XXXTentacion

Jahseh Dwayne Ricardo Onfroy (January 23, 1998 – June 18, 2018), professionally known as XXXTentacion, was an American rapper, singer-songwriter, and record producer. Though a controversial figure due to his widely publicized legal troubles, XXXTentacion gained a cult following among his young fan base during his short career with his depression and alienation-themed music. Critics and audiences often credit him for his musical versatility, with his music exploring emo, trap, trap metal, nu metal, indie rock, lo-fi, hip-hop, R&B, and punk rock. He was considered to be a leading figure in the establishment of the emo rap and SoundCloud rap genres, which garnered mainstream attention during the mid-to-late 2010s. In the years after his death, Onfroy's musical style would later go on to influence the development of rage music.

Born in Plantation, Florida, Onfroy spent most of his childhood in Lauderhill. He began writing music after being released from a juvenile detention center and soon started his music career on SoundCloud in 2013, employing styles and techniques that were considered unconventional in rap music such as distortion and heavy guitar-backed instrumentals, drawing inspiration from third-wave emo and grunge. In 2014, he formed the underground collective Members Only and, alongside other members of the collective, soon became a popular figure in SoundCloud rap, a trap music scene that takes elements of lo-fi music and harsh 808s. Onfroy gained mainstream attention with his 2016 single "Look at Me!". His debut studio album, 17 (2017), peaked at number two on the Billboard 200, while his second album, ? (2018), debuted atop the chart; both received triple platinum certifications by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The latter's lead single, "Sad!", posthumously reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and had amassed more than 1.2 billion views on YouTube and 2.1 billion streams on Spotify by February 2024, in addition to having received diamond certification by the RIAA in August 2021.

Onfroy faced a variety of legal issues throughout his lifetime, most notably the controversy that arose from the battery charges that were levied against him in 2016. His history of legal issues and alleged violence has been described by some as defining his legacy, while others have criticized the media's portrayal of him, arguing that his perceived improvements in character later in life have made his legacy into a tale of the power of second chances and redemption.

On June 18, 2018, Onfroy, age 20, was murdered when he was shot near a motorcycle dealership in Deerfield Beach, Florida. The attackers fled the scene in an SUV after stealing his Louis Vuitton bag containing $50,000 in cash. Four suspects were arrested and charged with first-degree murder among other charges. In August 2022, one of the four men pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in exchange for testimony against the other three defendants in their trial. The trial initiated on February 7, 2023. On March 20, 2023, all three were found guilty on all counts. On April 6, 2023, they were sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

Onfroy has RIAA-certified sales of 110 million units in the US, and BPI-certified sales of over 13 million units in the UK, bringing his total to 123 million certified units sold in the two countries. Since his death, he has won an American Music Award and a BET Hip Hop Award and received 11 Billboard Music Award nominations. Two posthumous albums were released, Skins (2018) and Bad Vibes Forever (2019); the former became his second number-one album on the Billboard 200, while the latter entered the top five.

Jahseh Dwayne Ricardo Onfroy was born on January 23, 1998, in Plantation, Florida, to Jamaican parents, Dwayne Ricardo Onfroy and Cleopatra Eretha Dreena Bernard. His father named him after the Bob Marley song "So Jah Seh", which interpolates Ezekiel 34. Both his father and grandfather were Rastafarians. Onfroy was born with a ventricular septal defect, commonly known as a "hole in the heart". Due to his condition, he never grew taller than 5 feet 6 inches. Onfroy stated he also had Syrian, Indian, and possibly Italian ancestry in an interview on The Beat in 2017.

Due to his mother's personal problems, Onfroy was mainly raised by his grandmother Collette Jones in Pompano Beach, Florida, and Lauderhill, Florida. When he was six years old, he allegedly tried to stab a man attempting to attack his mother and was eventually put into a youth program before living with his grandmother. A source close to the Onfroy family denied that the alleged stabbing incident occurred, and it could not be corroborated by police reports, since Onfroy was a minor. Despite this, trauma and domestic violence experts have stated that it is unlikely that the story was fabricated.

