only post in this thread that makes sense. x made bangers and had a cult behind him but most of us have seen him coming up and we all seen how popular he started to get only after he died, compared to what he was when he was still alive. and X music is not as accessible as juices or drakes (mainstream radios still dont play x music to this day) but X is a legend regardless. yall just gotta be realistic

in a nutshell

Are you f***ing dumb?

XXX had hits but his best songs were pre-17.

you’re dumb

Sometimes I wonder how these discussions would've been had if Kendrick (who let's be real, and I say this as a Kendrick fan, it's not REALLY a surprise he f***ed with that depressing ass album lol.) had not cosigned that album tbh.

XXX had hits no doubt but no artist with the type of graphic allegations and reputation (that we have on film/camera) that he was facing was ever gonna face worldwide success. Man still had that tweet "lil dylan roof" up, yall don't think niggas would've went AT him for that when it comes to the tradition of "digging up tweets on artists?"

MJ had cases involving children but as someone mentioned, he was already famous and outta here way before that s*** even happened. Thriller dropped before he purchased Neverland Ranch in '88

R Kelly actively helped a lot of people out in the industry during his stardom so he was an actual asset at the time that both artists and the labels couldn't afford to lose to those charges he was facing. XXXtentacion never wrote for anyone nor produced for anyone and all in all, didn't have the talent to overcome those glaring flaws that Kelly had.

Appealing to one specific niche crowd (the emo kids) is not the same as having undebatable star power. Nor was his personal life something that bigger artists that live off appeal would wanna stand by and risk their own bags. For example, I know that they were friends but just because she's a pop artist, if he ended up going to jail for those abuse charges, Billie Eilish would've 110% thrown XXX under the bus without a doubt.

He had talent but to what extent is gassed. Homeboy knew how to use the distortion filter on his production and strummed a guitar while singing like a rejected soft-rock band from 2005 and niggas call him the next Drake.

Let that b**** ass nigga know

X's album sold 131k first week when he was alive and his posthumous album sold 132k. That narrative that he only became big in death is dumb

Kendrick co-sign didn’t change anything imo. He connected w the kids heavy. He probably would’ve went to jail behind beating his girl tho

it absolutely validated him as "more than just something that kids could relate to" to X stans.

Everytime someone would try to be like "who f***s with X" on ktt someone would always quote with Kendrick's "raw thoughts" tweet. When that's just Kendrick's bag.

It's a fact backed by statistics. His numbers for ? had huge jump after he died. his post humous album was unfinished songs with feats added on and the sales reflected that.

yes i understand that but there are people who say he only got big because of his death. He still had huge success in the one year of his mainstream career before he died

He was like gunna big before death

I must be old head bc I never heard any X songs when he was alive. I was in college at that time too

bruh he was mainstream for a year and went from selling 87k first week (same week as Uzi's luv is rage 2) to selling 132k first week on his next album in the same year before his death. Gunna has never even sold 130k on a solo project, r u out of ur mind?

you guys are dumb as s***

Delusional ass thread

YouTube subscribers mean f*** all for musicians. 1) X has a younger fan base who probably use YouTube more than dedicated Drake fans given Drake’s Apple Music affiliation. 2) It’s music - most people just search for a song and play it, they’re not subscribing to artists like they’re actual YouTubers and waiting to new music to drop lmao.

I don’t think he would have been as big as drake but he was in prime position to capitalize on being one of the major voices of a new generation.

He would be huge right now and it makes me sad to think about bc he would have influenced the current culture a lot. You can never get back lost creativity and he had a lot of potential.

No doubt he would've been one of the biggest artists in the world, his audience was phenomenally big even before he was murdered.
Very good artist and was actually healing physically and mentally from what he was doing in the past
RIP

U stupid, he was still experimenting and was nowhere near his peak

Artists as versatile as him dont start droppin mid that soon