Whether you love or hate XXXTentacion, it’s hard to argue against his success. Initially gaining a cult following, X would rise to prominence in the music world and collaborated with some of the biggest artists in the world. A truly unique artist that was never bound by a genre, X explored everything from emo to trap and metal to R&B. While his career was unfortunately cut short after his death in 2018, X’s despairing lyrics resonated with millions of fans. In this article, we’ll be going over 25 of XXXTentacion’s best songs of all time.
1. Revenge
Revenge was the lead single from X’s debut studio album in 2017, which got a preview on Twitter, unfortunately, five days before the death of his friend Jocelyn Flores. He would go on to dedicate the song to her, and the song was the inspiration for the brand Revenge. On the charts, Revenge reached number 77 on the Hot 100 and number 37 on the Hot R&B/Hip Hop Songs chart.
While X is generally thought of as a rapper, this song really shows his versatility as an artist. It’s more of a conventional song structure than he’s used to doing, harmonizing across most of the song through the somewhat depressing lyrics that don’t seem to match the optimistic tone of the music.
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2. Jocelyn Flores
The follow-up single for X’s debut album, Jocelyn Flores, was a further homage to his deceased friend and dedicated to Jocelyn Flores. There were plenty of rumors regarding Flores, her work, and her relationships with XXXTentacion that we aren’t going to get into in this article since much of them just isn’t tasteful. Instead, we’ll focus on the song, which entered the Billboard Hot 100 at number 31 and peaked at 19 after X’s death in 2018.
It’s another time X goes outside of just being a rapper and switching over to actually singing, forming a kind of lullaby that goes into what could have been and what has happened.
3. Hope
Unlike the first two entries, Hope was dedicated to the victims of the Parkland shootings rather than any of X’s friends. While not saying he could truly understand what the survivors were feeling, the song does try to relate to them in terms of survivors’ guilt and goes off on the political inaction that followed the event.
The song peaked on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 70 and was certified triple platinum in the US by the RIAA. While much of his work was the musical embodiment of despair and loneliness, Hope strikes an obvious optimistic chord, feeling more like an emotional release than something that wallows in those negative feelings.
4. Carry On
A softer, lo-fi style song than you might expect from X, Carry On delves into some of the deeply emotional topics plaguing X’s mind. It mainly deals with his ex-girlfriend and coping with the end of that relationship. There’s oddly some downtime on the track, an outlier in his normal wall of vocals that really gives listeners time to absorb the lyrics and enjoy the instrumentation. There were plenty of great songs on X’s 17 album, but for this genre-fluid artist, Carry On might be the best track on the disc.
5. Everybody Dies In Their Nightmares
For this one, we’re going back to XXXTentacion’s debut album, 17. A significant shift from our previous entry, X raps Everybody Dies In Their Nightmares in a rapid-fire and monotone style, reflecting on his own sense of impending doom and suicidal thoughts. Among critics, it’s a song that stands above most of his work, ranked as his fifth-best song in 2019. The song saw strong chart results in the US, peaking at number 42 on the Billboard Hot 100 and 22 on the Hot R&B/Hip Hop Songs charts. It immediately resonated with fans as one of X’s most heartfelt and authentic songs
6. The Remedy For A Broken Heart (Why Am I So In Love)
A lot from 17 was about XXXTentacion’s ex-girlfriend Geneva Ayala, so it should come as no surprise that this song was too. Even the outro of the album was named after her.
In a creative twist, the sampling for the song is X’s own vocals and is paired with the simple instrumentation he’s known for. It matches the vibe of the song incredibly well, making many fans get stuck in their own feelings, though this song is said by those groups to have helped people get through tough times in their own lives. Like a lot of his work, it’s impossible to ignore the level of pain in this song.
7. Sad!
A great entry from X’s 2018 studio album, ?, SAD! would eventually become the highest-charting single of XXXTentacion’s career. Following the artist’s death in 2018, the song peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached 1 billion streams on Spotify.
You can easily argue that this is X’s best song, at the very least, in terms of success and popularity. X’s signature song, the single, was certified diamond by the RIAA in the US in 2021. You probably aren’t going to find a song that embodies the emo hip hop style of XXXTentacion better than this song did.
