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Kanye West, J. Cole, Miley Cyrus, Others React to XXXTentacion’s Death

MIAMI, FL - DECEMBER 15: (EDITOR'S NOTE: Best quality available) In this handout provided by the Miami Dade County Corrections, Rapper XXXTentacion, also known as Jahseh Dwayne Onfroy poses for his mugshot after being charged with seven new felonies stemming from a 2016 domestic violence case on December 15, 2017 in Miami, Florida. The new charges are for witness tampering and harassment. (Photo by Miami Dade County Corrections via Getty Images)

It is not a secret that XXTentacion—the rapper accused of savage violence by his ex-girlfriend, and who was murdered Monday afternoon—had support within the music industry. When his music was removed from Spotify’s curated playlists, the industry threw its weight around in order to get the policy rolled back. Part of that was due to a fear over how Spotify’s amorphous new guidelines might be applied to other artists in the future, but it was also because many within the industry, both famous and not, believed in XXXTentacion both as an artist and as a person. This was clear when, for instance, Billboard’s Dan Rys surveyed industry bureaucrats about him, and even more so when Kendrick Lamar tweeted that XXXTentacion’s debut album, 17, must be listened to by anyone who “feel[s] anything.” His death has only amplified these sentiments.

https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/1008839504902307840

Other prominent musicians to tweet about him include Diplo and Travis Barker, both of whom worked with XXXTentacion:

Miley Cyrus, an era-defining problematic fav, tweeted and then deleted her own wordless eulogy—a screenshot showing the X song “before i close my eyes.” Maybe the times are changing after all.