My Condolences
In light of the recent, and (kind of) unexpected death of the rapper Jahsey Onfroy, aka XXXTENTACION, or X as I'll refer to him in this, I'd like to cover how I believe that will effect everyone within his sphere of influence, which happened to be quite substantial.
Before I talk about anything regarding this sensitive topic, I'd like to offer my condolences to him and those close to him, and anyone effected adversely by his death. He was an exceptionally talented artist, bold in his attempts, and genuine in his character. He developed positively once the spotlight shined on him, instead of degrading further as most do. He had the courage to test the boundaries within both his genre and his environment. He encouraged those he influenced to better who they are, for themselves. His, more or less, mission statement, was a commendable one and I respect him greatly, both as an artist and an individual.
But, now, we must wonder —
How far does this reach?
As with every death of a popular artist, the media obsesses over it and subsequently everyone hops onto the bandwagon of the artist, for better or for worse. In this case, it's been mostly for worse. X has had a violent past no doubt, sprinkled along with it has been a variety of allegations and rumors that have been propped up by the sole fact that he has been violent in other ways.
Of course this is no surprise; whenever any artist becomes popular, the literal and metaphorical spotlight shines onto them with blinding magnitude, revealing every flaw.
Unfortunately, in regards to the death of an artist in the same genre, Lil Peep, there has been a trend along with death where everyone focuses solely on what had been wrong with them — rather than what good they have done or what they were trying to do. In X's case, past violence, in Peeps, drug use.
In both cases, the spotlight has shined too brightly on each artist's humanity, or their missing of the mark. But with both cases, the light became so bright, it shined onto those pointing it at each artist. This is both a blessing and a curse. It's similar to receiving a diagnosis from a doctor that you have cancer that can be treated; sure it's awful to have cancer but at least now you know you have it.
This has been especially apparent in my personal experience, through social media, primarily Facebook and Instagram. I've seen multiple people being grateful he died, spewing invective towards a dead man, and multiple memes already mocking the deaths of X and Peep.
The actions have been beyond detestable, but it is an odd phenomenon, seeing a mob mentality so perfectly clear in its presentation. The especially eerie reality that is present here is that the very people wishing death on another are the same people responsible for the future.
People have been so eager to hop on the bandwagon filled with statements not unlike, "it's just karma", "he did it to himself", "I'm glad he's dead", "he deserved it", or even "wish it happened sooner". But the people saying these things have an almost invisible covering of, "If everyone's saying it, then that makes it okay." However I can almost promise to you that if this were a separate instance, where people were surrounded by those close to them, it would be no where near the level it's at now.
Either way, it is incredible to me how quick people are to say such heinous things when they have people standing beside them saying the same.
Conclusively
X's death will do a lot of things, none of which are very apparent. But when you have an artist so deeply connected to millions of fans, and an equal number of people ready to fire hatred towards both him and his fans, you'll find how uncivil our civilization can become when polarized so heavily. The more grounds people have to stand on against a friend, or a stranger, the individual no longer matters and each person simply becomes a regurgitation of what everyone else is saying on the side they've chosen.
Regardless, my point isn't to pick a side. My point is to show how dangerous picking a side can be and how polarizing everything has become. An artist's death alone can show how ready people are to take up arms against those they were friends with. This is a dangerous realization independent of the death as a whole, so take that for whatever you may find it is worth.
