The first time I heard the rapper XXXTENTACION’s popular track “Look At Me!” was at the hub of student activity: Allegany’s student bar The Other Place. The booming song – stock full of violent sentiments – ran rampant through the bar and, at the time, I didn’t have much of a care. I tapped my foot along and did that awkward, offhand sing-along thing.
But the tapping stopped the second I read the song’s lyrics online the next day. I hadn’t gotten the full scope of X’s content – no help from a strong gin and tonic and bar structured much like a can of sardines, a month after expiration.
In short: “Look At Me!” is aggressive, offensive and downright dirty. Needless to say, I’ve opted for mute every time it’s come on since.
The Florida-based artist brags about his sexual escapades – and, while that messaging often sneaks its way into popular, hip-hop and rap tracks – the lens X speaks through is especially concerning given his personal history and completely unfiltered, unapologetic approach to degrading lyricism.
With an Oct. 5 court date on its way, for charges of aggravated battery of a pregnant woman, domestic battery by strangulation, false imprisonment and witness-tampering, X spews pro-aggression motifs on the song with an air of negligence; he makes light of unsolicited sex, murder, crime – using imagery to paint life-altering acts of injustice as commonplace.
Sadly, “Look At Me!” graced the Billboard Hot 100, but that’s not the major shocker here.
The biggest dagger was the accompanying music video’s reckless attempt at making a social commentary out of a song completely devoid of true human experience. It’s a dichotomy too polarized to connect – especially through a 2D screen and without any explanation from the curator himself.
The summation of the Sept. 12-released video situates with X in a high school classroom. He and fellow students storm the teacher affront the classroom, murder him and then parade around the room in a fit of triumph. Over the violent scene, lyrics like “I put a hole in your parents” play off of the track.
Afterwards, the clear commentary commences: We see X beaten by estranged characters to the video and hung from a tree while still rapping his way through.
All the while, shots of civil unrest in Ferguson, the attacks on Philando Castile, Rodney King and Heather Hayer, as well as the Ferguson riots, flash – leading up to the hanging of a young white child onstage at, presumably, a school pageant.
The point X is making: Black citizens have endured lynching, beatings and systemic racism throughout American history – and people only seem to care when roles reverse. He was looking for a reaction to this innocent hanging in the name of proving a point. But the fuel behind the intended takeaway was too crude to translate. It overshadowed the video’s other fair points.
Instead of uniting all sides – giving insights for solutions – X simply appropriated the pained experiences of victims’ families to curate a shock value-packed piece.
He contradicts his message through and through, choosing to base the social commentary in the messaging of “Look At Me!” a piece that could quite literally serve as a monologue for the unfair, hurtful portrayal of black men as “thugs” and “gang members.”
All the while, he just released an otherwise phenomenal album, 17, packed full of emotive, clear and heart wrenching content that brings the feeling of depression, anxiety and hurt to life. I can’t help but think 17 could’ve offered a track to, at least, alleviate the video’s sonic shortcomings.
As I see it, X doesn’t help the issue – but, rather, kick-starts a self-contradictory narrative, making light of his own violence and using that of others to propel a self-serving image of social concern. And I can’t help but wonder if the whole thing is a PR stunt in light of his upcoming trial.
Simply put, race relations aren’t in a great place as far as 2017 is concerned; and the face of racism changing, with its impacts still reverberating through our American public spaces, offices and homes.
And, for that exact reason, there’s no place for this kind of faulty attempt at taking a social and political stand. In fact, I don’t think it’s a “stand” at all – rather, a sad public relations stunt that accomplishes little change and creates mass harm.
Think about this scenario: A young child, much like the little boy depicted in the video, hears “Look At Me!” in a similar light to myself. They never sought it out, but someone played it and the beat was catchy. With less knowledge of the lyric’s weight, they Google the track, they watch the video, they digest the sentiments within.
Likely, that child – who X cites as a key piece in change during the video – would look over any social messaging. They’d be blinded by the lyricism, shaken by an overly dramatized climax of an innocent hanging.
We need thought leaders spearheading movements with an avoidance of violence, a vision of unity. X, perpetuating the stereotypes that plague the black community and using violent imagery to prove a point – all while offering nothing besides contradictory shock value – puts violence at the base of his platform, a roadblock to any real change.
mcgurllt14@bonaventure.edu
