XXXTentacion - ?

or we can, you know, not say or think anything at all

go for it

I don't think anyone should be celebrating his death, making snarky comments, etc. On the other hand, I also recoil at how some of the the (non-black) artists in this thread are choosing to publicly grieve/celebrate his life: https://twitter.com/i/events/1008852757883674625

I think he is the first celebrity accused of abuse to die in the MeToo era (not to mention die horribly); so there's not really a template for how to respond and weigh his accomplishments against the accusations. I am trying to keep that in mind. He was also so young, and the alleged abuse so fresh/recent -- those are factors on both sides of the coin.

thirtysomething critics pretending that half-assed music by and for stoned, ignorant teenagers was somehow important and worthwhile

new board description

To be real w unperson, outside of two songs, I don’t really like XXXs music, but it seems absurd to me to treat something this popular and influential with “eh, kids are dumb, this will be over soon” especially after you know — of all people on here — know what the initial reaction to Black Sabbath, Led Zep and Kiss was.

And no, there’s isn’t some 1:1 ratio between popularity and importance, but I think I outlined how XXX did have an impact in his short time here

alfred otm

judging feels so good eh?

i mean, dancing on the grave of a dead person, unbookmarked

it seems absurd to me to treat something this popular and influential with “eh, kids are dumb, this will be over soon” especially after you know — of all people on here — know what the initial reaction to Black Sabbath, Led Zep and Kiss was.

Yes, but - and this is my main point here - I feel like in that piece, you were equating things that are not the same, because Soundcloud and free-tier Spotify streams are not the same as record sales, no matter what Billboard tells us and themselves in a desperate attempt to stave off their own irrelevance. I haven't done a deep dive into the numbers (I'll leave that to Chr1s M0l4nphy), but it looks to me like this guy was "successful" without actually being successful, and whichever major label signed him was throwing its money down a hole, even before this, when it just looked like he was gonna spend his prime creative years in prison.

Nobody I know had ever heard of this guy. Billboard charts don’t mean jack shit anymore.

You wouldn't if you didn't hang out with music critics or anyone under 25.

I mean, women from all backgrounds, for example, might have thoughts about the situation that deserve to be heard

― k3vin k

my thought when reading through billboard's collection of twitter encomiums to the man was "hmmm, i wonder what black women have to say about xxxtentacion upon his passing".

my personal opinions about the man don't, and shouldn't, matter

Yes what *could* be the difference between a chart that gauges how many moms paid to own an Adele album to play in their second minivan’s CD player and how many times something was streamed on SoundCloud by a teenager who can’t afford the monthly $9.99 Spotify charge. What could possibly be the benefit of determining popularity that way?

i mean, dancing on the grave of a dead person, unbookmarked

― lost in sublimation (Ross)

ross i think there's something you should know about this board

Unperson’s analysis of his popularity couldn’t be more wrong

Maybe, but who cares. He's not Tupac. He's not Biggie. He's not even Jam Master Jay. Five years from now he'll be a footnote even among those who are most ardent about un-dirtying his history this week. Let him disappear into the noise and be glad he can no longer beat anyone half to death.

That would’ve been the ideal thing. But he got murdered and now he’s some sort of misunderstood genius and a martyr.

I didn’t wish his death, I actually wish he was alive so he would get fat and fade out like everyone else.

streaming numbers measure the actual time people spend listening to music, and x's streaming numbers were astounding

the argument the press tried to make that his success is completely down to the infamy he attained as a result of his extramusical misdeeds is worth hearing but it is also indisputable that people were hearing the music and they were hearing it a *lot*

seems fully improbable to suggest that a culture so fully soaked and submerged in the dude's work will somehow manage to completely shake out the stain just on the basis of the absence of his body

to have reservations about an artist, especially an artist accused of the things x was accused of, is totally well and good and healthy, but to dismiss the very real and indisputable evidence of his massive popularity doesn't do any favors for the already very difficult conversation surrounding the artist's work and legacy

I'm fine with any and all attempts to bury the guy's legacy before it can really become established in "the canon." If people rediscover him in 25 years, he'll still be a shitstain, but the real damage would have already been mitigated.