When Onfroy was a child, he discovered his uncle's deceased body after the man committed suicide by hanging. He referenced his trauma from the incident in multiple songs. In 2017, he alluded that he had been sexually abused by an unnamed adult when he was a child. Other traumatic events that Onfroy witnessed as a child included someone being physically tortured and someone being raped. According to his mother, he was routinely beaten by his father as a child; she claimed that Onfroy's father tried to hit her in front of Onfroy on several occasions. In early 2008, when Onfroy was ten, his father was jailed for nine years in Arizona on RICO charges after the Drug Enforcement Administration organized a sting operation. His father was deported to Jamaica in late 2016. In a 2017 interview, when asked about his relationship with his father, Onfroy sarcastically answered, "What's a father?"

Onfroy's interest in music initially started after his aunt persuaded him to begin attending school choir and later church choir. He would be kicked out of the school choir after attacking another student for touching him. He attended Margate Middle School, from which he was later expelled after a series of physical altercations. He was subsequently enrolled into Sheridan House Family Ministries by his mother for over six months. Onfroy began to listen to rap, nu metal, and hard rock during his time at Sheridan House Family Ministries, which led to him learning how to play the piano and guitar.

Onfroy attended Piper High School until he dropped out in the tenth grade. He described himself as a "misfit" during that time, citing how quiet he was despite being popular and regularly involved in physical confrontations. As a child, he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Onfroy was not the athletic type and said that he was insecure and depressed during his time in high school.

Onfroy's career as a music artist began in June 2013 after the release of his song "News/Flock". According to interviews, while in juvenile detention for gun possession charges, he met Stokeley Goulbourne, another artist known as Ski Mask the Slump God. Some sources interviewed for a 2020 biography dispute this narrative, and say that the pair met at high school. Onfroy and Goulbourne became good friends and began freestyling. Recalling his time in detention, Onfroy said that he was respectful to the officers and staff and used to protect people from other inmates, including a homosexual cellmate, whom Onfroy later attacked for allegedly staring at him while he was changing clothes. Onfroy stated that the incident was unrelated to the inmate's sexuality, that he supported gay rights and that he was not homophobic.

In 2013, following his release from a juvenile detention center, he and Goulbourne met up again under the belief they were going to commit a string of home invasions for monetary gain, though Onfroy eventually bought a Blue Snowball microphone and began recording music, which convinced Goulbourne to do the same. After Onfroy adopted the moniker XXXTentacion, he uploaded his first non-deleted song, called "Vice City", on SoundCloud, included on his debut mixtape XXX (Unmastered) released on March 5, 2014. The word "tentación" in his stage name is the Spanish word for "temptation". Speaking about his decision to abandon a life of crime for music, Onfroy said that he felt like music was a better outlet for his feelings and then-girlfriend Geneva Ayala was someone who helped him realize that.

He would then continue uploading small snippets of his songs that he would either soon release or keep unreleased. Onfroy eventually joined Ski Mask the Slump God's group Very Rare, before breaking off and starting the Members Only collective in 2015, which Ski Mask then also joined.

Onfroy released his two first official extended plays (EPs), called E.motion and XXX, on April 30, 2014, alongside the original version of the song "Ecstasy" later remixed for Onfroy's last album Bad Vibes Forever. In June 2014, Onfroy collaborated with American rapper and producer Edward Skeletrix, who was then working under the name Cight, on the song "Elegant", which he produced. The Nobodys was released on July 11, 2014, but it was quickly removed when Onfroy decided to keep working on it before re-releasing this EP completely finished, but it never happened. The Fall was released on November 21, 2014. The Nobodys and The Fall were supposed to be part of a trilogy of EPs alongside The Underworld, inspired by the Weeknd's trilogy of mixtapes. However, The Underworld was completely abandoned when he started working on other projects. On February 3, 2015, Onfroy released the EP Heartbreak Hotel. Throughout 2015, he teased several different tracklists for the project, featuring additional songs, but none of these tracks, except for "Teeth (Interlude)", were ultimately added to the released EP. On April 20, 2015, Onfroy released a collaborative mixtape with Ski Mask the Slump God, Members Only Vol. 1, before releasing Members Only Vol. 2 with several members of the growing Members Only collective. On December 31, 2015, the original version of "Look at Me" was uploaded to the SoundCloud account of the song's co-producer, Rojas.

