The Importance Of Knowing Who You're Supporting

Chris Brown and XXXTENTACION are currently featured on Spotify's "Most Necessary" playlist. The playlist defines itself as "The official voice of generation next".

I'll be honest, I don't listen to the majority of the artists on this playlist. A lot of new rap music annoys me (I'm talking about "Gucci Gang" by Lil Pump). I love Spotify's "I love 90's Hip Hop" station and their "Signed XOXO" playlist, but for some reason I find myself rolling my eyes every time I try to listen to "Most Necessary".

We all know what went down with Chris Brown. He physically assaulted Rihanna, he threatened to kill her multiple times, he's been accused of stalking and harassing Kerruche. His record goes on and on. The guy is pretty gross if you ask me. I never liked his music too much, but before the incident, I would just allow it to play out when it came on shuffle. However, after hearing that he beat up Rihanna, 12 year old me was PISSED. I took him off all of my playlists and I forced my friends to change the station any time he came on.

Now let's move onto XXXTENTACION. I get really annoyed just by typing his name so for the rest of this post I'll call him XXX.

He's on the radio.

He's on Spotify.

He kidnapped and assaulted a pregnant woman. (Allegedly)

To make a long story short, XXX had a girlfriend that lived with him. He threatened to kill her every day. He brutally beat her because she sang along to a different rappers song. Then he went to jail (for something completely unrelated). While XXX was in jail, his girlfriend began seeing someone else. She then realized she was pregnant. XXX was the released from jail and continued to brutally beat, strangle, and sexually assault her, knowing that she was pregnant.

The young woman is currently suing XXX and if he is convicted he'll serve over 10 years in prison.

Pretty scary, huh?

Well radio stations don't seem to think so. His song SAD played on my morning commute.

We can't stop streaming stations like Spotify and Apple music from playing Chris Brown and XXXTENTACION's songs. But we can educate ourselves.

I had heard whisperings about XXX when his newest album came out, and a simple google search told me everything I didn't want to know.

It becomes easy to place artists on a pedestal. We hear their music and relate to it, but we have no idea who these people are. Supporting musicians like this is supporting a pattern and culture of domestic violence.