the anger leads on occasion. There is no duping his fan base. He is, unfortunately, quite authentic and talented to boot. But why do they support him when he is so outwardly volatile?
“You hear it in the music that this is a troubled person,” says KC Orcutt, a hip-hop writer for BET and XXL. “But he’s controlling his narrative by owning up to his behaviour.” Orcutt cites the anti-rape event that Onfroy attempted to hold at Art Basel in Miami Beach (it was later cancelled) along with a pledge to donate $100,000 to domestic violence-prevention programmes.
“It comes down to his accountability,” Orcutt explains of XXXTentacion otherwise inexplicable ascent. “While other artists with criminal records separate their art from their behaviour, XXX is addressing it. He’s successfully managed to fuse his art with his story.” As his music expresses, there is a pent-up rage that the rapper is working through with uncomfortable honesty.
“That’s why artists like Kendrick Lamar are able to co-sign him,” she adds, referring to a tweet Lamar made in 2017 (“Listen to this album if you feel anything. Raw thoughts”) about Onfroy’s debut album 17, which was swiftly followed by another tweet, “5th listen”.
In March, Onfroy released his acclaimed follow-up, called ?, hitting the top of the US Billboard 200, a place higher than 17, and shifting 131,000 album-equivalent units in the first week. The album has also peaked at No 3 in the UK.
While the sales match the quality of the project – Onfroy brings a refreshing take on genre-bending hip-hop through honest, self-deprecating lyricism – the album also illustrates the confusing truth: that XXXTentacion is still flourishing as a deeply troubled person.
