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So why did Jahseh Onfroy change his name to XXXTentacion? The rapper told Miami’s 103.5 The Beat’s K. Foxx in March 2017 about the etymology behind his unique name. Onfroy said that the means “unknown temptation.” Onfroy went on to refer to “X” as the “only unknown numeral to [him.]” He continued, “”X” is a variable like the wildcards and unknown…”
When asked why he chose the three “X,” Onfroy said, “I don’t really know, it just came to me I guess… I used to jerk off a lot… I’m talking about I used to watch blue movie after blue movie.” Onfroy added that he masturbated so much, his grandmother wouldn’t let him use the bathroom anymore. The “Tentacion” part of the name comes from the Latin for “Temptation.”
A Reddit thread had earlier guessed that the rapper’s name was related to his love of pornography. One user had another theory for the name saying that Onfroy saw SpaceGhostPurpp’s tracks named “XXX” and “Temptation” and was inspired from that. The change he made was to translate “Temptation” into Spanish.
You can watch the full interview here:
The first song that the rapper released under his name was “Vice City.” At the time, his name was written as, “Xxxtentacion,” but in November 2017 it was changed on Spotify to, “XXXTENTACION.” Complex noted in their round-up of mysterious rapper monikers, XXXTentacion’s name is “hard to pronounce” but “straightforward” in its etymology.
On June 18, Onfroy was shot dead in Deerfield Beach, Florida. TMZ was the first report that the rapper had been shot. His death was later confirmed by the Broward County Sheriff’s Office. Authorities suspect that the motive for the crime may be robbery as he wounded when he left a car dealership. The TMZ report notes that the sheriff’s office is offering $3,000 in exchange for information leading to an arrest in the shooting.