In 2016, Onfroy quit his job as a call center operator due to his growing music career and moved in with rapper Denzel Curry. On March 18, 2016, Onfroy released the EP ItWasntEnough. On April 28, 2016, Onfroy released the EP Willy Wonka Was a Child Murderer, with music heavily inspired by heavy metal and indie music. In July 2016, Onfroy was arrested and charged with robbery and assault with a deadly weapon. After posting $10,000 bail, Onfroy continued to work on his debut independent album, Bad Vibes Forever, which had a slated October 31, 2016, release date. The album missed the release date and was delayed due to Onfroy being arrested in early October on multiple charges of false imprisonment, witness tampering and aggravated battery of his allegedly pregnant girlfriend.

In 2017 "Look at Me" gained traction, peaked at number 34 on US Billboard Hot 100 and the top 40 of the Canadian Hot 100. The single helped him gain more popularity due to accusations of Canadian rapper Drake using a similar rap flow in his song "KMT". Onfroy's distinctive half-colored hair, which was inspired by The Hundred and One Dalmatians antagonist Cruella de Vil, also drew public attention. During his jail stint, Onfroy signed a deal to be managed by Soloman Sobande (who would remain his manager until his death) and despite Onfroy being in jail during his initial breakthrough, major-label scouts began offering six-figure contracts and Onfroy eventually signed for Empire Distribution for lower royalty rate, full creative control and a smaller upfront payment. After his release from prison on April 18, 2017, he released three more songs on SoundCloud. In an interview with WMIB, Onfroy announced that he was working on the studio albums Bad Vibes and 17; as well as a mixtape, I Need Jesus. In an interview three days after his release from prison, Onfroy said to XXL, "I got this really, really, really good album called 17. That's more of an alternative, R&B sound—then I've got this mixtape called I Need Jesus, which is mainly rap and the underground sound I did."

Onfroy announced his first nationwide tour on April 28, 2017. The tour, titled "The Revenge Tour", had 26 tour dates overall and generated much media coverage, included that of a rapper being assaulted, Onfroy being knocked out after an altercation on stage, an audience member being stabbed, Onfroy being thrown into a barricade by security, and an incident in which Onfroy punched a fan after the fan had placed his hand on Onfroy's chest. He announced the cancellation of the rest of the tour dates due to his cousin being shot on June 24, 2017, though the final tour date in Broward County, Florida, still went ahead and was later streamed on the watchthemusic (WAV) app.

On June 13, 2017, Onfroy was featured on the cover of XXL, as part of its annual "Top 10 Freshman List", along with fellow up-and-coming rappers such as Playboi Carti, A Boogie wit da Hoodie, Ugly God, and PnB Rock. Onfroy released his debut commercial solo mixtape, Revenge, on May 16, 2017. The mixtape consists of eight previously released songs. The collaborative mixtape, Members Only, Vol. 3, with Members Only, was released on June 26, 2017. Onfroy's first opener for a major act happened when DRAM brought Onfroy out at a concert on August 9, 2017, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles during Kendrick Lamar's Damn Tour. Onfroy released his debut album, 17, on August 25, 2017. The album debuted at number 2 on the US Billboard 200, selling 86,000 album-equivalent units first week. The album received a mixed response from critics, some of whom lauded the album for its personal narratives and diverse musical style. On September 3, 2017, Onfroy announced that Bad Vibes Forever, his second album, was still in production.

17 gave Onfroy's seven songs—"Jocelyn Flores", "Revenge", "Fuck Love", "Everybody Dies in Their Nightmares", "Depression & Obsession", "Save Me", and "Carry On"—that debuted in the Billboard Hot 100 at number 31, 77, 41, 54, 91, 94 and 95, respectively. Jocelyn Flores became Onfroy's highest-charting song since "Look at Me", which peaked it at 34. Onfroy then had his ninth song to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, in turn with his being featured on Kodak Black's song "Roll in Peace", taken from Project Baby 2. The song debuted at 52 and peaked at 31, matching "Jocelyn Flores". On September 12, 2017, Onfroy released his first official music video for his 2015 song "Look at Me", as well as sharing a music video with his 2015 song "Riot". Onfroy's label, Bad Vibes Forever, signed a distribution deal with Capitol Music Group subsidiary, Caroline, on October 19, 2017. The deal, reportedly worth $6 million, was for one album only. Shortly afterwards on October 25, 2017, Onfroy announced he was terminating his contract with Caroline despite a representative confirming he was still signed. Two days later, he announced that he was retiring due to negativity and backlash though some publications noted that Onfroy made similar statements before and not followed through. On October 30, 2017, Onfroy announced that he would make music again if fellow Broward rapper and "former best friend", Ski Mask the Slump God, was his friend again. Later, Onfroy answered a fan's question on Instagram Live about his retirement, saying, "Am I quitting? Yes, I'm quitting—I don't know for how long, but I'm just not going to make music right now."

