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Bad behavior: SoundCloud rappers who abuse women, objectively and subjectively

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Bad behavior: SoundCloud rappers who abuse women, objectively and subjectively

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Bad Behavior:
SoundCloud Rappers who Abuse Women,
Objectively and Subjectively

by
Vivian Medithi

A Master’s Thesis presented to the
FACULTY OF USC GRADUATE SCHOOL
as a partial fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF ARTS
in
SPECIALIZED JOURNALISM

August 2019

ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
Thanks to: my parents, my siblings, Professors Sasha Anawalt, Keith
Plocek, and Henry Fuhrmann, Michael Parks, Michael Ploszek, Jon Schleuss, my
talented classmates, experts consulted, cited, and interviewed, and everyone else
who contributed a little something to getting us over the finish line.

ABSTRACT:
Several prominent rappers have been accused of abusive behavior over the
past few years. This project aimed to apply principles of data journalism to
traditional arts criticism, with the intention of presenting a cultural critique
founded in objective evidence. Data was scraped using Python and manually
analyzed and visualized. This paper summarizes observed trends in the data and
explores some possible explanations.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title Page Page i
Acknowledgements Page ii
Abstract Page ii
Table of Contents Page ii
Text Page 1
Figure 1 Page 7
Figure 2 Page 8
Figure 3 Page 10
Bibliography Page 16

1

Rappers accused of abuse are having a moment. Over the past few years, anecdotal evidence suggested
that the number of hip-hop artists accused of violence against women was increasing. New data analysis of the
Billboard charts shows the proportion of known or accused abusers on the rap charts has doubled over the last
five years, even as the #MeToo movement has placed more scrutiny on men who have (allegedly) done awful
things. Some see this as the rise of a new wave of Internet rappers, others as a pushback to identity politics. This
analysis puts hard numbers to perceived trends, and explores how these objective metrics impact the highly
subjective way we interact with art - as fans, as critics, and most importantly, as consumers.

When I was 10, my dad bought me my first iPod. A third-generation iPod Nano, it was about the size of
my palm, four times as thick as a strand of spaghetti, 4 gigabytes of memory wrapped in anodized aluminum
and stainless steel. The most important thing was that it was second-hand, pre-loaded with MP3s my cousin had
downloaded from various websites of illegitimate origin. While I had grown up obsessed with music, first
N*SYNC and pop radio, then exploring my dad’s rock’n’roll CDs from the 80s and 90s, the Nano represented
something deeper. I knew how to play the piano (poorly) and how to sing in a choir (less poorly), but nothing in
my life before 2008 could have prepared me for Arctic Monkeys’s “Fluorescent Adolescent” or Fall Out Boy’s
“I’m Like A Lawyer With The Way I’m Always Trying To Get You Off.”
But while the sexually charged lyrics of mid-2000s emo certainly weren’t Mom Approved, the artist
who concerned my parents the most was Lil Wayne. A summer 2007 leak gave fans the majority of his
forthcoming album, the hotly-anticipated Tha Carter III. When released in June of 2008, the album would sell a
million copies in just three days, an unprecedented feat. I still recall a prepubescent conversation with my dad
the following year, who had listened to Wayne’s “3 Peat” and demanded an explanation of why I was listening
to such “vulgar music.” To wit:
fuckin’ right hoe, I might go
crazy on these n****s, I don’t give a motherfuck
run up in a n**** house and shoot his grandmother up
what, what, I don’t give a motherfuck
get your baby kidnapped and your baby mother fucked
1

My parents were understandably unenthused when they discovered that their 11 year old had spent a
year plus secretly spinning “3 Peat” and various other songs detailing sexual conquest, drug retail and
consumption, and gun violence. My argument that Lil Wayne was an artist telling mostly fictitious stories, that
“3 Peat” was art, and that art could sometimes be shocking, offensive, or even obscene, was of no use; then
again, neither were my parents’ dictates that I abstain from the explicit versions of these songs. To me, radio
edits were fig leaves on marble statues, a grievous affront to anyone who really cared about Art.
I was nowhere near the first to make this argument. A few years prior, in 2005, future-New York Times
critic Jon Caramanica proclaimed that “the avant-garde need not be moral” in a review for The Village Voice.
2

He was talking about Cam’ron’s album Purple Haze, discussing how poetic devices that would have made
Allen Ginsberg gape didn’t overshadow the fact that “Killa Cam,” like many a rapper before him, was still
talking about slinging coke and ducking feds. Pitchfork senior staff writer Marc Hogan, a contributor to the site

1
Lil Wayne. "3 Peat." Genius. June 10, 2008. https://genius.com/Lil-wayne-3-peat-lyrics.
2
Caramanica, John. "Intricacy And Economy." Village Voice. January 11, 2005. https://www.villagevoice.com/2005/01/11/intricacy-
and-economy/.
2

