XXXtentacion was one of the most popular artists of the SoundCloud era.
But X also had a wild career
that included beef with some of the biggest artists in the industry including the Migos.
Lets look at what led up to X getting jumped by the Migos in LA back in 2017.
X was born in Plantation, Florida but spent most of his childhood in Lauderhill.
He was raised mainly by his grandmother while his mother was dealing with personal problems.
When X was only 10 years old, his father got arrested on RICO Charges in Arizona
in a DEA Sting Operation and was in jail for nine years.
He was then deported back to Jamaica in late 2016.
X first got into music after his aunt made him join the school choir
but he later got kicked out for attacking another student.
Then after getting expelled in middle school for fighting,
X’s mother enrolled him in a youth program at the Sheridan House Family Ministries.
There, he started listening to different genres of music
including nu-metal, hard rock, and rap.
He later attended Piper High School but dropped out in 10th grade.
At one point he was sent to juvie for gun charges,
which is where he met his friend and collaborator Ski Mask the Slump God.
Together, they started freestyling and formed a rap group.
After they got out, X and Ski started robbing houses to get money.
Around the same time X purchased a snowball microphone.
They started recording themselves and uploading their tracks to SoundCloud.
X dropped his first EP The Fall in November 2014.
He and Ski Mask would form the collective Members Only
with other artists in Florida's underground rap scene
and release Members Only Vol 1 and 2 in 2015.
Later that year, X dropped his breakout hit Look At Me!
But it took some time for the song to go viral.
In July 2016, X was arrested and charged with robbery and assault with a deadly weapon.
He was released on a $10,000 bail.
He got arrested again in October on charges of false imprisonment,
witness tampering, and aggravated battery of his pregnant girlfriend.
These charges have been disputed and X was still fighting the case at the time of his death.
But, while he was locked up, the song Look at Me! started to blow up.
It peaked at #34 on the Billboard chart, without any major label support or promotion.
X had already built a large cult fanbase
who streamed the song hundreds of millions of times on SoundCloud and YouTube
while he was in jail.
Then, in February 2017, Drake was on tour and previewed a new song while in Amsterdam.
The song was later released as KMT featuring British rapper Gigs on Drake’s More Life project.
Many fans noticed that Drake’s flow on the track sounded similar to the flow X used on Look at Me!.
So, X fans started to go at Drizzy for stealing his sound.
This led to an increase in popularity for X and his music,
which is how a lot of mainstream rap fans first heard about him.
Drake addressed the controversy in an interview a few weeks later.
He denied intentionally stealing the rapper’s flow
but admits the flow of the first few lines are similar.
X aint believe Drizzy’s explanation and went on social media to diss the rapper.
He tweeted:
“Drake’s career is almost over,
he better start investing money into real estate cause once it’s all over
he really gonna see the fake love”
“I’m not the first n**** he bit,
nor will I be the last, drake a p**** n**** money don’t buy you respect”
“Now this p**** n**** tryna play it safe and play it innocent,
but it’s cool we all know Hotline Bling was a bite of Cha”
“I’m not gonna say no names but its funny how one of my n**** hit me up
sayin Drake watched your interview and f**** with you”
X got out of jail in April 2017.
He immediately did a radio interview where he addressed the beef
and continued to take shots at Drake.
X said that Drake hit up a DJ he knew
and told him that he watched an interview with X and that he was rockin with him and Ski.
Drake was supposed to get in contact with his manager so they could work together,
but that never happened.
Instead, he dropped the preview of KMT where he just jacked his flow.
So, when Drake said that he wasn’t aware that the songs sounded similar,
X knew he was lying.
Drake aint respond publicly to the disses from X, but his homie Offset did.
This is where the beef between X and the Migos began.
Offset went on live and recorded himself listening to an interview with X
where he disses Drake.
Offset would then say “You n**** silly.
How you unheard of talking bout a n**** stole your swag?
We ain’t even heard of you, shorty. Get your ass outta jail.”
Not long after that, Offset got into a whole different beef,
after criticizing multiple rappers for wearing upside-down crosses
and using other imagery associated with devil worship and the occult.
He went on on IG Live and said
“All y’all n***** wearing upside-down crosses, even my little partners, stop that s***.
You look lame, All that worship the devil s***.