On September 22, 2017, Noah Cyrus released her single titled "Again", featuring Onfroy's vocals. Onfroy previewed new music on November 2, 2017, signaling a return to making music. Onfroy announced Bad Vibes Forever again on November 17, 2017, speaking on the album, Onfroy said "It will be a mix of genres you have seen me dabble with, if you are not a fan of me this is not an album for you, it is for core fans only". The album title shares its name with his label. On December 11, 2017, Onfroy released his tenth EP, A Ghetto Christmas Carol on SoundCloud. A day before his hearing for witness tampering charges, Onfroy announced that he was preparing three albums to be ready for 2018, and after being released on house arrest, he announced the titles of all three albums, Skins, Bad Vibes Forever and ?.

On June 22, 2015, Onfroy began to use his long-time YouTube channel "xxxtentacion" (now stylized in all caps), previously used to upload music, gaming videos and vlogs. The channel had 36.7 million subscribers and an estimated 9 billion total views by April 2022. On January 22, 2018, Onfroy announced on Instagram that he and New York rapper Joey Badass had been creating a project together, releasing a freestyle to the song "King's Dead" on SoundCloud on March 9, 2018, in preparation for the collaboration.

The "xxxtentacion" YouTube channel uploaded the video "#THEHELPINGHANDCHALLENGE" on the same day. The video included Onfroy donating musical instruments, video game consoles, and other gifts to a foster home. Shortly afterwards, Onfroy declared his album had finished and he was preparing to release it but would only do so after the hashtag #HELPINGHANDCHALLENGE reached one million mentions on Instagram.

Onfroy released his first single of 2018 on February 2, titled "Shining Like the Northstar". He was also featured on long-time collaborator and producer Ronny J's track "Banded Up". Onfroy released the song "Hope" on his SoundCloud account on February 21, 2018, dedicated to the victims of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, which had occurred in Parkland, several miles north of Onfroy's native Plantation. Onfroy announced that he was releasing two songs at midnight on March 2, 2018, both the first singles for his second album ?.

The lead single for ?, "Sad!", was released several hours later alongside "Changes", which features fellow 2017 XXL "Freshman" PnB Rock. "Sad!" debuted at number 17, becoming his highest-charting song in the United States, and eventually peaked at number 1 after Onfroy's death before releasing its official music video on June 28. The music video focused on Onfroy stressing that he had changed as a person since the main controversies in his career occurred. "Moonlight" and "Hope" also charted after his death, peaking at number 13 and 70, respectively.

Onfroy announced the release date for his second studio album, ?, on March 12, 2018. He shared the 18-track track listing with features from Joey Badass, Travis Barker and PnB Rock. ? was released on March 16, 2018. ? debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, becoming Onfroy's first number one in the country, losing out with his debut album 17 due to Lil Uzi Vert's Luv Is Rage 2. Shortly following the release of ?, Onfroy signed a new album deal with Empire Distribution for his third solo album worth ten million dollars.

On June 21, 2018, the first posthumous song featuring Onfroy was released, "Ghost Busters", with Trippie Redd featuring Quavo and Ski Mask the Slump God, and was uploaded on Trippie Redd's SoundCloud. XXL released a series of freestyles that Onfroy performed as a part of his "2017 Freshman Cypher". Ugly God released a song titled "Tear Drop" on June 22, 2018, which featured Onfroy's aforementioned unreleased cypher verses, as a tribute to Onfroy. A few months later, he won the Best New Hip Hop Artist at the BET Hip Hop Awards and won the Favorite Album-Soul/R&B for 17 at the American Music Awards. On Trippie Redd's 2021 album, Trip at Knight, a reworked version of "Ghost Busters" titled "Danny Phantom" was released, with Onfroy as the sole feature rather than the inclusions of Ski Mask the Slump God and Quavo.