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8. F*ck Love
If ever there was a song title that embodied one of the feelings after a breakup it would probably be this one. F*ck Love is officially censored in a few different ways, so do it however you like. Featuring Trippie Redd, this track comes from X’s debut album, 17. The song debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at the number 41 spot before climbing, and peaking, at number 28 after X’s death. In 2019, it became the most streamed song in the history of SoundCloud, reaching over 206 million streams on the platform.
9. Look At Me!
Look At Me! ended up being a sleeper hit on SoundCloud and found solid success once released as a digital download. The lead single from X’s debut commercial mixtape Revenge, it would eventually go on to be certified platinum by the RIAA.
Billboard ranked the song among their 100 Songs That Defined The 2010s, seeing the song peak at number 34 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and see 470 million views on Youtube. The song spent 20 weeks on the chart, one of X’s longest runs.
10. MOONLIGHT
Moonlight was released posthumously from X’s second album, ?, and sent to rhythmic radio as the album’s third single. It ended up charting globally, peaking at number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 and being certified platinum in the US.
That chart performance tied Moonlight with Falling Down for X’s third-highest charting song in the states. Overall, the song’s got a bit of an awkward beat full of fun synths and free-flowing bars. The music video for it was the last X ever recorded before his death, ending up as a viral hit on YouTube.
11. True Love
If you pressed me to guess who XXXTentacion would collab with during his career, I don’t think I would have bet on Kanye West. Most of the positive reviews for the song came from critics who praised Kanye’s vocal parts, but the song still slaps.
True Love was all about the emotional and relationship turmoil both artists were going through in their lives. The song ended up peaking at number 22 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and charted in nine other countries within the Top 40. It ended up being featured on X’s compilation album, Look At Me: The Album, in 2022.
12. Infinity (888)
X and Joey Bada$$ were planning on working on a full joint album, but because of X’s death, they were only able to get partly done. Infinity (888) was their second collaboration together, with this one being a sequel to 777 on Members Only, Vol. 3.
This song serves as the best example we have of X taking on the East Coast hip hop genre. Featuring unpredictable rhymes, saxophones, and a mostly jazzy beat that’s rather unexpected from X, the song showed how great a partner Joey was for X.
13. Falling Down
Ending up as a posthumous release on Lil Peep’s second studio album, Falling Down has an interesting origin. Starting out, the song was meant for Lil Peep and iLoveMakonnen, but X found a snippet online and recorded a verse for the song that earned him a writing credit on the final version.
That version was the lead single from the deluxe version of Peeps album and ended up peeking at number 13 on the US Billboard Hot 100, becoming Peep’s highest charting single. It was also certified triple platinum by the RIAA. It’s not a song for everyone, with X’s part being rather homophobic, but it is one of the best songs he’s been on.
14. Riot
X never really shied away from traumatic and horrific events, with songs dedicated to some awful events. Riot is all about how X feels about police brutality and the killing of African Americans in the US.
Not only does the song condemn police officers who abuse their authority, but it also condemns the people who protest by rioting, especially those who use it as an opportunity to loot local businesses. In the end, it’s a call to channel those feelings in a peaceful way instead. Initially, the song was focused on the death of Michael Brown.
15. R.I.P. Roach
Ski Mask the Slump God released this track in May 2016, but the song was rereleased on X’s debut commercial mixtape Revenge under his name and featuring Ski. Roach was the nickname of one of X’s close friends, who was murdered in 2016.
It’s an incredibly good match, with X’s screaming vocals played off of Ski’s smoother, more laidback style. It shouldn’t work, but it does. It also ended up being the last collab between the two artists, with them having a falling out in 2017 and ending their joint recording sessions.
16. I Don’t Wanna Do This Anymore
Nobody is certain who this song was actually directed at, with X’s ex-girlfriend Geneva claiming it was never about her. The whole song is one of the most atmospheric tracks in X’s discography, with music that goes in every direction in almost the same scattered way that X sings. It’s full of conflicted feelings, and the song is a major fan favorite.
