XXXTentacion's new music video for his hit track "Look At Me" has been as divisive as anything else that the young rapper has put out into popular culture. Shocking in order to make a point about police brutality and white privilege, the video has been garnering many views since it was uploaded to YouTube and was recently trending as one of the site's top videos. However, conservative pundits are calling out the visual for its "appalling" depiction of a lynching involving a young white boy. Specifically, right-wing news commentator Alex Jones devoted a whole segment in a recent episode of his show InfoWars to the topic, where the conversation got heated very quickly.
The video was, according to the men having the discussion on-air, "glorifying murder pornography involving children," content which they felt was alarmingly tasteless and should be disavowed by the ADL, as well as the powers-that-be over at YouTube. The image of a young child's legs dangling in the air is something that was called "traumatizing for any parent" who has the (dis)pleasure of watching the video. InfoWars also published a print article on its website, serving as a companion to the conversation had on Jones' show. It revealed some interesting facts about X's "Look At Me" video and provided another angle for insight into the controversial set of visuals.
According to the piece, "the video has not been age restricted or de-monetized on YouTube, despite the Google-owned company de-monetizing a broad range of political commentary for being 'offensive' over the last 6 months. It currently has over 4.5 million views." While the view counts might be substantially below what one might consider the stats for a "hit" on YouTube, the point about the potential double standard when it comes to content that is deemed inappropriate has some merit. As we've witnessed with the recent comments made by Jemele Hill, free speech is not something that should be taken for granted, in any sector of the media. It's hard to see how the subject matter in "Look At Me" will help XXXTentacion silence the detractors, but the exposure, for better or for worse, will only continue to spread his name and brand further across the spectrum of news and music culture.
Check out the entire Alex Jones segment about XXXTentacion below.