since 2004, recently told me “the avant-garde need not be moral” became a catchphrase for many a critic at the
time,
3
who agreed with preteenage me that Art and Ethics weren’t always going to be perfectly aligned.
Fast-forward to October 2013. Lady Gaga released her second single from forthcoming album Artpop,
“Do What U Want,” featuring R. Kelly. Generally praised by critics, the song was in frequent rotation on the
pop radio stations that my parents played in the car. One day, when R. Kelly’s verse blared through the
speakers, my dad made an offhand comment about how he couldn’t believe Kelly was still on the radio after the
lengthy criminal proceedings surrounding his 2002 arrest on child pornography charges resulting from a video
allegedly showing him with an underage girl
4
.
My dumb ass, newly 16, vaguely aware of the subsequent 2008 court case, and convinced, like many a
teenager, that I was right about everything, replied that Kelly had been cleared of all charges. My dad responded
that George Zimmerman had been cleared of all charges for killing Trayvon Martin just a few months earlier.
That shut me up quick.
Though I didn’t stop listening to R. Kelly, I was forced to elevate how I thought about these things.
Unlike Lil Wayne, who had a handful of gun- and drug-related criminal charges, what R. Kelly was accused of
wasn’t rebellious cool, but deeply troubling, a truly repugnant offense.
But I liked his music. So I decided I could separate the art from the artist, a decision that let me enjoy
not only R. Kelly, but radio darling Chris Brown, whose career had been rocked — but certainly not derailed —
by his pleading guilty to a vicious 2009 assault of then-girlfriend Rihanna. Part of my logic was that I wasn’t
paying for their music anyway: endless FBI ads in movie theaters and DVD intros had informed me that piracy
was theft, so at least I wasn’t putting money in their pockets by listening to illicitly downloaded MP3s.
And for a while, that was enough. I’d like to say that as I got older, learning more about the statistics
behind sexual abuse and domestic violence, my moral outrage grew and the idea of “separating art from artist”
was no longer enough, but I don’t know if that’s true. Maybe the biggest factor was simply that these guys
stopped making good music, or that my tastes evolved. Or maybe I was embarrassed to claim fandom in public,
scared more by what my peers might think of me than by the possibility of raising their profile to people who
wouldn’t play their music unprompted.
Whatever the case, when autumn 2016 rolled around, things had changed, at least for me. I had spent the
summer obsessed with the mixtape Lil B.I.G. Pac by Kodak Black. He seemed destined for superstardom,
despite a string of arrests and jail stints for robbery, drug possession, and gun charges. His song “SKRT” got a
notable placement in Donald Glover’s Golden Globe and Emmy-winning FX show Atlanta, and the smash
single “No Flockin” would be certified double-platinum and eventually inspire Cardi B’s world-beating “Bodak
Yellow.”
Kodak Black spent the end of summer 2016 in Florida’s Broward County Jail due to springtime charges
related to armed robbery and possession of cannabis and firearms. In August, outstanding warrants alleging a
February sexual assault were discovered, stalling his release and prompting extradition to Florence, South
Carolina.
5
He would be formally charged with sexual assault in November.
Lil B.I.G. Pac dropped out of my regular rotation. “No Flockin” and “SKRT” did too. But even as I
decided separating music from the people making it was impossible, Kodak saw only increased commercial
success. In February 2017, a track Kodak had performed at live shows for months called “Tunnel Vision”

3
Hogan, Mark. Telephone interview by author. June 7, 2019.
4
Arkin, Daniel. "After Ryan Adams Allegations, Will #MeToo Finally Roil Music Industry?" NBCNews.com. February 16, 2019.
https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/music/after-ryan-adams-allegations-will-music-industry-finally-face-metoo-n972241.
5
Clarkson, Brett. "Rapper Kodak Black Sexually Assaulted Woman in Hotel Room, Investigators Say." SunSentinel. June 09, 2018.
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/florida/fl-kodak-black-arrest-warrant-20161130-story.html.
3

leaked online. The song was really good, is really good, propelled by mournful woodwinds and pulsing hi-hats.
Then:
Lil Kodak, they don’t like to see you winnin’
They wanna see you in the penitentiary
…
I jumped up out the Wraith, Kodak bought a Wraith
I get any girl I want, I don’t gotta rape
6

The space between art and artist collapsed, no longer claustrophobically small but completely
nonexistent. Kodak was explicitly rapping about his open case for sexual assault, and enjoying the song meant a
tacit endorsement of his side of the story. That line was ultimately changed to “I get any girl I want, any girl I
want,”
7
but it probably wouldn’t have mattered. Upon the track’s official release in March 2017, it made an
immediate appearance on the Billboard “Hot Rap Songs” chart, ultimately peaking at No. 6 on the Billboard
“Hot 100” songs chart and going triple-platinum.

Rap is a genre that prizes “realness,” and though some of the genre’s biggest stars show that isn’t always
a prerequisite (Drake was a child actor; Rick Ross was a correctional officer), we want to believe. When we
talked, Hogan likened it to wrestling kayfabe, suggesting that there’s a suspension of disbelief at play.
8

Still, I wonder. Prior to his arrest for sexual assault, Kodak had been in and out of jail on drug charges,
gun charges, battery, robbery. On Lil B.I.G. Pac, Kodak rapped “them people took my 40s, so I’m bout to go
buy a pump;” “Today I wanna tote my 40 cal’.” While these topics are boilerplate rap, the real-world charges
associated didn’t make me uncomfortable; if anything, they added gravitas to Kodak’s weary persona.
“A chasm persists between moral and aesthetic calculus,” said Caramanica.
9
In early 2018, now working
for the New York Times, Caramanica wrote about Kodak and other rappers accused of abuse, who were seeing
success “in spite of — or perhaps in part owing to — the severity of the allegations lodged against them.”
10

XXXTentacion was one of those rappers. The online success of X’s first major single, “Look at Me!”
coincided with his fall 2016 arrest on charges of witness tampering, false imprisonment, and aggravated battery
of a pregnant victim.
11
The litany of abuses detailed by his then-girlfriend were harrowing and frankly,
disturbing: strangulation, beatings, being held underwater, and threats of surreally graphic violence.
12

These crimes aren’t the entire story, of course. Fans and critics alike will tell you that X, born Jahseh
Dwayne Ricardo Onfroy, was an incredibly gifted musician. He moved beyond and between genres with ease,
his work encapsulating and driving trends in the modern genre of “Soundcloud rap.” There were ear-pummeling

