XXXTentacion is a young rapper who has been seen a rapid rise to fame this year. His single, "Look At Me," is what initially brought him a huge following on Soundcloud. Though his polarizing personal conduct has led to many supporters of his becoming detractors over time, there's no denying that the rapper's dark, brutally honest approach to music has helped him carve out a place among rap's young guns. Yesterday, there was even more proof that X's career has officially arrived, with a new honor being bestowed on "Look At Me" that few could've predicted at the outset.
As per a video that has been making the rounds on social media, XXXTentacion showed off the platinum plaque that he received for his well-known song, certified by the RIAA. As per their criteria, a song must have 1 million downloads/purchases to get to the platinum level, or it must boast a mixture of sales and streams where 150 streaming plays equals one download or sale. so, if you're going on streaming alone, the song would have to be played 150,000,000 times before hitting this mark, which is a lot of spins for a teenager rapper out of Florida. X also comments on the fact that his mug shot is used as the picture on the platinum plaque, although it's not known if this was done without prodding from the RIAA or if XXXTentacion or someone on his team requested that this image be used. Either way, it's yet another eerie PR move by an emcee who's clearly not afraid of doing something that will shake his audience up a bit.
The music video for "Look At Me" courted its fair share of controversy when it was released as well, mostly because of a child lynching scene that was included in the visual. Conservative news commentators have called it "murder pornography" and even the KKK supposedly put the rapper on their hit list because of this creative decision. There's no telling where X's career goes from here but, with this new RIAA plaque, the trajectory will certainly be trending up for at least the next little while.