On August 31, 2018, Houston rapper Sauce Walka released his Drip God mixtape which featured a collaboration with Onfroy titled "Voss" produced by Carnage. On August 17, 2018, iLoveMakonnen announced a collaboration between Lil Peep and Onfroy titled "Falling Down". A reworking of "Sunlight on Your Skin" made by Makonnen and Peep, the new version features verses by Onfroy that he recorded after Peep's death to pay tribute to Peep. The single was officially released on September 19, 2018. On September 27, 2018, Kanye West announced Onfroy would've been a featured artist on his cancelled ninth studio album, Yandhi. The same day, it was reported that Onfroy will also be a featured artist on Lil Wayne's twelfth album, Tha Carter V, which was released the next day. Onfroy was featured on the song, "Don't Cry". A music video was later released on what would've been Onfroy's 21st birthday.

On October 22, 2018, Onfroy's manager Soloman Sobande stated in an interview with Billboard that Onfroy's third album would come "very soon" and that he had more than two album's worth of material. On October 25, 2018, EDM DJ-producer Skrillex released the song "Arms Around You", which is a collaboration he made with Onfroy, Lil Pump, Maluma and Swae Lee. The track was originally recorded in 2017 with Rio Santana, who appeared on Onfroy's ? album, but was later changed to add bigger star co-features. Specifically, Lil Pump contacted Onfroy's mother to ask to use Onfroy's vocals on the track as a tribute. Following the release of "Arms Around You", the song's producer, Mally Mall was interviewed by Power 106's The Cruz Show where he confirmed that nine Onfroy songs were going to be released soon with one having a Rihanna feature and another having a Weeknd feature. On November 8, 2018, the release date for Onfroy's first posthumous album and his third studio album, Skins, was announced as being given a December 7, 2018. The first single from Skins, titled "Bad!", was released on November 9, 2018. Onfroy was a surprise feature on Lil Wayne and Ty Dolla $ign's track "Scared of the Dark" from the soundtrack to the film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. On January 23, 2019, the Members Only collective and Onfroy's estate released the album Members Only, Vol. 4. On June 12, 2019, Craig Xen released the song "Run It Back!" which featured Onfroy on the track.

A month after on July 21, 2019, another posthumous song was released, titled "Royalty", which featured one of Bob Marley's children, Ky-Mani Marley, Stefflon Don, and Vybz Kartel. The dance-hall inspired track was the first song released from the album, Bad Vibes Forever, which released in December 2019. On October 21, 2019, the song "Hearteater" was officially released by Onfroy's estate as the second single for the album. On November 22, 2019, the title track of the album Bad Vibes Forever was released. The fourth and final studio album was released on December 6, 2019. In January 2020, Lil Wayne remixed X's song "The Boy with the Black Eyes" for his Funeral album, on the track "Get Outta My Head".

On June 1, 2020, his song "Riot" was re-released onto streaming services to spread awareness to the protests following the murder of George Floyd.

He became the first artist to posthumously release music as NFTs with five scrapped SoundCloud songs on May 10, 2021, in which News/Flock was slightly re-worked on. On August 20, 2021, Trippie Redd released his fourth studio album Trip at Knight, which includes a verse from Onfroy on the fourteenth track, "Danny Phantom". The track is a reworked version of Redd and Onfroy's song "Ghost Busters," which originally featured Quavo and Ski Mask the Slump God. This new version features a rage-inspired instrumental, previously unreleased ad-libs from Onfroy, and omits the guest verses from Quavo and Ski Mask. In November 2021, Solomon Sobande, Onfroy's manager, said that a posthumous collaboration between Onfroy and late emo rapper Juice Wrld is in the works.