6
Black, Kodak. "Tunnel Vision." Genius. February 16, 2017. https://genius.com/11356781.
7
Mench, Chris. "Kodak Black Removes Controversial Rape Lyric From Final Version Of New Single "Tunnel Vision"." Genius.
February 16, 2017. https://genius.com/a/kodak-black-removes-controversial-rape-lyric-from-final-version-of-new-single-tunnel-
vision.
8
Hogan. Telephone interview. June 7, 2019.
9
Caramanica, Jon. "Hip-Hop's Year of Dangerous Living Put the Accused on the Charts." The New York Times. January 05, 2018.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/05/arts/music/xxxtentacion-tay-k-kodak-black-accusations-
criticism.html?action=click&module=RelatedCoverage&pgtype=Article®ion=Footer.
10
Ibid.
11
Caramanica, Jon. "Two SoundCloud Rap Outlaws Push Boundaries From the Fringes." The New York Times. March 21, 2018.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/21/arts/music/xxxtentacion-question-6ix9ine-day69-review.html?save=nyt-gateway-stories.
12
Hitt, Tarpley. "The Real Story of South Florida Rapper XXXTentacion." Miami New Times. April 11, 2019.
https://www.miaminewtimes.com/music/the-real-story-of-rapper-xxxtentacion-10410980.
4

songs about an inability to keep genitals in jeans and sad songs about being so depressed he didn’t really want
to live anymore, and love songs that instantly conjured up your early adolescence, whether you spent those
years with The Smiths or The Strokes or Arctic Monkeys or Paramore. His admirers included not only rap
luminaries such as Kendrick Lamar and Kanye West, but also former blink-182 drummer Travis Barker, turn-
of-the-millenium heartthrob Aaron Carter, and contemporary pop queen Billie Eilish.
I was aware that X had been implicated in a serious domestic violence charge when a friend first played
me his music. While I didn’t by any means consider myself a moral paragon, I had made an effort to avoid his
music, figuring that there was plenty of great music made by artists who wouldn’t elicit a feeling of moral
squeamishness. Still, when I heard “Look at Me!,” and later, “I don’t wanna do this anymore,” I got it.
I once heard an explanation for defining art: To paraphrase, the only difference between a piece of art
and a ham sandwich is that art elicits a strong emotional reaction, time and again. By this criterion,
XXXTentacion’s music was art, visceral and creative. It sounded like things I’d heard before, but it was new, it
was unique, and to this day, I don’t think I’ve heard anything in quite the same wheelhouse, though many of his
very talented peers dabbled in similar sounds.
“I think it’s possible to both understand the gravity of someone’s actions and still have a visceral
reaction to an excellent song,”
13
says Tarpley Hitt, an entertainment reporter for The Daily Beast who
previously interviewed XXXTentacion and Geneva Ayala for The Miami New Times.
“I don’t mean to make light of holding people accountable, but let’s say someone commits an extremely
egregious offense. And you say, ‘Okay, that’s too much, I’m not going to listen to their music anymore.’
What’s weird is that if you have someone with a less egregious offense, they say, ‘Okay, this is fine.’ … you
end up drawing weird lines in the sand when you say, ‘Oh, this is a cancellable offense.’”
14

The artistic merit of his work and the rabid devotion of his fans help to explain, in part, the strong
industry support for an artist accused of vicious abuse. A year after his arrest and initial online success, his
debut album, 17, peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard “Hot 200” albums chart in August 2017; the outro track for
the album is named after the ex-girlfriend Onfroy was accused of assaulting, calling her a “regret” and saying
she showed him “fake love.”
Kendrick Lamar, a hip-hop icon who previously met with Barack Obama in the Oval Office, tweeted an
iTunes link for 17 with the missive, “listen to this album if you feel anything. raw thoughts.” Just two months
later, X had signed a deal with Capitol Music Group worth a reported $6 million.
1516
His sophomore album, ?,
debuted at No. 1 in March 2018. X wasn’t just the most popular rapper in the country, he was the most popular
musician in any genre -- at least for a while.
When Spotify rolled out a “Hateful Conduct” policy in May 2018, X was one of three artists affected,
alongside R. Kelly and Texan rapper Tay-K, who is currently in jail pending trial ontwo murder charges.
17

When asked to comment by The New York Times, a rep for XXXTentacion said, “I don’t have a comment, just a
question. Will Spotify remove all the artists listed below from playlists?” before proceeding to list 19 artists

13
Hitt, Tarpley. Telephone interview by author. June 19, 2019.
14
Ibid.
15
Rys, Dan, and Hannah Karp. "XXXTentacion Signs With Capitol Music Group's Caroline: Exclusive." Billboard. October 20,
2017. https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/8006688/xxxtentacion-signs-deal-capitol-music-group-exclusive.
16
Sargent, Jordan. "XXXTentacion's Reported $6 Million Deal Is a Test For the Music Industry." Spin. October 20, 2017.
https://www.spin.com/2017/10/xxxtentacion-6-million-deal-capitol-billboard/.
17
Flanagan, Andrew. "Starting With R. Kelly, Spotify Pulls Artists From Playlists For 'Hateful Conduct'." NPR. May 10, 2018.
https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2018/05/10/610051559/starting-with-r-kelly-spotify-pulls-artists-from-playlists-for-hateful-
conduct.
5

(including David Bowie, Michael Jackson, Dr. Dre, and Ozzy Osbourne) accused of sexual misconduct or
physical violence.
18

Lamar, now with a Pulitzer Prize, threatened to pull his music from the streaming platform; Diddy and
other music executives got involved, leading Spotify to rescind the policy just two weeks after rollout.
19
At just
20 years old, XXXTentacion had become a poster boy for censorship of art, rap’s misogyny problem, angry
depressed teens, famous men who abuse women, and the modern ways the Internet could propel an unknown
kid to superstardom in a few short months.
And this is all before he died.
On June 18, 2018, X was shot to death in Deerfield Beach, Florida, during an armed robbery gone awry.
People who loved him and people who hated him alike flocked to social media, crying or crowing about his
death. With no defendant to stand trial, Onfroy’s outstanding criminal charges were dropped. The ex-girlfriend
he was accused of abusing, Geneva Ayala, tweeted that she was “broken” over his death, calling those cheering
or professing to speak for her feelings “disgusting.”
20
While obituary writers struggled with how to memorialize
an artist accused of such heinous acts, wider audiences and his musical peers had no qualms about openly
grieving him as the person they remembered, a tortured artist striving to be better than who he was.
Maybe the story could have ended here, an uncomfortable silence filling the void left by his death.
Instead, it felt as if things got louder. Zealous fans kicked Ayala out of a vigil for the late rapper, destroying
items she left at the memorial.
21
And as with previous musicians who met untimely ends, sales and streams of
his music skyrocketed. Amazon sales of ? increased by 54,000% for CDs and 542,500% for vinyl.
22
The single
“SAD!,” which had previously topped the Billboard “Hot 100” songs chart, broke Spotify’s single-day
streaming record with 10.4 million listens.
In October, an audio recording of XXXTentacion confessing to domestic abuse and stabbing nine people
was published by Pitchfork.
23
In December, X’s posthumous album Skins debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard
“Hot 200.”

