‘Look at Me: XXXTentacion’ documentary details late artist’s mental health struggles
Whether XXXTentacion’s life is a redemption story will forever be a topic of debate.
On one hand, the artist who rose from SoundCloud anonymity to having one of 78 Diamond-certified singles was accused of domestic abuse and gained notoriety through his frequent fistfights.
On the other, his music, teeming with allusions to depression and suicide, has provided a generation of fans a beacon of hope. Even further, some fans will attest to XXXTentacion being in the midst of a change when he was gunned down at the age 20.
“Look at Me: XXXTentacion,” a new documentary exploring the life of the South Florida-born artist, provides some context about the life and death of one of the most polarizing figures in hip-hop history. Released Thursday via Hulu, the film itself — spliced together with archival footage, never before seen XXXTentacion interviews and sit-downs with the people closest to him — showcases the humanity of someone many believed deserved to suffer, says director Sabaah Folayan.
“The conversation can’t stop at the person being canceled,” Folayan said in an interview. “I felt like the opportunity for me to tell this story is an opportunity to insert care and insert safety and insert some modicum of restoration.”
From its first minutes, “Look At Me” makes clear how violence played a major role in both X’s personal and professional life. Born Jahseh Onfroy in Plantation, Fla., XXXTentacion recalled seeing his father hit his mother, Cleopatra Bernard. As he grew up, fighting became a huge part of his life — so much so that he began recording and posting his fights as a way to steer people to his music.
“My anger took control: fear left and anger replaced,” Onfroy said about his early life in an unreleased 2017 FADER interview.
The violence hit a peak in 2016 when he was charged with aggravated battery of a pregnant woman, domestic battery by strangulation, false imprisonment and witness tampering. A Pitchfork article described the account of his accuser, Geneva Ayala, in grave detail. That accusation coincided with the release of his first hit single “Look At Me,” which features his mugshot as the cover art and catapulted up the charts because of it.
Rather than shying away from the ugly side, Folayan dives headfirst into the allegations in “Look At Me” with interviews of Ayala, Bernard, his manager Solomon Sobande and go-to producer John Cunningham.
“It needed to be addressed head-on and not avoided,” Folayan said.
‘There’s a real need for mental health services, resources, support’
As Walter Jean-Mary sat in Miami’s Tower Theater during the Florida premiere of “Look At Me,” he was astonished.
A former classmate of XXXTentacion at Piper High School, Jean-Mary had followed the artist’s career from its infancy. The high quality storytelling in “Look at Me,” however, revealed a whole new side of X, specifically when it came to the South Florida artist’s bipolar diagnosis.
“It showed a different side of X,” said Jean-Mary, the marketing director at 100k Management. “The side of him actually pleading for help, wanting help.”
The diagnosis cast a new light on an artist whose struggles always seemed to make headlines. At the time of his death, Onfroy was facing a slew of charges relating to the alleged domestic abuse. As the documentary alludes to, however, Onfroy was in the midst of a change where he seemed to be getting better control over his anger.
“He was very deliberate about not attaching who he was at 18 and now,” Cunningham said in “Look at Me.”
While that diagnosis doesn’t excuse his behavior, it does open up a conversation about the need for people struggling with mental health, according to Folayan.
“I hope that people take away that there’s a real need for mental health services, resources, support,” Folayan said to the audience at the Florida premiere.
Sobande felt similarly. Amid the negative headlines, Sobande never forgot the shock of sitting down across from a jailed X and seeing someone he called “just a kid” staring at him through the glass.
“I think it’s important for people to give people a chance to grow and become who they are becoming,” Sobande said in an interview. “X was such a complex person and an amazing talent and I think it was really important to see the trajectory that he was going on.”
Showcasing Onfroy’s good, bad and ugly was no small task. It involved a lot of collaboration with Bernard, Ayala and XXXTentacion’s team, but also trust that she would tell the story correctly. Folayan understood that not everyone will agree with the idea he was changing. Some people will forever see X as an abuser. Some people will see the documentary as evidence of him changing.
The bigger issue, at least in Folayan’s mind: Why did millions of people see a kindred spirit in Onfroy?
“Young people have really complex, deep and, at times, really painful emotional experiences,” Folayan said. “Nobody should be relating to the feeling of wanting to die when they haven’t even passed their teenage years.”
This story was originally published May 26, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
