This Thread Was Bound To Happen: Death of XXXTentacion

This has really been bothering me over the last few days. Rapper XXXTentacion was murdered at the age of 20 few days ago and since then there have been many questions and discussions raised.

I was already relatively familiar with the rapper but I had yet to actually listen to his music. All I knew was that he rapped about a lot of dark things. He was a troubled young man who eventually took a leave of absence from social media for the last couple months. Frankly, when I initially caught wind of his death, I was like, "Damn, another young black man murdered”, gave my silent well-wishes, and lowkey continued my day.

As the day progressed, there was a large outpour of condolences from big names in the industry along with his fans and supporters. This, I took no issue with. It wasn’t until the condolences turned into what I would deemed borderline idolization.

This dude raped, beat, and kidnapped folks in his past. Although he was never convicted of any crimes, it’s apparent that some element of this is true. Furthermore, it’s in his music so I’ve been told. Folks kept harping on the fact that he died too young, he had so much potential, he was trying to change his life around, etc.

While that’s fine, I’m finding it hard to support problematic ass people nowdays and while his death was sad, he was one of those people. He, along with other current rappers, ushered in the drug-abuse, self-harm culture that burdens our black and brown kids. On one hand, he made it okay to express the intricacies of mental health but on the other hand, he normalized maladaptive behaviors that are killing our youth.

I just can’t support that. Folks would counter, “Well if Malcolm X and Maya Angelou died in their 20’s, we wouldn’t have had the givings of such thought leaders.” While that may be true, we could say that about anybody. Why do we refuse to hold people accountable for their fucked up behavior?

 

Yea, admittedly, I didn't go through my complete due diligence and didn't make clear that my emotions were more so targeted at the culture that he helped create versus him personally. At the same time, I still think we need to hold folks accountable for the role they play in things.