While artists from every level of the rap world have commented and expressed their condolences on the death of XXXTentacion, it's only now that we get to hear about X's death from the people who brought him into the mainstream.
In an interview on Beats 1 Radio, Empire Distribution founder Ghazi Shami says that XXXTentacion's death was a deeply troubling moment in hip-hop history.
"I think catastrophic is the word," Shami says. "His loss is catastrophic. There's a whole generation of youth that looked to him for a voice. I think that watching him mature as a human being in just like, the 14 months that I knew him—16 months, whatever it was. I mean, to see him go from a child—he was 18 years old when I met him in the jail and did a record deal with me, to where he was at now, just before it passed away… just the conversations he was having with me, and the things that he was focused on, and the things that he wanted to accomplish, showed the potential of what he was going to contribute to the world. I think it was cut catastrophically short.
Shami goes on to speak on how X was only scratching at the surface of his talent, and that he had so much more to offer in regards to making the world a better place. While X's millions of fans have publicly shown their support for their hero, it seems the label cared just as much. You can listen to Shami's full interview about XXXTentation below.
