In the past few years, we've seen a worrying trend in the hip hop scene that hasn't been seen since the geography wars of the 90s, more and more young artists are dying too early into their careers, or confessing to crimes within their music and getting prosecuted for it. With the murder of XXXTentacion, the accidental suicide of Juice WRLD, Lil Peep and Mac Miller's tragic drug lacing overdoses, and the incarceration of artists like 6ix9ine, we are seeing the consequences of these lifestyles in real time thanks to social media. You can write off the genre for being exploitative to these types of people, who get caught up in the action and lose their life as a result, but this is a part of a larger issue.

These are all young people with a clear potential in the future (okay not 6ix9ine) who have had their time to shine and create important or positive works of art for people to admire and look up to. When they untimely pass, the rights to their music get passed on to their families, and in the case of artists like XXXTentacion and Lil Peep, we've seen a gross overuse and merchandising of their unfinished music, where other artists are purchasing features with them that can be as simple as a 15 snippet of them screaming, or a verse that the artist would never have let out into the wild because of its quality. In the case of Mac Miller, on the other hand, his family has started numerous charities in his name and makes sure to honor his name, and makes constant public statements of the dangers of drug abuse. His first posthumous album, Circles, was already near full completion before his death and was a complete departure from his previous work. Almost entirely brooding, soft singing about the perils of his life, it stands as a reflection of the good person that he was, the gripes he had with life, and how he was feeling up to the point he had passed away. It was not just a passive way for the family to make a dollar from D-Sides he never wanted to release, it was a clear tribute to him.

How do you feel about the handling of music after the death of the artist?

This is a difficult issue. I struggle in my head of whether to fall on the side of the family's right to the IP of the artist, and how the artist would feel about the besmirchmemt of their work. And it's a fine line. I recall Michael Jackson's family getting up in arms over the Plants vs. Zombies MJ zombie, even though it was meant to honor him. Yet glee was able to use his music. They had to sign off on that right? In the end, unfinished work is just unfinished though, and strange sound clips probably won't be destroying anyone's legacy. I guess while we can be disappointed that a family would tread over their own blood, we can still take pride in the achievements the artist themselves carved out while they were here. After all, when I'm dead, it won't make any difference. The mark you leave is the one you make while you're living, all the rest is just those who were around you.


You wrote an entire piece about it. Does this personal issue agitate you?

I feel that after they die their songs seem to show up less usually but that's mostly just because of new songs coming out so the older songs eventually just end up getting pushed to the side a lot of the time although it is really nice whenever they do play them though. I'd like it if they did a thing where every now and then even for a little while they play the songs of those who aren't here anymore as a sort of way to remember them.

pennylessz : I'm split on the morality of profiteering from loss, and the benefit of not having a bunch of terrible music released after an artists death, but at the same time, I appreciate tributes and unfinished work that was intended for release. I guess it depends on more of a case by case basis. It's simply a tough decision. Imagine after John Lennon was murdered, Yoko Ono made 3 albums under his name where half of the tracks are just them having a conversation. We all know they're posthumous albums, but seeing an acclaimed artists name being attached to trash is nothing short of sad to see.