Kodak and X represent two sides of the same coin, one accused of abuse as his career was developing,
the other developing his career while facing accusations of abuse. The two even collaborated on the hit song
“Roll in Peace,” in which they unironically lamented the increased scrutiny of fame; X went so far as to rap
“last time I wifed a bitch she told the world I beat her.” But they aren’t the only newly popular rappers with
outstanding abuse allegations.
Latino rapper 6ix9ine, who gained popularity in late 2017, pleaded guilty in October 2015 to felony use
of a child in a sexual performance
24
. Rapper Sheck Wes, whose hit “Mo Bamba” blasted from college parties

18
Ibid.
19
Rys, Dan. "Top Dawg Explains How He Warned Spotify's CEO That Kendrick Lamar, Others Would Pull Music Over Conduct
Policy." Billboard. June 01, 2018. https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/8458884/top-dawg-warned-spotify-ceo-kendrick-
lamar-others-pull-music-hate-conduct-policy.
20
Staff, TMZ. "XXXTentacion's Alleged Abuse Victim Not 'Relieved or Happy'." TMZ. June 19, 2018.
https://www.tmz.com/2018/06/19/xxxtentacion-death-alleged-abuse-victim-speaks/.
21
Moore, Sam. "XXXTentacion's Ex-girlfriend Says She Was "kicked Out" of His Florida Memorial." NME. June 21, 2018.
https://www.nme.com/news/music/xxxtentacion-geneva-ayala-florida-memorial-kicked-out-instagram-2341955.
22
Staff, TMZ. "XXXTentacion's Albums and Songs Soar on Amazon, ITunes After Death." TMZ. June 19, 2018.
https://www.tmz.com/2018/06/19/xxxtentacion-dead-albums-songs-soar-climb-charts-amazon-itunes/.
23
Hogan, Marc. "XXXTentacion Confessed to Domestic Abuse and Other Violent Crimes in Newly Obtained Secret Recording."
Pitchfork. October 23, 2018. https://pitchfork.com/news/xxxtentacion-confessed-to-domestic-abuse-secret-recording-listen/.
24
Juzwiak, Rich. "Details in Child Sex Complaint Against Rapper 6ix9ine Contradict His Public Comments." Jezebel. December 19,
2018. https://jezebel.com/details-in-child-sex-complaint-against-rapper-6ix9ine-c-1821245294.
6

and DJ sets in 2018, has been accused of stalking and domestic violence
25
. Rich The Kid, whose biggest hit
“New Freezer” is a collaboration with Kendrick Lamar, was accused by his ex-wife of domestic abuse and
forcing her to have abortions
26
. Famous Dex, a rapper signed to Rich’s label, was caught on video assaulting a
woman in a hotel hallway
27
. Trippie Redd was charged with pistol whipping a woman
28
; YoungBoy
NeverBrokeAgain was indicted by a grand jury on charges of kidnapping and aggravated assault of his
girlfriend and was caught on video apparently beating a different woman
29
.
There are other rappers accused of abuse, some less famous, others accused on social media or in
whisper networks. Even conservatively, it seemed as though the proportion of known or accused abusers
making it big in hip-hop had grown. And now there are numbers to back it up.

25
Strauss, Matthew, and Matthew Strauss. "Sheck Wes Assault Case Declined by L.A. District Attorney." Pitchfork. March 25, 2019.
https://pitchfork.com/news/sheck-wes-assault-case-declined-by-la-district-attorney/.
26
Staff, TMZ. "Rich the Kid's Estranged Wife Claims He Abused Her, Forced Abortions." TMZ. May 22, 2018.
https://www.tmz.com/2018/05/22/rich-the-kid-divorce-wife-claims-abortions-domestic-violence/.
27
XXL Staff. "Famous Dex Caught on Camera Beating His Girlfriend - XXL." XXL Mag. September 20, 2016.
https://www.xxlmag.com/news/2016/09/famous-dex-beats-girlfriend/.
28
Harling, Danielle. "Trippie Redd Released From Jail Following Assault & Battery Charge." HipHopDX. June 20, 2018.
29
Ani, Ivie. "YoungBoy Never Broke Again Indicted on Kidnapping & Aggravated Assault." Okayplayer. March 19, 2018..
https://www.okayplayer.com/music/youngboy-never-broke-indicted-kidnapping-aggravated-assault-charges.html.
7

My analysis of 6,525 entries on the Billboard charts representing 718 songs suggests that these artists
are part of a larger trend, where hip-hop musicians with public-facing abuse allegations and convictions have
seen increased chart success in recent years. Moreover, it seems that they have been supported by a wider
culture of complicity that embroils not only fellow rappers and hip-hop fans, but also cross-genre collaborators
and the labels funding it all.
In the last five years, the proportion of entries by abusive artists on Billboard’s “Hot Rap Songs” chart
has effectively doubled, hovering around 10% from 2014 to 2016, and then around 20% in 2017 and 2018 (fig.
1). Data summarizing the raw number of monthly chart placements shows that the number of entries by abusers
was relatively low until late 2016, when the number of monthly chart entries increased significantly (fig. 2).
Figure 1. Summary statistics showing the percentage of artists on the “Hot Rap Songs” chart who are known or accused
abusers. The proportion has essentially doubled over the past five years. (https://infogram.com/abusers-on-chart-per-
annum-1h7v4pvvglwd4k0)

