XXXTENTACION is, without question, one of the most popular artists in the streaming era. Before his tragic 2018 death, songs of his like “F**k Love” with Trippie Redd, “Jocelyn Flores,” “SAD!” and “Moonlight” all quickly cemented themselves as some of the biggest songs in his discography and this generation of hip-hop.
X was one of the main pioneers of the youthful emo rap sound that came out of SoundCloud, and the album he released right before his death, ?, is a testament to that. Further proving his diverse sound and the beautiful marriage it had with the current streaming era, Chart Data reported that ? has now become the most streamed hip-hop album in Spotify history.
This week, the album surpassed Drake’s Scorpion album, also released in 2018. ? now sits at 7.884 billion plays on Spotify, while Scorpion currently has 7.883 billion. This insurmountable number achieved by XXXTENTACION likely comes from the success of “SAD!,” his most powerful single off of the album which has achieved RIAA Diamond status since his passing.
While there have been a handful of posthumous albums released by XXXTENTACION’s camp, they simply have not had the impact of the two prior albums he released, particularly ?. Fans have always had a gripe with how X’s posthumous releases have been handled, and the streams for his music pre-death compared to the posthumous releases surely reflect that.
What are your favorite songs from “?“?