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In August 2017, an XXXTentacion death hoax made the rounds after the rapper posted an Instagram video that appeared to show him hanging himself from the branch of a tree. According to Hot New Hip Hop, the video was extremely “disturbing.”
“In a clip on Instagram, XXXTentacion seems to hang himself off of a tree. While we can not confirm whether this is actually a real video of him legitimately hanging himself but it’s definitely disturbing.”
Following the news of his death on June 18 this year, the internet has been wondering if this is another hoax, despite the fact that the police have confirmed that he was shot and killed while sitting in his car in southern Florida.
“The adult male that was taken to the hospital has been pronounced dead. The adult male victim has been confirmed as 20-year-old Jahseh Onfroy aka rapper XXXTentacion,” the Broward County Sheriff’s Department confirmed on Monday.
XXX fans thought the 2017 post was a publicity stunt, but XXX later explained that it was for an upcoming music video. “If you thought I would ‘pretend’ to kill myself for a publicity stunt you’re f*cking stupid,” he wrote on Instagram at the time. The video was deleted at some point later. The clip was indeed part of the music video for his song, “Look at Me.”
Despite many people thinking that he took his own life, XXX cleared up the confusion in a subsequent post. You can watch his video explanation below. Please be advised that the following video contains strong language and might be considered offensive to some.
“It was a prop for my music video. It was a piece of the music video. Everybody needs to chill the f*ck out. I was just trying to preview it. I didn’t know people would not catch on … I was in the middle of shooting it, so I couldn’t explain myself … I’m not playing around with suicide. Especially since I had a girl kill herself in my f*ckin’ hotel room. Not even two, three months ago,” he said in a livestream.
As previously reported by Heavy, an Instagram video of XXXTentacion previously saying that he wasn’t dead has been circulating online, further muddying the water as whether or not he was shot dead on Monday, June 18.
You can see that video below.
The video above has been reposted several times, with people insisting that the video is current and that XXX posted it after police confirmed his death. In addition, some people have been posting that they actually spoke with XXX and that he isn’t dead.
“Other posts reference claims by a Twitter user who said that the rapper had confirmed to her that she was alive. She has now deleted and retracted those posts, writing in new updates that ‘was lied to’ and ‘sincerely apologizes,'” reported the Independent.
On Wednesday, June 20, police arrested 22-year-old Dedrick D. Williams, and booked him for first degree murder. It is unknown if police are seeking any other suspects in the case.
