Jahseh Dwayne Onfroy, otherwise known as XXXTentacion, was a famous rapper who was killed after being shot in Deerfield Beach, Florida on June 18, 2018. He began his rap career in 2014 with his release of "Vice City" to SoundCloud. From there he kept releasing songs on SoundCloud which created a following of fans and befriended another rapper, Ski Mask the Slump God. At least in social media, Onfroy has been trending a lot since his death.
To my shock, his memory has an overwhelming amount of support (and is apart of some Illuminati conspiracy theories, but I don't really care about that). Why am I shocked? Is it because I don't like his music and can't imagine other people enjoying it? No, that's not it. Is it because I think his rapper name is dumb and I have no clue as to how he is famous?
Hmm, not that either.
Oh, maybe because Onfroy was a borderline evil person. Bingo.
He has done a lot of things during his life. At one of his concerts he punched one of his fans in the face. He and three other people went to rob the home of Che Thomas and Onfroy pistol-whipped Thomas three times. But that is not necessarily what riles me up about him (even though it could). The main issue I have with Onfroy is his abuse; physical and sexual. In 2016, Onfroy presented his then-girlfriend Geneva Ayala with a barbecue pitchfork and a barbecue cleaner and made her pick which one he would penetrate her with.
Thankfully, he did not end up doing this because Ayala passed out. A couple months later, he "head-butted her, punched her, stomped on her, and put her in the bathtub, where he continued hitting and kicking her" as well as threatening to cut out her tongue. All of this occurred because Ayala was singing a verse by an artist that was not Onfroy earlier in the day while they were driving.
After Onfroy was sentenced to jail a year after his robbery of Thomas, he returned to Ayala by putting a knife to her throat, threatening to hit her with a glass bottle, and strangled her because she admitted to being with another man while he was in jail. Ayala recently had to make a GoFundMe to try and pay for eye surgery from a result of Onfroy.
Oh, yeah, did I mention that Ayala was pregnant in October of 2016 when Onfroy beat her so badly that neighbors had to rush her to the hospital and led to another one of his arrests?
Real good guy.
Onfroy did not have an easy life growing up. He was raised with violence around him. However, so do many other individuals who do not go on to do the things Onfroy has done. He has no excuses for his actions, none whatsoever. It appears that millennials are the ones who are really taking his death to heart because that is the age range of his audience. With that being said it is depressing to see how many millennials talk about and are invested in the death of Onfroy, while the deaths of great people like Stephen Hawking barley are noticed by this generational group. This is problematic. We are putting people such as Onfroy on a pedestal while disregarding individuals who positively contribute to society. It is problematic for us to glorify Onfroy in his death because it, in turn, glorifies his actions in his life. His actions are NOT justifiable.
In short, Onfroy ought to only be mourned by his family and close ones. I find it interesting that we do not mourn a murder who dies. We do not mourn a rapist dies. It seems that Onfroy is being mourned due to his one "redeeming" quality; he is a relatively famous rapper. Does that make up for his actions? That's the point of this article; it shouldn't. Chris Brown isn't redeemed for what he did. Ray Rice isn't redeemed for what he did. Why should Onfroy be? A death doesn't erase the horrific actions this man has done. There are worse things happening in the world than the death of this dirt-bag. Unfortunately, "This is America".