The Billboard charts are an industry standard, with various charts accounting for radio airplay, digital
sales, online streaming, and combinations thereof. The “Hot Rap Songs” chart ranks the top 25 songs in the
genre every week via a composite of the three aforementioned statistics, which are weighted differently
according to monetary impact (i.e., unpaid YouTube views are considered less important than paid music
streaming on Apple Music or Spotify, which are in turn weighted less heavily than digital sales through iTunes
and other outlets). The data compiled in these charts is collected by Nielsen. I scraped data in this piece via
Python from Billboard’s chart archives, and manually analyzed the dataset to quantify the number of artists
8

facing charges of violence against women and children. Artists were counted if they had a conviction,
outstanding legal trail (court documents, arrests, restraining orders), or essentially incontrovertible evidence
(video evidence, a confession without legal ramification) related to abuse of women or children.
Some of the most prominent names accused or convicted of abuse in this dataset aren’t new faces. Chris
Brown is certainly the most famous, but Atlanta rapper Gucci Mane also appears frequently, after a late-career
renaissance in 2016
30
. The Game
31
, Lil Boosie
32
, Webbie
33
, and 50 Cent
34
are all rappers who broke big before
the dawn of the streaming era and saw continued chart success in the last five years despite outstanding
accusations and convictions related to sexual assault and domestic violence. But the upward trend we see
starting from late 2016 is primarily due to new faces such as Kodak Black and XXXTentacion (fig. 2).

30
MP The God. "Gucci Mane Pays $60k to a Woman He Threw Out of a Moving Car." VladTV // World's Leader in Urban News.
April 19, 2017. https://www.vladtv.com/article/227148/gucci-mane-pays-60k-to-a-woman-he-threw-out-of-a-moving-car?page=2.
31
Kelly, Emma. "The Game Ordered to Pay Reality Star £6m in Sexual Assault Lawsuit." Dailystar.co.uk. November 21, 2016.
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/showbiz/563862/The-Game-ordered-to-pay-Priscilla-Rainey-sexual-assault-lawsuit.
32
Montgomery, Sarah Jasmine. "Boosie Badazz Responds to Baby Mother's Claim That He Threatened to Give Daughter a Black
Eye." Complex. July 16, 2018. https://www.complex.com/music/2018/07/boosie-badazz-responds-to-baby-mothers-claim-that-he-
threatened-to-give-daughter-a-black-eye.
33
Berry, Peter A. "Webbie Avoids Jail Time in Domestic Violence Case - XXL." XXL Mag. August 02, 20189.
https://www.xxlmag.com/news/2018/08/webbie-avoids-jail-time-domestic-violence-case/.
34
Martinez, Michael, and Matthew Carey. "Alleged Victim in 50 Cent's Domestic Violence Case Is Model, Actress." CNN. July 05,
2013. https://www.cnn.com/2013/07/05/showbiz/50-cent-charges/index.html.
9

Figure 2. Raw number of known or accused abusive rappers on the Hot Rap Songs chart, charted by monthly total over
the last five years and summed by year. (https://infogram.com/abusers-in-rap-2014-2018-1h706eyyo0dq45y)

Most of these newer rappers found their initial success on SoundCloud, a free-to-use streaming platform
that became especially popular among fans of hip-hop and electronic music in the early 2010s. What made
SoundCloud so appealing was a lack of copyright restrictions when compared with major paid streaming
services: throwaway songs by Drake that never saw official release, hip-hop songs with samples the artists
could never afford to legally clear, EDM remixes of popular songs, and more could all be uploaded with
minimal fear of a takedown under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. This allowed a generation of
musicians to use the site to remix and collaborate and generally make music unfettered by corporate restriction.
This freewheeling approach made SoundCloud a favorite among the sample-heavy genres of electronic
and hip-hop, and a go-to for devoted fans of those genres. Record labels took note, using the site as a testing
ground for their own artists and an online locus to find new talent. As SoundCloud has grown, introducing a
paid option, there have been significant crackdowns to bring the site more in line with copyright law, though it
remains a fertile bed for artists in hip-hop and electronic music.
In late 2016, SoundCloud introduced the “On SoundCloud” program. This program created an invite-
only tier of “Premiere” users who could monetize their streams.
35
This data was funneled up to Nielsen for

35
SoundCloud Premier. "SoundCloud Premier on SoundCloud." SoundCloud. https://soundcloud.com/you/premier.
10

inclusion on the Billboard Charts.
36
While in theory, this would give independent artists more potential for chart
impact, in practice, most of the artists who received Premiere accounts already had major label backing.
37
The
new program did little to increase the chart presence of newer artists, and generally seems to have been a way of
avoiding the mounting threat of copyright lawsuits by record companies.
38
The majority of content being
produced and consumed on SoundCloud remained unlicensed, unmonetized, and uncounted by Billboard.
While most SoundCloud streams aren’t counted on the Billboard charts, it is hard to overstate the
trickle-up effect they can have on hip-hop in particular, where a single smash on the site can quickly translate
into a traditional record deal. Racking up millions of streams also shows labels that an artist is a tested
commodity, making them more likely to sign a rapper to a lucrative deal. And since the charts began counting
digital streams from YouTube, Pandora, Spotify, and other outlets in 2012, success on a platform such as
SoundCloud is easy to translate into views on YouTube, and thus placement on the charts. To a degree, the
success of abusive rappers can be seen as a product of increasing chart influence and the purchasing power of
teenagers and twenty-somethings, and the commercial success of SoundCloud rap full stop.
But to blame the rise of abusers on the charts solely on consumers would be a mistake. While the
internet era has lowered the threshold for musicians to make music, collaborate with others, and promote their
work to audiences, they don’t have anywhere near the same power as major labels, which have taken traditional
forms of distribution and digitized them. Spotify’s RapCaviar playlist advertises itself as “The most influential
playlist in hip-hop,” and has been lauded as a king-maker by Wired and other outlets. Yet a December 2017
analysis by journalist David Turner found that 43% of songs on the playlist are added the day they’re released,
39

suggesting that major labels have a direct pipeline to the curators in charge. Just because more people are
playing on the same field doesn’t mean they all have the same set of advantages. When I spoke to Pitchfork’s
Marc Hogan, he told me, “We need to look at the broader institutions, and frankly, the rich straight white old
men that make money off all this and don’t ever have to apologize for it... I don’t really know how to hold those
folks to account, but talking about it is a start.”
40