Get with God, man."
This came just a day after Lil Uzi wore an upside-down cross necklace
to the Billboard Music Awards.
Uzi responded by posting a video of himself
wearing the same upside-down cross chain to prove he wasn’t bothered.
Sahbabii, an Atlanta rapper also known to rock upside-down crosses
also responded by saying that the upside-down cross
was actually a part of a belief system he created that has nothing to do with satanism.
He also posted a series of videos that were later deleted
where he took shots at Offset’s fashion sense.
He also clowned the rapper for pretending to be GD when he’s not even from the real streets of Atlanta
and for only donating $1000 to Atlanta’s Booker T Washington High School.
He wrote “I showed these n****s respect
now f**k Migos!!
We ain’t goin for no disrespect.
Nobody asked this lame a-- n***a opinion.
N***a you look lame f**k you talmboud.
My cross gone stay upside down y’all n****s donate $1000 to Washington
but throw $10,000 in a club. I will beat yo ass.”
X then jumped in to take shots at Offset and the rest of the Migos.
He hopped on social media and said
“I don’t respect no n***a that don’t wanna see a young n***a prosper,
“That s**t p***y. You supposed to wanna help the new generation.
Tell this p***y n***a Offset to get off a n***a d**k.
The f**k you on that young n***a d**k for?
Always on somebody d**k. Shut yo p***y a-- up.
N****s like 35 still tryna catch the wave. Yo career over.”
So, X wasn’t even going at Offset for his comments about the crosses.
He was just mad that he was hating on the new generation instead of embracing them.
Then, the beef hit its peak in November 2017,
after the Migos allegedly caught X lackin and jumped him in LA.
X hopped on social media
and let all his fans know that he got jumped by the Migos and their crew outside his hotel.
His face looked pretty bruised up.
He claimed that the crew pulled a gun on him, his girl, and their friends.
Then he posted a video to his Instagram story showing off his bruises with the caption
“F*** da Migos”.
He also throws shots at them for letting him get away
and not shooting him for all the sh*t he’d been talking.
Footage of the fight later surfaced on social media and showed a bunch of goons jump out of a car,
sucker punch one of X’s friends,
and start a huge brawl on the sidewalk outside the hotel.
X told DJ Akademiks that Takeoff was the only one actually involved in the fight
but he saw Offset and Quavo watching from a car nearby.
X also posted a video that allegedly showed Takeoff running away from them
with his security guard, which he says was taken right after the fight.
X doubled down on the disrespect
by shooting his shot at Cardi B, Offset’s fiancé.
He posted pic of Cardi to his Instagram, along with the caption
“Just letting u kno rn bae… I don’t got no pressure witchu…
I bump bodak orange when I shower…. I love u.”
X continued going at the Migos on social media for several days.
He even challenged Offset to a celebrity boxing match and said that if he ain’t accept,
it was because he was scared.
At one point he admitted that part of the reason he kept going at the Migos
was because of the clout.
Part of what helped X reach a large audience in the first place was his beef with Drake.
So it made sense that he wanted to do the same after fighting the Migos.
Eventually, it was revealed that Takeoff was not actually involved in the fight
and neither were any official members of the Migos.
The dudes who jumped X just had a similar style and were rocking Migos merch and chains.
It still ain’t clear if these dudes was sent by the actual Migos to fight X
or if they just decided to do it on their own to impress the rappers.
The Migos kept their mouths shut about the incident and never confirmed nor denied the rumor.
X even apologized to Takeoff for clowning him and said he only had problems with Offset.
X commented on one of Takeoff’s photos on IG, saying
“from the bottom of my heart, I apologize to you.
You only caught in the crossfire of your bloodline. Blessings”
But by that point, it seems like the damage had already been done.
The beef between X and Offset never officially ended
but it seemed like it died down after the fight.
X got tired of taking shots at Offset and the Migos never responded to him publicly again.
But a few months later, X was shot and killed during a robbery in Deerfield Beach, Florida.
His death was a major blow to hip hop
and any rappers who had issues with him while he was alive were forced to let it go.
X had a short but influential career that was full of ups and downs.
But his fans loved him so much because he wasn't afraid to speak his mind,
even if it meant taking shots at some of the biggest rappers in the game.