Image via Jocelyn Flores
In 2017, XXXTentacion first previewed a song titled “Garette’s Revenge,” which he dedicated to a girl named Jocelyn Flores that had recently committed suicide. “Rest in peace, Jocelyn, I will have my revenge upon the world,” he wrote in the SoundCloud description.
A few months later, he dropped his debut album 17, featuring the same song (with its title shortened to “Revenge”) as well as a new track titled “Jocelyn Flores.” The latter track became a hit, eventually peaking at No. 19 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Now, a new report from The Daily Beast reveals that Flores' family wasn’t notified about the track before its release, and have mixed feelings about how X used their daughter’s story without permission.
According to the report, Flores committed suicide in the bathroom of a Hampton Inn in Coconut Creek, Florida less than 24 hours after X told her she had to go back home to Ohio. She was staying with X along with another girl to model for a clothing line X was planning, although she had never modeled before. He reportedly told both girls to leave after they started fighting following the discovery of several thousand dollars in cash missing from X’s bag. Flores had met X online less than a month beforehand, and the rapper had just been released from jail following a disturbing domestic violence arrest.
X released “Jocelyn Flores” a few months later without speaking directly to Flores' family. He “didn’t even give us the courtesy [of] saying, ‘Hey, I’m going to do this, I hope you guys are OK with it!’ Nope! No courtesy there! Using [Jocelyn’s] death for publicity!” Flores' aunt Brandee Ramirez wrote in a Facebook post.
On the track, he raps about his experience in the wake of her death:
I’m in pain, wanna put ten shots in my brain
I’ve been trippin' ‘bout some things, can’t change
Suicidal, same time I’m tame
Picture this, in bed, get a phone call
Girl that you fucked with killed herself
That was this summer when nobody helped
And ever since then, man, I hate myself
Wanna fuckin’ end it
Flores' aunt and uncle heard the song for the first time after it had already gained popularity on the radio. “I couldn’t believe it,” her uncle said about seeing his niece’s name on his car stereo one day. “I saw the thing. It said ‘Jocelyn Flores!’ On the thing. I was like, what the hell?” They also explained that Flores' step-father had arranged to speak to X through his publicist, but the plans fell through and they never heard from him. Since X was murdered earlier this year, they never will.
“We just wanted to know what her last day was like,” Ramirez told The Daily Beast. “That torments me. I just want to know the last day. Please. Tell me anything. What did she do that day? What did she eat? When was the last time you saw her? Did you take her to Universal Studios like you promised her? What is it that you did with her? What was her last day like? That’s all I asked.”
Still, they did note that the way the song has connected with fans and memorialized her life has been positive. An Instagram account using Flores' likeness has become a conversation hub for young people struggling with mental illness, something Ramirez is happy to see. “I know that Jocelyn would have loved it,” Ramirez said. “She would have loved that she was remembered, that she was helping people. This was her dream. This was what she wanted.”
“Jocelyn Flores” went double-Platinum earlier this year, and hit No. 19 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Alongside “SAD!,” it’s one of the biggest hits of X’s career.
Read the full Daily Beast report here and catch up on all the lyrics to XXXTentacion’s “Jocelyn Flores” on Genius now.