On January 23, 2022, on what would have been Onfroy's 24th birthday, his estate announced that they would be releasing his 2014 SoundCloud track, "Vice City", to all streaming services on January 28, 2022. Considered a fan-favorite, the song was his first release on SoundCloud. The release is the first by his estate in efforts to make all his unofficial releases available on main streaming platforms. It was also confirmed that a documentary about the rapper, titled Look at Me, was in the works. It was released on Hulu on May 26, 2022. On February 23, 2022, rapper Kanye West released the demo album Donda 2, in which Onfroy has featured vocals on the songs "True Love" and "Selfish". On May 23, 2022, it was announced on by Onfroy's estate on his Instagram account that a new album, titled Look at Me: The Album would be released alongside the documentary, and that "True Love" would be released as a single from the album on May 27, 2022. On June 10, 2022, along with his documentary, Look at Me: The Album released, featuring 25 songs including his earlier SoundCloud songs, his biggest hits, and the single "True Love" with Kanye West.

On November 22, 2022, the documentary In His Own Words was released. The film primarily features previously unseen interviews conducted by Fader Films in 2017 and is considered a companion piece to the May 2022 documentary Look at Me. On December 16, 2022, the single "WitDemDicks!" was released onto streaming and digital download. The song was originally released on SoundCloud in 2015. In 2023, singles such as "Very Rare Forever Freestyle", "I'm Not Human" and "Let's Pretend We're Numb" were released onto streaming and digital download, as well as a re-release of Onfroy's 2016 EP ItWasntEnough and a remaster and remix of "Emoji" in collaboration with Ronny J. On June 19, 2024, the single "Teeth (Interlude)" was released on streaming services and for digital download. The song was originally released on SoundCloud in 2015.

On May 30, 2025, Juice Wrld's remix of Onfroy's song "Whoa (Mind in Awe)" was released. On July 11, 2025, as a part of the 5th anniversary of Juice Wrld's third album Legends Never Die, the song "The Way" with Onfroy was released as a part of the anniversary. On July 30, 2025, Ski Mask the Slump God released The Lost Files, a compilation album consisting of older SoundCloud tracks that were previously unavailable on streaming services. The album includes three older collaborations with Onfroy: "Fatality", "Broly", and "IWatchedHimDrown".

On July 11, 2026, Make Out Hill, an animated feature inspired by Onfroy's life and musical legacy, was announced. Developed by Martian Blueberry in partnership with his estate, the project is in pre-production and is described as an original story inspired by his imagination, creativity, and legacy rather than a traditional biographical adaptation.

Onfroy's music explored a wide variety of genres, including emo, trap, lo-fi, indie rock, punk rock, nu metal, and hip-hop. His influences included Kurt Cobain, 2Pac, Cage the Elephant, Chingy, Coldplay, Eminem, The Fray, Chief Keef, Gorillaz, Hoobastank, Lana Del Rey, Laura Mvula, The Notorious B.I.G., Papa Roach, Yoko Shimomura, Slipknot, Tech N9ne, Three Days Grace, the Weeknd, and Kanye West.

When speaking of his influences, Onfroy said, "I'm really into multi-genre things that aren't just based around rapping itself. I'm more inspired by artists in other genres besides rap." Onfroy as an artist has been defined as versatile and his music has been described as having a "lo-fi" aesthetic, being diverse and experimental, drawing influence from heavy metal. His music also has the tendency to contain distorted bass and an "intentional lack of polish". Speaking about this, Onfroy said that the intentionally bad mixing on his tracks make it "genuine". Some fans have also noted that his music has inspired many up-and-coming artists, such as Juice Wrld and Trippie Redd, into channeling similar aesthetics into their music, with the former dedicating the song "Legends" to Onfroy following his death. Trippie Redd would later go on and credit Onfroy as a pioneer of rage music, a subgenre of trap which adapted some musical techniques that Onfroy had employed in his music.

Onfroy generally changed his vocal style depending on the type of song he was performing on. His vocal style has been described as displaying "emotional vulnerability" on much more depressing tracks and as replicating screaming on much more aggressive tracks. His songwriting has been described as outlandish and shocking, often referring to "violence, sex, and drugs", though on some projects such as The Fall and 17, Onfroy's songwriting was more emotional in comparison to his previous work, often referring to loneliness, depression, isolation, and anxiety. He was known for his "depressing, and at times devastating" music that brought attention to mental health.

