Biography

Jahseh Dwayne Onfroy (born January 23, 1998), better known by his stage name XXXTentacion (stylized as XXXTENTACION; /ɛks.ɛks.ɛks.tɛn.təsˈjɒn/ eks-eks-eks-ten-təs-YON), is an American rapper from Lauderhill, Florida. He is best known for his breakthrough song "Look at Me".

Onfroy is often considered the most successful artist to have come from the audio distribution platform Soundcloud, where he is a prominent artist for "Soundcloud Rap", a subgenre inspired by trap and lo-fi music. Born in Planation, Florida, Onfroy spent most of his childhood in Lauderhill, Florida. Onfroy began writing music after being released from a youth correction center and eventually released his first song on Soundcloud in 2014. Onfroy first began to gather notoriety during his time in prison on charges of false imprisonment, witness tampering, and aggravated battery of a pregnant victim. Onfroy was later released on bail on March 26, 2017.

Onfroy announced his debut studio album, 17 on the social media platform snapchat on July 30, 2017 with an expected release date of August 25, 2017.

Early life

Jahseh Dwayne Onfroy was born on January 23, 1998 in Plantation, Florida and grew up in Pompano Beach, Florida and Lauderhill, Florida. He was mainly raised by his grandmother due to his mother's financial situation. Onfroy's interest in music initially started after his aunt persuaded him to begin attending school choir and then later on church choir. Onfroy was kicked out of school choir shortly after joining due to attacking another student. Onfroy was expelled from middle school after a series of physical altercations took place. His mother then enrolled him into Sheridan House Family Ministries for six months.

He attended Piper High School but dropped out in the 10th grade. He is of Egyptian, Indian, German, Jamaican and Italian descent. In 2014, he spent a year in a juvenile detention center, where he met Stokeley Clevon Goulbourne, better known as Ski Mask the Slump God. Onfroy and Goulbourne became good friends, and would go on to collaborate with each other many times upon their release from detention.

Onfroy worked as a call centre operator between 2014 and 2016 to provide for his then growing career. The career persumably ended after Onfroy was arrested.

Career

2014-2017: Beginnings and breakout

Onfroy uploaded his first song as XXXTentacion to his SoundCloud account in 2014 called "Vice City." Over time, he would continue to upload small snippets of songs that would either soon release or remain unreleased. Onfroy eventually joined rapper Ski Mask The Slump God's group Very Rare before breaking off and starting the Members Only collective, which Ski Mask joined. Onfroy released one collaboration album with Ski Mask the Slump God, called Members Only Vol. 1 before releasing Members Only Vol. 2, in 2015 with several members of the growing Members Only collective. In 2016, he released the EP Willy Wonka Was a Child Murderer, with music heavily inspired by heavy metal and indie music.

Onfroy's most popular song to date is "Look at Me," which was originally released in 2016 and re-released in 2017, and peaked at number 34 on US Billboard Hot 100 and the Top 40 of the Canadian Hot 100. The single helped him gain more popularity in early 2017 due to accusations of Canadian rapper Drake using a similar rap flow in his then unreleased song, now released under the name "KMT", that he previewed at a concert in Amsterdam featuring British rapper Giggs.

2017: Release from prison and debut album

After his release from prison, Onfroy released three songs on his SoundCloud account on April 18, 2017. Onfroy announced in an interview with WMIB that he is currently working on his studio albums, Bad Vibes and 17, as well as mixtape I Need Jesus. In an interview three days after his release from prison, Onfroy said to XXL “I got this really really, really good album called 17. That’s more of an alternative, R&B sound — Then I’ve got this mixtape called I Need Jesus, which is mainly rap and the underground sound I did."

He currently has over 400 million plays on Soundcloud.

Onfroy announced his first nationwide tour on April 28, 2017. The tour, titled "The Revenge Tour" had 26 tour dates overall and was widely publicized due to numerous controversies which included a rapper being assaulted, Onfroy being involved in an altercation on stage that led to him being knocked unconscious and an audience member stabbed, Onfroy being thrown into a barricade by security and Onfroy punching a fan. Onfroy announced the cancellation of the rest of the tour dates due to his cousin being shot on June 24, 2017 though the final tour date in Broward County, Florida would still go ahead.

Onfroy was named as the 10th pick on XXL's "2017 Freshman Class" after being voted in. In his XXL freestyle (which is regularly done by freshmen where a rapper will rhyme acapella), Onfroy insulted rapper J.Cole by referring to J.Cole's dislike of artist Kanye West's affiliation with U.S President Donald Trump whilst making songs about former president, Barack Obama comparing it to "sucking government dick".

His debut commercial project, Revenge, an 8-track mixtape consisting of previously released songs, was released on May 16, 2017. The collaborative mixtape Members Only, Vol. 3, with Members Only, was released on June 26, 2017.

Onfroy announced he was taking a small break from social media on July 20, 2017 before coming back two weeks later to announce the release date for his debut album 17.Rapper D.R.A.M brought Onfroy out at a concert in the Staples Centre during Kendrick Lamar's DAMN. Tour, being the first time that Onfroy performed at the arena and the first time he was brought out as an opening act by a mainstream artist. This was following Lamar's comments about rappers using ghostwriters for song lyrics which may have been directed at Drake, whom Onfroy had a rap feud with earlier in the year.

