Florida rapper XXXTENTACION was shot and killed in a June robbery, bringing an abrupt end to the career of one of hip-hop’s most popular and controversial young stars. Today, the rapper’s first posthumous album, SKINS, a 10-track project that runs just 18 minutes in length, dropped. Kanye West is the only featured artist on the album, having recorded his verse after X’s murder. SKINS is executive produced by John Cunningham, one of X’s closest friends and collaborators.
“We basically started making this next album right after ? (Question Mark) came out,” Cunningham told Genius about the project in October. “The songs and the ideas and the vision of it all was done or very close to being done.”
As for what’s next, it seems things are still up in the air. “There’s work out there, but the question of what should come out is a totally separate question,” he told Genius. “That hasn’t been answered, not by me or his mom or anybody, in terms of what happens after this album.”
X’s name continues to inspire controversy, the latest of which is Kanye’s verse on “One Minute.” Although the verse speaks more broadly to false rape allegations, some fans interpreted it as a defense of X, who died amidst a disturbing and unresolved domestic violence case that has continued to play out in the media in the wake of his murder.
