XXXTentacion
?

I want to confront one of my demons in a review that's different from the usual.

I define "?" as a demon because for years it was a sort of taboo impossible to debunk. It was that album and that artist that all my friends listened to a bit for fashion while I was discovering and listening to Queen and the Beatles.

This is especially because it's an album by an American Rap artist, a world that absolutely does not belong to me; I didn't feel connected to what he had to say and especially not to the way he said it.

Today I don't say that I've changed my mind, but with the maturity and experience gathered in these (few) years, I can recognize that everything, as we usually see it, is just the tip of an iceberg, and what's underneath isn't necessarily better than what's on the surface, but it is there.

I listened to "?" again during a sad moment, and perhaps that's what made me see it from different perspectives, because, in fact, it's a depressed album, yet it embraces that thin madness of crime from tough American neighborhoods.

Moreover, Jahseh Dwayne Onfroy (XXXTentacion) at 6 years old stabbed a man who was mistreating his mother and was later reported for assaults, kidnapping, and robbery.

So the fertile ground on which he based his entire (and short) life wasn't so fertile after all.

Surely music saved him (which isn't true because he fell victim to gang feuds, but perhaps it could have gone much worse), as often happens in these contexts, but he didn't have anything else to tell us except a discomfort, or a mix of different discomforts.

The first effect when listening to the album is disorientation... indeed, more than being rap, it's an R&B work with rap and electronic influences.

The incredible thing is the alternation between the delicacy of some tracks and the rawness of others.

We could consider it a collection of the artist's personalities and thoughts... he talks about love, sharing his point of view, sometimes distorted and compulsive, and he tells about his life, his problems... he lets out everything that comes to his mind in a brutally sincere way.

It reminds me a bit of myself when I write, I put on paper a sort of stream of consciousness to let off steam, whether for a review or for texts that will remain forever in the notes of my phone.

There's something that fascinates me from this point of view, the opening track. It’s a prologue, what we used to call at school the artist's statement of intent:

"If you're not open-minded, open your mind before listening to this album. If you don't listen to albums with alternative sounds and have never tried to broaden your horizons, open your mind before listening to this album. This album is very different, much more versatile, and much more uplifting than the previous one. It can comfort you, but at the same time dishearten you. With this project, I am letting you into my mind again, I am showing you my madness and my genius, my energy."

This premise is the key to understanding, because everything you'll listen to after will make sense, it will tell a coherent story, taking you on a journey into a life full of problems where a distorted and fragile vision of things often stagnates. It's a journey of ups and downs, much like everyone's life in the end.

I never thought I would say it, but I touched upon a fragility, especially in the tracks where he expresses points of view completely different from mine.

This is also because the arrangements and vocals lend themselves to this type of emotion, as they are essential: percussion, guitar, and a broken voice.

I recommend taking this journey with him, in the end, even what is radically distant from us can enrich us.