Some point to X’s huge streaming numbers before the October 2017 deal with Capitol Music Group as a
sign that his success was organic and inevitable. But although his debut album in August 2017 had peaked at
No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 200 off streams and digital sales, it seems inaccurate to paint this as truly
independent success. 17 was released via a partnership with Empire Distribution, a company with seven years
of experience releasing hip-hop albums by artists including Kendrick Lamar and Snoop Dogg. When Empire
started a record label in 2013, its first signee’s first single (“Gas Pedal” by Sage The Gemini) went platinum.
While X certainly saw remarkable success before partnering with Empire, all of his music distribution on
streaming platforms such as Spotify happened through the company. I find it hard to believe that he would have
had the same kind of national impact without the access and platform that Empire had given him.
The chart entries by known and accused abusive rappers over the last five years show that fewer than a
third were solo tracks. About 69% of the time those artists appeared on the charts, they did it in collaboration

36
LabelEngine. "Soundcloud to Report Monetized Streams to Nielsen for Billboard Charts." Label Engine News. October 19, 2016.
https://label-engine.com/news/soundcloud-to-report-monetized-streams-to-nielsen/.
37
Valholla, Vince. " SoundCloud Streams Now Count Towards Album Sales, But For Only a Select Few." Medium. February 15,
2017. https://medium.com/@VinceValholla/soundcloud-streams-now-count-towards-album-sales-but-for-only-a-select-few-
27d51aa29be1.
38
Voogt, Budi. "Insight into SoundCloud Premier: Monetization, Ads and Visual Profiles." Heroic Academy. February 12, 2019.
https://heroic.academy/insight-into-soundcloud-premier-monetization-ads-and-visual-profiles/.
39
Turner, David. "Spotify's RapCaviar Picks The Hits of Today & You'll Never Be On It." TrackRecord. January 31, 2018.
https://trackrecord.net/spotifys-rapcaviar-picks-the-hits-of-today-youll-neve-1820987911.
40
Hogan, Mark. Telephone interview by author. June 7, 2019.
11

with other artists (fig. 3). Of the collaborative entries analyzed, only 12% involved two possible abusers. The
vast majority were collaborations with artists with no outstanding accusations or convictions.
Figure 3. Of those chart entries involving known or accused abusers, more than two-thirds were collaborative tracks.
(https://infogram.com/abuse-solo-v-collab-1h984wwwy5zv4p3)

The data suggests that while abusers may present a problem in and of themselves, they represent a
symptom of a wider culture of complicity, where other artists have no qualms overlooking moral shortcomings.
“Rap’s a collaborative genre,” Hogan said. ”You don’t just do it by yourself. There’s the producers,
there’s the cosigns, people don’t just break out... And [this data] seems to show that there are a lot of people
around these abusers helping boost [their] careers.”
41
When asked about the industry mindset on signing
controversial rappers, Hogan offered this explanation:
“Labels don’t want to have a reputation of just ditching artists at the first sign of wrongdoing
either. There’s all these people who are accused of various things, and if you’re going to get them to
sign with you, they can’t be like ‘Hey wait a minute, if I get busted with my gun you’re gonna just drop
me anyway, I can’t trust you’ ... Labels have an incentive in seeming like they don’t care about their
artists’ crimes, or alleged crimes.”
42

Hip-hop often gets a bad rap for promoting violence, misogyny, and drug use. Certainly, the genre
explicitly talks about these topics, sometimes in ways that can feel glamorizing or exploitative. But rappers are
just as likely to discuss symptoms of social ills: crime as a last resort for those raised with few options around
endemic violence, narcotics like codeine, Percocet, and Xanax taken in response to deep trauma.

41
Ibid.
42
Ibid.
12

And when it comes to the subject of famous musicians who abuse women, that’s a topic not limited
genre or race. In recent years, indie rock guitarist Matt Monandile of Real Estate, metal band Swans’s frontman
Michael Gira, Ben Hopkins of the queer punk duo PWR BTTM, and more have been accused of sexual assault.
David Bowie was posthumously scrutinized for his sexual relationships with teenagers. John Lennon beat his
first wife and Ozzy Osbourne has acknowledged that he literally tried to kill his wife, Sharon. And that’s just
considering white musical artists. If we expand the scope to include actors, artists, or even just “men with any
modicum of power,” the list becomes unbearably long.
None of this is to pretend that rap is the realm of saints. Tupac was convicted of first degree sexual
abuse in 1993, though he’s often lauded as a proto-feminist in the genre. In 1991, Dr. Dre viciously assaulted
journalist Dee Barnes at a record release party over negative press coverage. And Vanilla Ice, best known for
making rap safe for white America, has been arrested multiple times since the early 2000s for domestic abuse.
But it often seems as though rap has disproportionately borne the brunt of censorship when it comes to music,
from 2 Live Crew’s prosecution on obscenity charges to Spotify’s failed “Hateful Conduct” policy in 2018.
43

No one yells about the violent messages in pop and country music the same way they do hip-hop.
“We do not do this in any other genre,” says Rolling Stone writer Charles Holmes. “If you look at the
coverage, it’s sensationalized… and it’s highly flawed how we even approach it.”
44

According to Holmes, when music outlets realized that stories about soundcloud rappers could “generate
traffic,” the coverage increased dramatically.
45
He sees this as playing on traditional racist stereotypes about
“black male aggression.”
“It’s a little depressing when it’s like,’You know people are going to click on this because this is a racist
narrative that is in America,’ and you could have spent all this time and these resources not making these people
into tragic heroes trying to chase clicks.”
46

