XXXTentacion’s Father Praises Kendrick Lamar: ‘Thank You For Giving My Son A Platform’

XXXTentacion made a significant impact during his brief time in the creative scene, especially impressing Kendrick Lamar.

In 2017, when the late rapper released his debut album “17,” Kendrick Lamar shared a link to it on social media, urging his followers to “listen to this album if you feel anything. raw thoughts.” Shortly after, he revealed he had already listened to the 11-track album five times. This endorsement provided a substantial boost to XXXTentacion’s burgeoning career, a gesture for which his father, Dwayne Onfroy, expressed heartfelt gratitude.

In a recent Instagram video posted on Tuesday (June 25), Dwayne Onfroy, XXXTentacion’s father, acknowledged Kendrick Lamar’s early support: “My name is Dwayne Onfroy, father of rapper known as XXXTentacion. I just want to say, first of all, thank you for giving my son a platform when he was an unknown artist […] he gave him a shoutout when his album was released.”

In 2018, Spotify implemented the Hate Content & Hateful Conduct Policy. Under these rules, XXXTentacion’s music was removed from Spotify’s editorial and algorithmic playlists due to charges including aggravated battery of a pregnant woman, domestic battery by strangulation, false imprisonment, and witness tampering by an ex-girlfriend.

However, Spotify reversed its decision shortly after Kendrick Lamar’s team contacted CEO Daniel Ek and head of artist relations Troy Carter, threatening to withdraw Lamar’s music from the platform.

“I reached out to Troy over there, we had a conversation and I expressed how I felt about it, about censorship, how you can’t do artists that way,” stated Anthony Tiffith, CEO of Top Dawg Entertainment, in an interview with Billboard. “I don’t think it’s right for artists to be censored, especially in our culture. How did they just pick those [artists] out?

“How come they didn’t pick out any others from any other genres or any other different cultures? There [are] so many other artists that have different things going on, and they could’ve picked anybody. But it seems to me that they’re constantly picking on hip-hop culture.”

Responding to Kendrick Lamar’s intervention, Onfroy added in the aforementioned video: “You stepped up to the plate for him when a lot of people just stood by and stood back [while] Spotify had him under pressure [and] wasn’t even attempting to play his songs. Real king — I’ve always respected you for that. Always.”