Does Making Good Music Excuse Your Problematic Past?

Yesterday I found out that XXXTentacion died and I immediately was like

It honestly was surreal because I actually remember the first time I heard "Look At Me." I was obsessed with that song and even turned other people on to it and X himself. I'm the type of person that as soon as I like a new song or artist I go all Inspector Gadget and try to find out everything about them (I'm a Virgo leave me alone). Anyway what I found was fight compilations, interviews of him saying he tried to kill his cellmate for staring at him believing that he was gay, oh and the pictures of the woman he abused. From there I was on the fence about X and wasn't as invested as I was initially. He was still incarcerated and didn't have any other music out. Since then he released two projects and I can't lie I listened to both of them. One, because I was bored and two, I was reviewing one of them for The Northerner. But honestly, he makes good music. None of the music he made though excuses what he did. NONE.

I noticed on social media that a lot of people were basically saying "Fuck X's past he had so much potential" "yeah he almost killed a guy and abused his ex gf but he made good music for depressed kids r.i.p"

RIP xxxtentacion, regardless of his controversial past, he did not deserve to die, especially so young. I respected him for preaching/spreading positivity and the lives he touched in a positive way. Gone too soon, so terrible. His music/art will live forever.

— Ethan Dolan (@EthanDolan) June 18, 2018

For those who are so woke that their compassion is asleep, remember this...if Malcolm X was killed at the age of 20, he would have died an abuser, a thief, an addict, and a narrow-minded depressed & violent criminal. So, I believe in change for the young.

— Jidenna (@Jidenna) June 18, 2018

HE REALLY COMPARED HIM TO MALCOLM X!!!!!!!!!!!

In the past two days I've seen X be compared to Malcolm X, Michael Jackson, & 2Pac. I get he touched people's lives and all but that's a REAAAAACH. Which brings me to this question. "Does being a good artist excuse all of your problematic behavior?"

I semi-cancelled X until literally a couple weeks ago when I read his victim's, Geneva Ayala, perspective on what happened. It was so detailed I knew he did it and he was full blown CANCELLED after that. Now that he's dead we're supposed to forget everything he did?

You can't put out so much negativity in the universe and not expect it to come back to you. I just didn't expect it to happen to him so soon. If you look at his past tweets and interviews he literally spoke his death into existence. It's eerie af. People keep saying he promoted nothing but positivity but I can't help but think it was all just an act to clean up his image.

I don't feel bad for his death. I'm actually indifferent about it. It sucks to die young but I hope that his victims will find peace and heal from the trauma. Unfortunately they'll probably never get closure from any of this. Everyone posting random ass screenshots of them leaving X on read or caping for him and trying to excuse what he did are so weird to me. Why are you trying to clout chase (for lack of a better word) on someone's death. I don't care if this nigga made Lemonade he does not deserve the idolization he's getting. I'm sorry but I'm not gonna respect the dead if they couldn't respect the living while they were here.