17. Numb
A whole bunch of X’s songs is about being numb to emotional pain, or at the very least trying to be. His songs are almost a shield for him, serving as an emotional outlet just as much as they do as a wall against the pain. If you say it’s okay enough, does that make it okay? Numb is basically the ultimate form of those themes in XXXTentacion’s music. It also means a lot to him, with the word numb tattooed under one of his eyes to represent a time in his life when he truly felt no emotion and was numb to the world.
18. Hate Will Never Win
Hate Will Never Win was produced to address the growing surge of hate in the US that started when Donald Trump was elected president. Between all of the drama surrounding the presidency and X getting backlash for lynching a kid in his music videos, the song had plenty of controversies. Generally, the acts in his video were just meant to add shock value to the message rather than represent anything in particular. Hate Will Never Win even sampled Donald Trump’s speeches to add an extra layer to the already fairly complex song.
19. Changes
If you’re looking for complicated lyrics and a droningly emotional song that hides clever tidbits, then you should look elsewhere. That being said, Changes is a beautiful song, with both X and PnB Rock channeling the heartbreak they’ve felt in life into music amid some soft and dreamy piano music. The song was the 15th track on X’s second studio album, ?, and would eventually go on to be certified double platinum in the US by the RIAA.
20. King of the Dead
The massive distortion and drops in King of the Dead were meant to represent the distortion and confusion in X’s life. It’s one of his harder-hitting tracks that has a bit of a creepy feeling, which makes sense as this song was basically a suicide declaration by X.
The point of the song was meant to remind everyone that he knows exactly how he feels and understands but doesn’t want help from anyone when it comes to doing anything about it. The song is a nod to The Weeknd’s King of the Fall. Unsurprising since X often Tweeted about how much he liked The Weeknd’s music.
21. A Ghetto Christmas Carol
A Ghetto Christmas Carol ended up being released as an EP, with the first song of the extended play being the title track of the set. It’s way outside of the normal range for X’s music, focusing almost entirely on the good parts of his life and all the things that make him happy. It’s about as far away as you can get from the emotions discussed on his 17 album and is much more lighthearted and happy than almost anything else he’s ever released. If you were ever interested in hearing a Christmas tune from X this is it, but it’s also just a vibe that shouts out thick women, nice cars, and plenty of money because of course it does.
22. I Don’t Even Speak Spanish Lol
The massive distortion and drops in King of the Dead were meant to represent the distortion and confusion in X’s life. It’s one of his harder-hitting tracks that has a bit of a creepy feeling, which makes sense as this song was basically a suicide declaration by X.
The point of the song was meant to remind everyone that he knows exactly how he feels and understands but doesn’t want help from anyone when it comes to doing anything about it. The song is a nod to The Weeknd’s King of the Fall. Unsurprising since X often Tweeted about how much he liked The Weeknd’s music.
23. Save Me
Unlike in King of the Dead, with X saying he doesn’t want any help, Save Me does ask something from listeners. While it isn’t trying to find a shoulder to cry on or any support, it simply asks for space to deal with the issues plaguing X at that time. It’s one of the artist’s most desperate songs, and it isn’t hard to see why with lines like “Voices in my head/Telling me I’m gonna end up dead” and “Tell me when the fuck is it all gon’ end.”
24. Looking For A Star
Looking for a star was XXXTentacion’s first try creating a radio pop single. Alongside Diplo, who has worked with artists like Justin Bieber, X goes through all his typical themes in an auto-tuned voice played over a repetitive pop beat. It goes beyond the loud beat and harsh vocals of his normal work, sounding like something that could actually be considered a mainstream song.
25. Going Down!
Going Down ended up being a revival of the quirky and lighthearted side of XXXTentacion’s music that was reminiscent of his work with Ski Mask the Slump God. It’s got a solid hook and is overall upbeat in terms of its instrumentation, avoiding the dark and creepy nature of many of his other songs. The entire point of Going Down is to describe the sexual interactions he’s going through and brag about how great he is in bed. Not sure I’d want a Viking beating it up, though, cause, in reality, you’d probably die instead of enjoy it.
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As a contributing writer for Music Grotto, Dakotah writes and produces professional music/media content. He works closely with editorial staff to meet editorial standards and create
quality content for the Music Grotto website. Dakotah is passionate about music in a wide variety of genres, from hip-hop to country and lo-fi to metal, and he enjoys creating music pieces for Music Grotto.