The tale of SKINS begins with the artist, xxxtentacion, a 20 year old rapper, being shot in a robbery attempt outside a motorcycle shop in Deerfield Beach, Florida. X was troubled as a child with many issues within his family and community. The issues he developed from this were brought into his views and values while growing up. At X’s 13th birthday party, while blowing out his birthday candles, he had wished to die by the age of 18 (Hooton). X’s depression and anger can be shown through various tracks such as “Train Food” and “One Minute.” “Train Food” shows the anger and sadness of X within the him getting mugged on a set of train tracks. Meanwhile, “One Minute” shows the pain he had going through the court system with time lost and Kanye backing him. The anger and sadness shown can be felt while listening to this album. While listening to the album, one can envision the scenarios set for the listener and see how X was feeling when writing his works. Although the album is just 17 minutes with 10 tracks, one can feel the pain behind it and feel for X. Thus, allowing SKINS to be a tale of Sadness and Rage.

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Works Cited

Hooton, Christopher . “XXXTentacion's Posthumous Album Alternates between Rage and Despondence.” The Independent, Independent Digital News and Media, 7 Dec. 2018, www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/xxxtentacion-skin-album-review-tracklist-kanye-west-feature-lyrics-death-release-a8672776.html.

Halperin, Shirley. “XXXTentacion's 'Skins' and the Game: The Players Behind the Posthumous Album.” Variety, Variety, 7 Dec. 2018, variety.com/2018/music/news/xxxtentacion-skins-album-posthumous-1203083842/.