An honest R.I.P. to XXXTentacion

Martin_Canine About ten minutes before I learned of XXXTentacion's death, I recommended his "?" album to a friend. Both of us didn't know what happened yet. Was it naive to assume an artist is still alive as you're talking about them? Such moments really make you think, you know?

In his emotive music, X layed open the scars he suffered over years of struggles, violence and hatred. To be honest, due to the bleak tone of his songs I was kind of worried about his state, knowing depression fairly well myself, but I definitely did not expect his death to happen this way, and not that soon. He was murdered in a senseless, unnecessary act of violence. The vile killing of a great young artist who just made it big.

I was shocked when I read all the tweets about his death. Usually, the deaths of celebrities don't shock me like this. Usually, when something like this happens, I'm distant. Usually, I instantly accept it, as hard as it sounds. Last year, Chester Bennington's suicide hit me hard. But the reason was very clear: he was the first celebrity to die whose music accompanied me throughout much of my life. I had many memories with these songs, these moods, these emotions. His death sometimes made me reconsider these sounds. With XXXTentacion, the situation was the opposite: a month ago I didn't know him. I was completely overwhelmed by his album, and gave it very clear 5 out of 5. It was one of 4 albums I already considered for my top spot of my "best albums of the year" list. When I wrote my review I knew little about him. Afterwards, I read a lot into his back story, and his music got deeper and deeper with each listen. I was shocked to learn that he already left this earth when I just barely got to know this fascinating artist. This has never been the case before. Other artists who died young in the past years I usually knew posthumously, like Lil Peep or Christina Grimmie. Others I discovered about two years ago and had some time with them, or just did not follow closely. Bennington was the first who died that I knew for half of my life, X was the first that I just discovered and who I expected to show a development in the years to come.

An honest Rest in Peace. Not just as a phrase like so many will write. But deeply honest.

Comments

He sucked, but RIP - 445956 (6/18/2018)

RIP - visitor (8/10/2018)

Wasn't a fan of him but definitely R.I.P. He died so young and it seemed like he was on the journey to becoming a better person. - visitor (8/21/2018)

Sadly, over here he only became famous after his death. As my review of "? " probably reflects, not many information about his life were publically known about him in German speaking territory. But I still really loved his album, and bought the physical copy immediately upon release. - Martin_Canine (8/22/2018)