Musical style

Onfroy's influences are Kurt Cobain, Tupac Shakur, Cage the Elephant, The Fray, Papa Roach, Three Days Grace, Gorillaz and Coldplay. When speaking on his influences, Onfroy said, "I’m really into multi-genre things that aren’t just based around rapping itself. I’m more inspired by artists in other genres besides rap." Onfroy as an artist has been defined as versatile and his music has been described as having a "lo-fi" aesthetic, being diverse and experimental, drawing influence from heavy metal.

Onfroy's music also has the tendency to contain distorted bass and an "intentional lack of polish". Speaking about this, Onfroy has said the intentionally bad mixing on his tracks make it "genuine"

Controversies

Onfroy is considered to be a very controversial figure due to his legal issues and various incidents that have occured during his concerts including inciting riots and assault of an audience member.

Incidents at Concerts

Following Onfroy's release from jail on March 26, 2017, a surprise concert was arranged on April 7 in Miami, Florida. The show had low admissions of $5 and was apparently filled up before Onfroy arrived and when Onfroy did start performing, a riot broke out. Police eventually escorted Onfroy out and closed the show down.

Rapper and member of Onfroy's Members Only collective Wifisfuneral was assaulted at the first show in Onfroy's Revenge Tour in Houston, Texas on May 31, 2017. Wifisfuneral stage dived into the audience where several audience members proceeded to kick him and then leave the venue.

During a concert in San Diego, a physical altercation happened leading to Onfroy being knocked unconscious and an audience member being stabbed, though the injury was non-life-threatening. The assailant was reported to be an associate of rapper Rob Stone, one of the individuals that was currently involved in an ongoing feud that involved Onfroy and fellow south Florida rapper Ski Mask the Slump God. The feud had already led to Ski Mask the Slump God being assaulted during rapper Desiigner's Outlet Tour.

Several days afterwards, Stone released a diss track titled "Xxxtracredit" in which he mentions the attack in San Diego and then proceeds to tell Onfroy to "not come back to California". Stone later on denied knowing the assailant in an interview.

On June 18, 2017, Onfroy punched an audience member during a concert at Ogden Theatre, Colorado. Onfroy claimed the attack was in self-defense as he had requested no one to touch him in the audience warning that he'd punch them if they did.

Onfroy was arranged to performance at the Concord Music Hall in Chicago, Illinois on June 21, 2017. The concert was cancelled last minute and this led to hundreds of fans flooding the streets and nearly inciting a riot. Onfroy stated that the reason for the performance being cancelled was the venue's decision to cancel last minute. Four days later, Onfroy's cousin was shot and he cancelled his tour.

Drake Feud

On January 28, 2017 rapper Drake previewed a new track titled "KMT" with british rapper Giggs in Amsterdam. The song was then compared by users on social media to Onfroy's breakout song "Look at Me!" due to the similar flow. Drake had followed Onfroy on twitter before "KMT" was released. In an interview with XXL, Onfroy was questioned about the Drake comparisons, saying "If Drake is gonna take the flow, and I don’t know if he legitimately did, but if that is the situation, at least reach out to a nigga, help a nigga out in this situation"

On March 18, 2017 Drake released More Life which featured "KMT". Onfroy was released from prison on probation two weeks later and in an interview with WMIB, Onfroy called Drake a "bitch" and said that he respected Drake's influence but felt like KMT was disrespecting him. The following day on Twitter, Onfroy began to post pictures of Drake's mother saying "she could get it". Onfroy then posted a picture of Drake's mother and a child version of Drake with Onfroy's face photoshopped over that of Drake’s father, Dennis Graham.

Drake later denied the accusations that he stole Onfroy's "flow" in an interview with DJ Semtex. Drake denied knowing XXXTentacion and said that he only heard about him about the rumors circulated following the KMT snippet. Onfroy replied on his twitter requesting that Drake come to Florida after Onfroy saying he won't "twitter rap with niggas", then on a livestream, he claimed he could "out-rap" Drake.

Rapper Offset from the hip-hop group Migos used Instagram's livestream feature to verbally attack Onfroy further escalating the feud. Chicago rapper, 600Breezy, (who is currently in prison for violating his probation) then claimed that Drake gave him permission to enter into the feud and attack Onfroy. 600Breezy told Onfroy that he has "got a couple niggas that will knock you off in your own city". 600Breezy later went to Florida to attempt to search for Onfroy, though it was fruitless.

Following Onfroy being knocked unconscious on stage in San Diego, Drake liked a post on instagram ridiculing Onfroy.

Legal issues

In 2014, Onfroy was sent to a youth detention center for a year.

In July 2016, Onfroy was arrested and charged with robbery and assault with a deadly weapon.After posting the bail of $10,000 in early October of the same year, while awaiting trial, Onfroy was arrested again later that month on charges of false imprisonment, witness tampering, and aggravated battery of a pregnant victim. Onfroy was released from jail on bail on March 26, 2017.

Personal life

Onfroy was in a relationship with Geneva Ayala until October 2016 when he allegedly abused her after founding out she was having an affair. Onfroy has stated that he never abused Ayala and she was actually attacked by a gang of people. Onfroy has a strained relationship with his mother due to being kicked out of the house in his teenage years.

Onfroy has described himself as a pornography addict.

Discography

Studio albums

Mixtapes

EPs

• The Fall (2014)
• Ice Hotel (2014)
• ItWasntEnough (2016)
• Willy Wonka Was a Child Murderer (2016)

Collaborative mixtapes

• Members Only, Vol. 1 (with Ski Mask The Slump God) (2015)
• Members Only, Vol. 2 (with Members Only) (2015)
• Members Only, Vol. 3 (with Members Only) (2017)

Singles

As lead artist

As featured artist

Guest appearances

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