When we talk about black men and criminal justice in the United States, we’re also talking about the
history of overpolicing and lynching.
47
The twin myths of black male sexual violence and sexual violence
against white women have historically been weaponized by racists to justify everything from Jim Crow to
xenophobic anti-immigrant fearmongering. In a world where major police departments have task forces whose
sole purpose is to try to arrest rappers,
48
and rappers who are arrested are mocked with their own music,
49
it is
understandable that fans frequently disbelieve criminal allegations against black men.
People are right to mistrust historically and currently racist institutions. Of course, those who cite
statistics on racial disparities in arrest and conviction rates should also acknowledge the literature regarding
underreporting and non-conviction of sexual assault: according to RAINN (the Rape, Abuse & Incest National
Network), less than 1% of all rapes lead to convictions, and false rape accusations are (as other false crime
accusations) exceedingly rare.
50
And while some cases, such as Kodak Black’s, involve white survivors and

43
Schwarz, Hunter. "25 Years Ago, 2 Live Crew Were Arrested for Obscenity. Here's the Fascinating Back Story." The Washington
Post. June 11, 2015. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/06/11/25-years-ago-2-live-crew-were-arrested-for-
obscenity-heres-the-fascinating-back-story/?utm_term=.c3c80f9344fe.
44
Holmes, Charles. Telephone interview by author. June 19, 2019.
45
Ibid.
46
Ibid.
47
Davis, Angela Yvonne. Women, Race, & Class. London: Womens Press, 1994.
48
Allah, Dasun. "NYPD Admits to Rap Intelligence Unit." Village Voice. March 16, 2004.
https://www.villagevoice.com/2004/03/16/nypd-admits-to-rap-intelligence-unit/.
49
Weiss, Jeff. "Drakeo the Ruler Speaks to Tablet From Prison." Tablet Magazine. May 12, 2019.
50
RAINN Staff. "Perpetrators of Sexual Violence: Statistics." RAINN. https://www.rainn.org/statistics/perpetrators-sexual-violence.
13

black men, others, such as that of 6ix9ine, fall outside racial binaries, and many, such as those of R. Kelly,
XXXTentacion, and Sheck Wes, involve abuse against black women.
“The heinous crimes, allegedly, are [committed] against black women. Women of color. Who
historically, in America, people just don’t care about,” says Holmes. “I think that’s why it’s easy for fans to be
like ‘Oh, that’s not that bad,’ because even the way the media covers it, we don’t treat women of color with the
respect, with the empathy… that they should have.”
51

Over the course of 2017, Kodak, X, and 6ix9ine were hot topics for critics and fans of hip-hop,
representing three distinct cases for separating art from artist.
52
XXXTentacion, accused of grievous crimes,
was also a product of emotional abuse and clearly troubled.
53
Kodak Black was considered the “next big thing”
before being charged with sexual assault, unlike X or 6ix9ine, whose rise to popularity came after their
wrongdoings became public knowledge.
54
Neither X nor Kodak had been convicted of their alleged abuses in
court.
55
And 6ix9ine’s guilty plea from October 2015 raised questions about the workings of the criminal justice
system, in which a guilty plea is often a quick way to avoid protracted legal proceedings.
None of the above excuses the alleged or confessed crimes these men have perpetrated. But in an era in
which nuance seems long gone, canceled by cancel culture, these factors help to explain how individuals can
navigate allegations against artists whose music they feel personally attached to and invested in.

Fans generally don’t bring up these complications. In a 2017 piece for Complex, writer Charles Holmes
interviewed several of XXXTentacion’s fans to try to understand what they thought of the rapper’s alleged
abuse. Common refrains were that they could separate art and the artist, that the charges were only allegations,
and that plenty of other rappers had been accused or convicted of crimes as well.
56
Outside of interviews, on
social media and other outlets, fans were quick to dismiss the allegations as outright lies, echoing X’s own
public statements about the abuse allegations.
57

In private, around the time of his 2016 arrest, the story was different. Hogan and Pitchfork published a
recording of a conversation between X and his friends, reporting that they had obtained the tape from Florida
prosecutors. A key passage:
I will kill that bitch if she play with me… I put my source of happiness in another person, which
was a mistake initially, right? But she fell through on every occasion until now. Until I started fucking

51
Holmes. Telephone Interview. June 19, 2019.
52
Peters, Micah. "How Should We Listen to XXXTentacion?" The Ringer. March 27, 2018.
https://www.theringer.com/2018/3/27/17167964/xxxtentacion-album-debut-no-1-assault-charges.
53
Peters, Micah. "XXXTentacion Doesn't Deserve the Internet's Sympathy." The Ringer. April 06, 2017.
https://www.theringer.com/2017/4/6/16045088/xxxtentacion-recent-release-from-jail-46e7381da141.
54
Caramanica, Jon. "The Rowdy World of Rap's New Underground." The New York Times. June 22, 2017.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/22/arts/music/soundcloud-rap-lil-pump-smokepurrp-
xxxtentacion.html?action=click&module=RelatedCoverage&pgtype=Article®ion=Footer.
55
Telusma, Blue. "The Curious Case of Kodak Black: It's Time to Address Your Blatantly Problematic Fave." TheGrio. April 09,
2019. https://thegrio.com/2019/04/08/kodak-black-lauren-london-nipsey-hussle-blue-telusma/.
56
Holmes, Charles. "What's the Appeal of XXXTentacion's Music?" Complex. June 01, 2018.
https://www.complex.com/music/2017/08/what-makes-xxxtentacions-music-appealing.
57
U/Kraytz. "R/XXXTENTACION - X Admits He Bashed Geneva's Face :(." Reddit. October 26, 2016.
https://www.reddit.com/r/XXXTENTACION/comments/59j2vo/x_admits_he_bashed_genevas_face/d9d8i4p/?utm_content=permalin
k&utm_medium=front&utm_source=reddit&utm_name=XXXTENTACION.
14

her up bruh. I started fucking her up because she made one mistake. And from there, the whole cycle
went down. Now she’s scared. That girl is scared for her life. Which I understand.
58

