(Ironically, a month earlier, Spotify removed XXXTentacion’s music from their official playlists before a Lamar-led backlash caused them to reverse direction.) His listeners have catapulted nine of his songs on to the Billboard Hot 100 with “SAD!” sitting atop the chart, making him the first posthumous artist to achieve that since the Notorious BIG in 1997. On 19 June, the day after his murder, his song SAD! broke Taylor Swift’s single-day record for Spotify streams. (It is, in my estimation.) But Onfroy’s legacy feels critic-proof – his devout followers seem to use negative press from morally inconsistent, tut-tutting outlets to bolster his status as a misunderstood prophet. Music journalists are leery of both the XXXTentacion hagiography and his oeuvre, and discussions of Onfroy tend to treat his history of violence as a necessary critical vector. The clash over Onfroy’s artistic legacy cuts along similar lines. And the day after Onfroy’s death the campaign stood at $32,000 – $7,000 more than she asked for. A day after the publication of a Miami New Times article which documented Onfroy and Ayala’s relationship in exacting detail, a GoFundMe campaign to pay for eye surgery necessitated by his final, most savage beating gained $12,000 in new donations. For those sympathetic to a woman who, while pregnant, was literally tortured, she’s the proxy through which they can extract a modicum of karmic justice. For Onfroy’s hardcore fans, she’s the temptress who caused him immense grief they’ve harassed her online and in person to the point that, tired of photo-happy gawkers and would-be stalkers attempting to follow her home, she quit her job at Dunkin’ Donuts. Through no fault of her own, Ayala has become the trampled turf upon which a pitched battle is being fought. he did like how do you think that makes me feel? everyone expecting me to be relieved or happy?! no, i’m broken.” leave me alone.” And, five minutes later: “it’s disgusting that people are speaking for me i didn’t lose my life. Shortly thereafter Ayala tweeted: “ just please stop tagging me in disrespectful threads and arguments i lost someone close to me. She left after 25 minutes, understandably distraught and in tears. According to Ayala’s Instagram, the tokens she left for Onfroy – flowers, a globe, a sign and candles – were set on fire and an anonymous woman, furious that Ayala had “snitched” on Onfroy, attempted to fight her. Photograph: APĪnd, in Florida, Geneva Ayala, Onfroy’s former girlfriend who he was accused of beating, threatening and imprisoning, briefly attempted to attend a vigil. What began as an afternoon of misty-eyed testaments to the importance of XXXTentacion’s music ended with an evening of police shooting pepper balls and rubber bullets to disperse a crowd of hundreds blocking streets and marching to chants of “Long live X!”Ī mugshot of XXXTentacion. In Los Angeles, his former manager, Adam “Adam22” Grandmaison, himself an accused rapist (an allegation he denies), hosted a gathering at his BMX shop. In Atlanta, Lil Yachty presided over a candlelight vigil. How do you commemorate a gifted abuser in 2018? If you’re his most dedicated fans, with a teenaged mixture of sorrow, denial, vulnerability, brutishness and shocking callousness.ĭuring the nine days between Onfroy’s murder and his formal memorial held at the BT&T Center in Sunrise, Florida, a series of impromptu ceremonies were held across the country. The 20-year-old Florida rapper’s soul-baring lyrics earned him scores of teenage supporters and the approbation of Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West and Nicki Minaj – but he stomped a gay juvenile hall cellmate to near-death in a homophobic attack and, before his murder, was awaiting trial for allegedly beating, torturing and imprisoning his pregnant ex-girlfriend. In the #MeToo era, the premature death of XXXTentacion, born Jahseh Onfroy, shot and killed in a robbery gone wrong, tugs at our traditional postmortem strictures.
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