American rapper XXXTentacion (real name Jahseh Onfroy) has died following a shooting by an unidentified gunman in his home state of Florida.
The 20-year-old was a rising artiste, one of the ‘SoundCloud rappers’ that gained a measure of mainstream success. His debut album ‘17’ was released in 2017.
A statement by Broward County sheriff department public information officer Keyla Concepción revealed that the shooting was ‘an apparent robbery’ and that Broward County deputies are actively looking for the two men, asking anyone who witnessed the shooting to come forward.
Prior to his death, XXXTentacion was awaiting trial for a domestic violence incident involving his pregnant ex-girlfriend and had been under house arrest for a time while he awaited trial on battery and harassment charges. His house arrest was lifted in March when he dropped his latest album ‘?’ which peaked at number 7 on the Billboard Hot 100, spending 15 weeks on the charts.
Only last month, Streaming platform Spotify removed all the rapper’s music from all its owned playlists in what the company called a new editorial policy.