The estate of XXXTentacion (aka Jahseh Onfroy) have re-released one of the late rapper’s formative works, a Soundcloud-era track titled ‘Vice City’.
Onfroy initially recorded the song – named for titular Grand Theft Auto game – in 2013, when he was just 15 years old. It later saw inclusion on his debut mixtape ‘XXX (Unmastered)’ the following March, though it was never formally released outside the SoundCloud platform.
With the Laura Mvula samples on ‘Vice City’ now cleared by Onfroy’s estate, the song was officially released through Columbia (via the late rapper’s own Bad Vibes Forever imprint) last Thursday (January 27). Have a listen to it below:
In a statement shared ahead of the drop, Onfroy’s estate revealed that ‘Vice City’ is the first of many classic XXXTentacion songs primed for official release. They wrote: “It is important for us to continue to honor Jah’s legacy, and in that spirit we are planning an exciting 2022. One of our first initiatives is to get as much of X’s music from his earliest days as an artist up on all DSPs.
“We have been working diligently to clear as much of it as possible, and we are excited to announce our first release this Friday with ‘Vice City’ hitting all streaming services for the first time. We will continue to release music as we clear it, and are making sure we do it in a way that stays true to how X released each song originally.”
Onfroy’s estate also confirmed that a documentary centred on the late rapper is currently in the pipeline, with updates on that due to be announced in the near future.
— MAKE OUT HILL – XXX (@xxxtentacion) January 23, 2022
‘Vice City’ follows in the footsteps of ‘Riot’, a song that Onfroy released on SoundCloud in 2015, and was reissued to streaming services in June of 2020. Last May, a series of previously unreleased songs were released as NFTs, alongside a collection of exclusive artwork (designed by Stephen Bliss, notable for his work on the Grand Theft Auto series) and other material.
More recently, Onfroy was posthumously featured on Trippie Redd‘s 2021 album ‘Trip At Knight’, guesting on the track ‘Danny Phantom’. In her three-star review, NME‘s Kyann-Sian Williams declared it to be the album’s “lowest point”.
XXXTentacion was shot to death in Florida on June 18, 2018, aged 20. His estate authorised the release of two posthumous albums, the most recent being ‘Bad Vibes Forever’ in 2019. NME’s review said the record featured “some really great tracks”, noting that “even if you do hate XXXTentacion, you cannot deny his influence on modern rap”.
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