While this proved to be the end of fandom for some, others rushed to decry the release of the audio at
all, finding it disrespectful of the dead. This isn’t particularly surprising from a fan base that had spent years
defaming XXXTentacion’s accuser as a liar and harassing her on social media. But it is deeply disheartening
that even after their hero had confessed on tape, they rushed to defend him.
“Fans are the best at compartmentalizing,” Holmes explained. “They are able to say, ‘he admitted it, but
actually I don’t believe it,’ or ‘he was under duress,’ or all of these things to make excuses.”
59
None of this bodes well for how fans interpret Kodak Black’s pending assault case or 6ix9ine’s 2015
charge of sexual performance with a minor. And while XXXTentacion’s fan base is often characterized as
particularly devoted, its intensity isn’t that different from that of online fandoms revolving around pop stars like
Ariana Grande or K-pop titans BTS.
“Fans are fans. They’re looking for someone to worship, we’re all looking for people to worship,” said
Holmes. “They can compartmentalize all this heinous stuff because they latch onto [the music] emotionally.”
60

This kind of cultish-devotion isn’t new (think Beatlemania), and is generally benign. These fandoms can
be healthy outlets and support systems, and online campaigns typically focus on getting their faves’ streaming
numbers up or helping them win social media awards. But when applied to known or alleged abusers, these
cults of personality are troubling, suggesting to decision-makers in the industry that these artists have a built-in
fan base regardless of court proceedings or outcomes.
“Nicki Minaj or Katy Perry don’t have as intense the record of X, so their devoted fanbase doesn’t have
to go through these moral gymnastics to justify their fandom,” says Hitt. “The phenomenon of stanning [Ed.
Note: extremely strong fandom] is totally normal. But the things X’s fans have done in his name stand out to
me.”
61

I don’t think we should prop up abusive artists, with our money or our streams or our attention. We can
talk nuance all day, but there is no separating artist from art to enjoy things in a moral vacuum. But I’m also not
naive enough to believe that’s a common sentiment, or even that those who agree with me care enough to know
who they can and can’t listen to. My mom sent me a 6ix9ine song once, asking whether I listened to him. My
dad who listens only to throwback rock and Top 40 has heard “SAD!” by XXXTentacion over and over again,
because it was the biggest song in the country. Even now, as I finish up a yearlong project focused on rappers
who abuse women, I don’t know if they know the extent of these guys’ known and suspected crimes.
But they know their songs. The music is going to last, and that’s a lot harder to reckon with when we
don’t always have the aux cord. We listen to the radio, our Spotify Discover playlists, the songs our friends play
for us in the car, DJs before concerts, management-approved mixes at bars, whatever our smart speaker cues up
when we say “Hey Google/Alexa/Siri, play me the top rap songs this week.” Even if a consumer decides to
never actively listen to a song by Kodak Black, they’ll probably end up passively consuming his music as long
as he continues to have a career, and if a song connects with people, well after that.

58
Hogan, Marc. "XXXTentacion Confessed to Domestic Abuse and Other Violent Crimes in Newly Obtained Secret Recording."
Pitchfork. October 23, 2018.
59
Holmes. Telephone interview. June 19, 2019.
60
Ibid.
61
Hitt, Tarpley. Telephone interview by author. June 19, 2019.
15

In September 2018, I went to a Bhad Bhabie concert, a warehouse show to celebrate the release of her
new mixtape. Bhabie, nee Danielle Bregoli, became an internet meme after a 2016 appearance on the Dr. Phil
show, which she parlayed into a rap career. In February 2017, she appeared in the music video for Kodak
Black’s “Everything 1K,” and he returned the favor with a guest verse on her February 2018 song “Bestie.” At
the show, I watched a teenage white girl put on a frenetic, fun rap concert for an audience ranging from twenty-
somethings there for a sardonic Instagram story to tweens asking their parents to buy them merch.
Then the 15 year old did a tribute to the late XXXTentacion, and the place absolutely exploded. A
vicious moshpit quickly developed, “Look at Me!” blaring through subwoofers loud enough to rattle my ribs.
People of all genders yelled and quickly extricated themselves, but just as many others threw themselves right
into the fray. I kept my knees bent and my forearms in front of my face, but the energy was electric. I have a
vague memory of apologizing to a guy I crashed into, and he gave me a goofy smile I’d seen in so many mosh
pits before, letting me know it was all cool. I’m pretty sure I was smiling too. I still don’t know how to feel.

16

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Abstract (if available)

Abstract Several prominent rappers have been accused of abusive behavior over the past few years. This project aimed to apply principles of data journalism to traditional arts criticism, with the intention of presenting a cultural critique founded in objective evidence. Data was scraped using Python and manually analyzed and visualized. This paper summarizes observed trends in the data and explores some possible explanations.

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Asset Metadata

Creator Medithi, Vivian (author)

Core Title Bad behavior: SoundCloud rappers who abuse women, objectively and subjectively

School Annenberg School for Communication

Degree Master of Arts

Degree Program Specialized Journalism

Publication Date 08/05/2019

Defense Date 06/22/2019

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag aesthetics,arts criticism,Billboard charts,data journalism,ethics,hip-hop,Music Industry,OAI-PMH Harvest,rap,SoundCloud,streaming,violence against women

Format application/pdf (imt)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Anawalt, Sasha (committee chair), Fuhrmann, Henry (committee member), Plocek, Keith (committee member)

Creator Email medithi@usc.edu,vivian.j.medithi@gmail.com

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c89-204331

Unique identifier UC11663192

Identifier etd-MedithiViv-7739.pdf (filename),usctheses-c89-204331 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-MedithiViv-7739.pdf

Dmrecord 204331

Document Type Thesis

Format application/pdf (imt)

Rights Medithi, Vivian

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA