Kriti Mehrotra
While it’s undeniable that XXXTentacion was one of the most controversial young musicians a few years ago, the tale of his life and death is a mix of the good, the bad, and the ugly. After all, as chronicled in Hulu’s ‘Look at Me,’ not only was he on the road to success owing to his engaging artistry before his death in 2018, but he was also facing allegations of domestic violence. So now that we know his anger, mental health issues, and sense of alienation admittedly stemmed from a lack of nurturing at an early age, let’s find out everything there’s to know about his parents, shall we?
Who Are XXXTentacion’s Parents?
XXXTentacion — or Jahseh Onfroy — was born in early 1998 in Plantation, Florida, to Jamaican parents, Rastafarian Dwayne Ricardo Onfroy and his then 17-year-old partner Cleopatra Dreena Bernard. They soon shared custody, but the truth is he was primarily raised by either his grandmother or hired caretakers because his single, working mother “had it hard.” Dwayne was often in and out of the picture, usually only spending time with X over the weekends or the holidays (while offering no financial support), meaning it was up to Cleopatra to provide for his overall well-being.
“My mom was just in situations where she couldn’t take care of me,” the emo-rapper once candidly revealed, adding that he has been witnessing violence first-hand since the age of 6 or 7. Apart from his parents’ fights and him getting disciplined by Dwayne, as per the Hulu documentary, he claimed to have also bitten a man after he attacked Cleopatra around this time. However, things changed for the worse shortly after XXXTentacion turned 10, starting with his father getting sentenced to nearly a decade in federal prison on drug-related RICO charges in Arizona.
Jahseh (which translates to God Speaks) then began initiating brawls and got expelled from almost every school he attended before developing a passion for nu-metal, hard rock, as well as hip-hop music. He was even diagnosed with bipolar disorder, driving Cleopatra to offer him a deal; she would pay for proper studio sessions on the weekends if he stayed in school, yet it didn’t last for long. With that said, despite her constantly pushing him to do better and his myriad of legal troubles (beginning from the age of 15), she continued to stand by him at every turn.
Where Are XXXTentacion’s Parents Now?
As per Cleopatra’s account in ‘Look at Me: The Untold Story of XXXTentacion,’ even though she often fought like cats and dogs with her son, they always had mutual love as well as respect for one another. That’s why the musician had named her and his half-brother Aiden as the beneficiaries of his entire estate, which she reportedly handles to the best of her abilities to this day. In other words, it appears as if the 42-year-old humanitarian still resides in Florida, where she takes care of not only her younger son Aiden but also Jahseh’s assets, his record label, and his son.
Coming to Dwayne, following his release from prison in 2015, he fought immigration for about a year before eventually being deported back to his homeland of Jamaica in October 2016. He thus spent 8½ years behind federal facilities and was then forced to leave his life in America without even a proper chance to say goodbye to his loved ones.
From what we can tell, XXXTentacion’s father has since established himself as an entrepreneur as well as a philanthropist in a small town near the capital city of Kingston in southeastern Jamaica. He has also remarried, welcomed another child into his orbit, and found peace by doing personal charity to help youngsters struggling with mental health. We should mention that Dwayne even seems determined not to make any needless money using his son’s name.
“[My son] developed his own rules [when I was imprisoned],” Dwayne once said. “He developed his own way of looking at life because now his teenage years are coming on. Who’s the male role model? Who’s the male figure that’s going to show him how a boy is supposed to behave at 13?… Who’s gonna teach him how to play football or soccer or basketball? Who’s gonna teach him sporting activities? Who’s gonna show him how to speak to women? He would get phone calls [from me]. That’s not enough.”
Read More: XXXTentacion’s net worth