Onfroy had five half-siblings: four on his father's side, an older sister named Ariana, a younger brother named Corey, a younger brother named Givon, and a sister named Ayla; and one on his mother's side, a younger brother named Aiden. In the mid-2010s, Onfroy lived in Florida with rapper Denzel Curry and producer Ronny J. Before his death, Onfroy was moving into a 6,000-square-foot (560 m2) mansion in Parkland, which he bought in November 2017 for US$1.4 million. At the time of his death, Onfroy lived with his girlfriend Jenesis Sanchez. The couple owned three cats and two dogs.

Onfroy had been friends with a number of rappers and musicians, including Ski Mask the Slump God, Lil Uzi Vert, PnB Rock, Denzel Curry, Lil Yachty, Trippie Redd, Juice Wrld, and Billie Eilish. Billie Eilish claimed in an interview that Onfroy was able to talk her out of a plan to attempt suicide.

Onfroy met Geneva Ayala in November 2014. The two began communicating when Onfroy messaged Ayala saying that he wanted to fight her boyfriend after her boyfriend had allegedly posted scantily clad photos of her without her consent, though a fight never occurred. Ayala's at-the-time boyfriend alleged that she had punched and slapped him during breakdowns she had, though he admitted he had slapped her back occasionally to "snap her out of it". Ayala was evicted from her mother's house when she was 16 and she had been living with her at-the-time boyfriend until they split. In 2016, Ayala moved in with Onfroy and his roommates.

Ayala had accused Onfroy of domestic abuse. According to Ayala's statement, Onfroy beat her at times, choked her, broke clothes hangers on her legs, threatened to chop off her hair or cut out her tongue, pressed knives or scissors to her face, and held her head underwater in their bathroom while promising to drown her. Ayala stated, "His favorite thing was to just backhand my mouth. That always left welts inside my lips."

Onfroy, who was raised a Christian, had a well-documented interest in the occult. Miami New Times journalist Tarpley Hitt, who conducted one of few mainstream media interviews with him, reflected that he spent most of the two-hour conversation speaking on the subject at the expense of answering questions on his childhood or criminal charges. Housemates from his time living with the pornographic actor Bruno Dickemz recalled that he had a collection of books on occult and took part in rituals. While living there, his former partner Geneva Ayala pretended to be demonically possessed as a way to scare him out of their turbulent relationship, but it instead fascinated him. He was inspired by Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner's anthroposophy philosophy and its teachings about consciousness.

On his XXL Freshman cypher and his track "I Spoke to the Devil in Miami, He Said Everything Would Be Fine", Onfroy mentioned selling his soul to Satan; when questioned by DJ Akademiks on the subject, he refused to answer, concerned that he could encourage "kids going down that dark path". Additionally, on his track "Daemons", Onfroy discusses a revenge fantasy against Jesus and God for allowing atrocities in the world, while expressing skepticism about the existence of God. Specifically, Onfroy describes seeking revenge upon God for allowing his uncle's mental suffering. Onfroy's uncle died from suicide by hanging when Onfroy was a child.

Onfroy believed in reincarnation, picturing the cycle of death and rebirth as ending when one lives a life without harming others; he believed he had failed in this due to his violence. He was fascinated by the New Age concept of Indigo children, which may have been the reason for his attraction toward the color blue in the final months before his death.

Onfroy was public about his political and personal beliefs throughout his career. In 2016, Onfroy opposed the presidential candidacy of Donald Trump and had instead signaled support for Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders. He also took to Twitter predicting a Trump victory, saying, "As much as I hate that piece of shit Donald Trump, y'all know this motherfucker's gonna win right?" He also stated that, although he did not hold a positive opinion of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, describing her as "garbage", he did not want Trump to win because, "Once Trump gets in its over for all the minorities pretty much... the lower classes are gonna be fucked." His songs "Hate Will Never Win" and "Suicide Pit" contain anti-Trump lyrics.

Onfroy said he believed that, "If weed was legal everywhere, the world would be a better place", and voiced support for criminal justice reform movements, stating that "the judicial system is slavery." Onfroy was anti-war and spoke out against President Trump's decision to launch a missile strike on Syria in April 2017.

