The controversial young Florida rap star XXXTentacion is dead. (See previous post) Earlier today we reported, an unidentified assailant shot him while he was shopping for motorcycles in Deerfield Beach, FL. He was rushed to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead by the Broward Co. Sheriff’s Department, according to TMZ. XXXTentacion was only 20.
His legacy will always be a complicated, tangled thing. The embattled rapper (real name: Jahseh Dwayne Onfroy) — whose rise to rap’s mainstream has been mired in legal trouble, as he’s facing more than a dozen felony charges and allegations of domestic violence — was shopping for motorcycles when shots rang out, TMZ reports. XXXTentacion and was awaiting trial on the charges.
XXXTentacion recently earned his first No. 1 album on the all-genre Billboard 200 chart with ?, which debuted atop the list dated March 31. The set, which was released on his own Bad Vibes Forever label, gave him a second top 10 set, following 17, which debuted and peaked at No. 2 last year. The same week that ? opened at No. 1, he notched his first top 10 song on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Sad!,” which has so far peaked at No. 7. Collectively, his albums have earned 2 million equivalent album units in the U.S., according to Nielsen Music, through June 14. In total, his catalog of songs have tallied 3.96 billion on-demand streams (audio and video combined).
Our prayers and thoughts go out to his loved ones at this difficult time.
