Jonathan Reiss - Look at Me!: The XXXTENTACION Story

X XXTENTACION was born Jahseh Dwayne Ricardo Onfroy in 1998 at Plantation General Hospital in Plantation, Florida, a mere two and a half miles from Lauderhill, Florida. Lauderhill was the town he would call home for longer than any other, which was not long. He was born on a cool and peaceful Friday. Bill Clintons affair with Monica Lewinsky monopolized the headlines. Google had been founded just that year, and Florida had not yet cemented its reputation as a bastion of American insanity.

Jahsehs father, Dwayne Ricardo Onfroy, was living at 817 Thirty-Sixth Street in West Palm Beach. Dwayne, along with partner Tashno Freeman, would go on to raise daughter Ariana Onfroy and Jahseh for the first year of his life.

Dwayne was a handsome and observably confident young man. His voice was deep, relaxed, and heavy with Jamaican patois. Still, he had a difficult time during his early years in Florida. Court records show he was evicted in 1997 and taken to court at least twice for paternity issues by two different women, neither of whom was Jahsehs mother. Spokeo lists eight different residences for him between 1993 and 2008, mostly in the West Palm Beach or Haverhill area of Florida.

Jahseh was a healthy and beautiful baby, with one exception: his heart. Baby Jahseh had a ventricular septal defect, or whats commonly referred to as a hole in the heart. Specifically, the hole is located in the wall between the two lower chambers of the heart. The defect is common but it can strain the heart, forcing it to work harder in order to pump blood. For most people, the hole closes by adulthood. Yet, this condition circumscribed the life of young Jahseh. Other kids would be warned not to play rough with the boy. You dont want his heart to stop, adults would warn. He would never grow taller than five foot six.

Jahsehs mother, Cleopatra Eretha Bernard, was a Jamaican immigrant who, like his father, settled in South Florida. However, Cleopatra and Dwaynes relationship was short-lived.

In an interview with Michelle Solomon of The Florida Files podcast from October 10, 2018, Dwayne Onfroy described baby Jahseh as able to command attention from birth. Every parent believes their child is beautiful, but this baby, he said, was different. He was beautiful. My son was literally, a beautiful boy. Not a handsome boy, a beautiful boy. Dwayne would dress Jahseh in deliberately masculine baby clothes only to find himself walking down the aisle of a Walmart and hear someone tell him what a beautiful baby girl he had. This continued until Jahseh was about five years old. Dwayne attributes the mix-ups to his long eyelashes, like a little girl. Since his death, fans and reporters have drawn comparisons between X and Tupac Shakur, another rapper famous for having an overtly masculine persona but also long, and some might say, feminine, eyelashes.

Youve seen his mom, Dwayne continued in the interview, and its clear what he meant. Cleopatra Bernard is arrestingly beautiful. Even today, she looks no older than her grown son did at twenty.

A few months after he was born, Jahseh moved in with Dwayne, Tashno Freeman, and his half sister Ariana. My mom basically took care of all of usme, my brothers, and both of my young aunts, Ariana said in a YouTube video featuring footage of her early childhood. She and Jahseh lived together for about a year, according to Ariana. Their home was far more picturesque than one might imagine, given the rappers comments about his upbringing.

In the video on Arianas YouTube channel, Dwayne Onfroy is featured in a home movie, which takes place inside a West Palm Beach apartment. There is a fully trimmed Christmas tree looming in the background. The colors are muted and bleeding as a result of the late-nineties camcorder technology. Jahseh makes his entrance crying. He is less than a year old, an adorably lumpy little boy dressed in a white T-shirt and diaper. Tashno instinctually soothes him. Moments later, Dwayne can be seen proudly hoisting both his children, describing them as the lead players in the movie.

In the video, Dwayne sports a fishnet tank top, mid-length dreads, and the signature sharp eyes that all those with the name Onfroy appear to share. At this age he is the spitting image of Digital Undergroundera Tupac Shakur. Dwayne jokes with his children, stating that every story has a protagonist and an antagonist. He says that young Jahseh is playing the antagonist by whining and crying, while the chipper, well-behaved Ariana is the clear protagonist. Its a dynamic that will play out for the siblings throughout their childhood, with Ariana always quietly on her best behavior and Jahseh always loudly demanding acknowledgment. It seems that Dwayne Onfroydespite being a new fatheralready had his kids all figured out.

Always preaching, Ariana remarks over the footage. According to Ariana, this was a reliable snapshot of life in the householdDwayne preaching and Jahseh, whom they lovingly called Ahseh, crying. Several times in the video, little Jah begins to cry. He is picked up and he goes quiet. Tashno had grown accustomed to soothing young Jahseh, since he had lived with them for nearly a year. Only a month or so later, his mother Cleopatra Bernard would take her son to live with her.

A source who knew both parents says the change was a result of discord within the Onfroy household. Dwayne had yet another child outside his relationship with Tashno. One day, shed had enough. She called Cleopatra and asked her where she could meet her to hand off her son. Tashno met Cleopatra at a gas station. From that moment on, everything changed for Jahseh. Sudden and abrupt upheavals like this would eventually become a fact of life for the boy.