Following XXXTentacion‘s passing yesterday, Spotify are copping some backlash for promoting his music via a playlist titled ‘THIS IS XXXTENTACION’ with the caption, ‘Rest in peace, XXXTentacion.’
The move by Spotify is alarming since, just weeks ago, the band has completely stripped the rapper’s music from all of their playlists as part of their ‘hateful content’ policy, given XXX’s multiple allegations of assault and homophobia against him. The policy also affected R. Kelly. Kendrick Lamar even threatened to remove his music from the platform over the controversial policy.
Although Spotify did eventually backtrack on the policy, Twitter is generally seeing this as a tasteless cash grab – and that’s from both the rapper’s fans and his critics.
didnt spotify wanna get rid of xxxtentacion’s music a few weeks back? pic.twitter.com/qgV91hcJ4d
— Andres Marticorena (@martydotandres) June 19, 2018
Lol @Spotify dedicated a playlist to ##XXXTENTACION . Spotify ain’t shit. You removed his music from playlists. Now y’all wanna capitalize off his death by putting it back in? Y’all aint shit for that
— fat mahomes (@jaycutzz) June 20, 2018
https://twitter.com/Luke_Battson/status/1009138647063547905
So spotify pulled XXXtentacion music because of allegations against him, but now since hes been killed thet featured an "RIP XXXTentacion" banner and featured his playlist at the top of its browse carousel, only so they could get the money
— LeTroy Davis (@letroydavis) June 19, 2018
As of right now, the playlist is still up and Spotify have yet to comment on the backlash. Meanwhile, the music world continues to give mixed reactions to the rapper’s passing, who died of gunshot wounds at age 20.