Despite previously expressing opposition to gun control measures, Onfroy reversed his stance on the issue following the 2018 Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida. Onfroy held multiple charity events for the March for Our Lives movement and visited Parkland survivor Anthony Borges in the hospital while Borges was recovering from gunshot wounds.

Onfroy was characterized by much of the media as homophobic following a widely seen interview he gave to Adam22 in April 2016. Onfroy told Adam22 that, one time when he was in a juvenile detention facility, he attacked his gay cellmate for staring at him while naked. Onfroy explained, "I was gonna kill him type shit because of what he did", but was ultimately restrained. After Onfroy's death, Liz Lazzara's article for CNN described him as homophobic, and similar characterizations were made on social media. However, friends and collaborators said he was not homophobic. In the same interview, Onfroy stated in clarification, "I am not homophobic", and expressed his support for the legalization of gay marriage. In a 2017 interview with The Fader which was released in November 2022, Onfroy mentioned that he should have been clearer in the podcast in which he described the fight, stating he wished he had clarified that he did not attack his cellmate for the fact that he was gay, calling his discussion of the topic "negligent and stupid", but stated, "Everybody needs to realize at the time I was still a kid." Regarding his political beliefs, Onfroy was praised as "incredibly progressive" by transgender music producer Fifty Grand. Multiple transgender artists said in a 2020 biography that Onfroy was supportive of the transgender community.

Onfroy said many times that he distrusted police due to both personal experiences and publicized instances such as the killing of Philando Castile, which Onfroy described as a murder. In the music video for "Riot", depictions of the killings of Emmett Till, Heather Heyer, and Philando Castile are shown, in addition to the fictional depiction at the end of the video of a white child being lynched. Onfroy said that the last depiction wasn't an expression of reverse racism, but was to show that public outrage from the video would be more so focused on the fictional white child's death rather than the depictions of actual racist killings. Onfroy expressed frustration in a 2017 interview that the officer who killed Eric Garner was not arrested.

Onfroy's music was driven on themes revolving around depression and alienation, becoming known for his "depressing, and at times devastating" music that brought attention to mental health. He employed styles and techniques that were unconventional in hip-hop during his career, such as distortion and heavy guitar-backed instrumentals drawing inspiration from third-wave emo.

Christopher Weingarten of Rolling Stone opined that Onfroy's success as "a zeitgeist-grabbing, industry-defying, boundary-destroying phenomenon" is "overshadowed" by his alleged violence towards his ex-girlfriend, but contended that despite media attempts to suppress him, Onfroy's "impact on music will be felt for years to come" and his recordings have "helped signal a new era of post-streaming, post-genre teenagers". Onfroy left behind what Rolling Stone called "a huge musical footprint" due to his impact on his young fan base and his popularity during his career. Given his immense influence only to die young, the article compared his cultural impact with that of Ritchie Valens and Darby Crash. Chris Willman of Variety described in a 2022 article that while Onfroy was a flawed individual, during his career he "nearly became rap's own Kurt Cobain", and mentioned that it was "heartbreaking" to see Onfroy killed just as he began to show signs of "warmth, self-awareness and a desire to help".

Highlighting his ambivalent public reception during his short career, Billboard wrote:"The provocative and polarizing artist seemed to thrive on controversy as much as art, often blurring the lines between shocking reality and button-pushing creativity. XXX's short career was characterized by both in equal measure-making the Florida rapper a martyr to a legion of fans and a cautionary tale to so many others."On June 18, 2019, exactly one year on from Onfroy's death, an official documentary on his life was announced; it featured footage of Onfroy from around April 2017 telling biographical details. On February 2, 2022, it was announced that the film, titled Look at Me, would be released on the Hulu streaming service on May 26, 2022.

Onfroy has RIAA-certified sales of 38 million units in the US and BPI-certified sales of over 7 million units in the UK. He is also one of the Top-20 all-time best selling artists in terms of digital singles, with a total of 49 million RIAA-certified digital sales as of October 2020. In August 2021, Onfroy's single, "Sad!", was certified Diamond in the US.

Onfroy has been cited as an influence by a number of artists, including Billie Eilish, Juice Wrld, Kendrick Lamar, Lil Nas X, Trippie Redd, Baby Keem, and Kanye West.