no critical conversation is going to or was ever going to have any effect at all on whether or not the dude is remembered or influential or not

pretending otherwise is unhealthy

y'all i think music and young people are going to be ok. sheesh

https://m.imgur.com/fYI8Win

http://abc7.com/large-crowd-gets-rowdy-during-memorial-for-xxxtentacion/3624899/

Johnny Fever OTM.

found Whiney's piece impressively convincing, but can't help but wonder if invoking the rock narrative is doing XXX any favors

I guess it serves to place the music in a "serious" context, but perhaps somewhere along the rock'n'roll and DIY hardcore analogies we lose sight of the music in point

https://www.stereogum.com/2002354/the-tangled-legacy-of-xxxtentacion/franchises/sounding-board/

That's a great piece

+1 very good Tom Breihan

Hearty co-sign.

yeah that was great
glad he mentioned Jimmy Wopo, he was really great RIP

"Elm Street" was a goon fav
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-agUlNitPE

Just to add to the chorus: really good piece.

Last year, one of them went differently. While Playboi Carti, Ugly God, and Madeintyo did their own supremely halfassed verses, cheering each other on, XXXTentacion lurked in the background, silent. When it was his turn to rap, the beat abruptly cut off. He crouched to the ground, froze, and grumbled, “If the world ever has an apocalypse, I will kill all of you fuckers.” The other rappers weren’t sure what to do. They stood there reverent, or maybe scared, or maybe just puzzled, while their supposed peer gave his slam-poetry jeremiad about annihilating humanity. It remains a strange fucking moment.

I don’t like this pov, feels like mythifying him as this outsider rebel genius and I’m not seeing the reverance, scare or puzzled expression in any of the other rappers when he was performing because it’s too fucking dark to even see them.

Everyone of them was lurking in the background silent while one of them had the spotlight. It was planned beforehand to cut the beat when he started, it’s not this rockist “fuck the system” moment for the books. He didn’t go unplug the dj and front each rapper and burn the whole thing down. It all went according to plan.

and just to add on. the illuminati is dangerous. i bet you they tried to get x to sell his soul. but x is humble and he ain’t about doing that shit for fame. he got famous by himself! and drake didn’t fucking like that! so they got his ass man ):

— rochelle grace (@rochelllegrace) June 19, 2018

i love it when writers use "maybe" multiple times in a sentence, it really makes me think they know what they're talking about xp

i thought whiney's piece was good incidentally

yeah that xxxtentacion quote is dark, like something ed o'neill would say in one of his wayne's world scenes.

I’ll be honest I didn’t read it through I was annoyed at the media pushing this 2edgy4me clown as a martyr. I might have misread the intention of the article but the title is either clickbait or tells me all I needed to read.

And well, after I read that part I quoted above I thought “oh this is gonna be good, I need to see this” and then I saw the actual video and the whole thing is so lame. There’s no conflict in there, that’s just the writer overhyping edgy teen poetry.... again to push this mythos of this violent, disturbed genius. To me it seems like the other 3 people on stage didn’t give a fuck about it tbh. They were certainly not scared of him and why should they be? They weren’t women.

I hadn't heard Jimmy Wopo but I liked "Elm Street" and I watched an interview and he's, um, disarmingly does to earth and charming. This is so fucked up

To me it seems like the other 3 people on stage didn’t give a fuck about it tbh.

Yeah they look like they could easily be thinking, "Whatever..."

It’s not like he had the mic at sunday church.

XXXTentacion breaks Taylor Swift's single-day streaming record on Spotify https://t.co/QCoqKMao2o pic.twitter.com/t9UO2Je3jw

— Stereogum (@stereogum) June 20, 2018

nobODy i knOW HAD evER HEARD OF tHiS Guy. BillbOArd ChARtS dON’t mEan JACK shiT Anymore.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DTHmLUHVwAIdRTY.jpg:large

glad that piece of shit aint getting a penny of it though

I bought this stuff at a gas station once... ended up getting gang-tased by 6 cops. Did they finally recall it?

i think so

https://i.redd.it/k2bv1jqtja511.jpg