Fans, friends, and family of XXXTentacion gathered Wednesday at the BB&T Center in Sunrise, Florida for an open-casket public memorial for the rapper, who was shot and killed during an apparent robbery last week.
The event is set to last all day, from noon until about 6 p.m ET, and will serve as the last chance for the public to say goodbye to the controversial rapper. A tribute video created by Justin Staple and Tyler Benz, which you can watch below, was shown during the first hour of the memorial, and X’s longtime collaborator DJ Scheme will be in charge of the music, per XXL.
No cameras or phones will be allowed inside the venue. Thousands of X's fans, friends, family and fellow rappers made their way to Sunrise to attend the memorial—videos taken by people outside the venue show massive lines—and, at least according to officials at the venue, as many as 19,000 people are expected to attend.
Just filmed this time lapse of the line outside XXXTentacion’s funeral. This is only about half of the line. pic.twitter.com/bL3Xzo1L62
A security guard said about 1,000 people are at XXXTentacion’s viewing now. They expect about 19,000 people to come total throughout the day.
Adam Grandmaison a.k.a Adam22 of the No Jumper podcast tweeted that X’s mom told him a new music video will be dropping tomorrow at 9 a.m. ET. His Instastory later confirmed it will be for "SAD!"
X’s mom just told me he has a music video dropping tomorrow at 9 am
Sara Marino, a reporter for TCPalm, said fans had begun lining up as early as 7 a.m. and that by just before 3 p.m ET, only about 1,000 people had showed up, despite initial reports of much higher expected attendance numbers. While waiting in line, fans sang some of the rapper’s songs and shared why the rapper’s music was important to them.
Fans sing along to one of XXXTentation’s songs minutes before the viewing is supposed to start. pic.twitter.com/HtrojcBdBG
Fans talking about how XXXTentacion’s music helped them. pic.twitter.com/JoNAwFXqSN
Brett Clarkson, who works for the Sun Sentinel based in Broward County, was at the memorial and described the mood as “quiet and somber.” Both Lil Uzi Vert and Lil Yachty were in attendance, and both stood with X’s mom. At one point, X’s song “Hope,” which the rapper dedicated to the victims of the shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, began to play. The rapper lived in Parkland; the video playing on the big screens showed a picture with the rapper and Joaquin Oliver, who died in the school shooting. “Now both are dead, victims of gun violence,” Clarkson wrote.
As lil uzi was standing at the casket, X‘s song Hope began to play. At the beginning of the song X dedicates the song to the victims of the Parkland shooting. He says Rest In Peace to victims of the Douglas shooting. At that point I saw a high school aged girl with her mom cry
Just yesterday, Lil Uzi Vert took to Twitter to announce his plans to create a foundation "to make sure [XXXtentacion’s]child and family are well taken care of.”
In news related to X's death, one suspect has been taken into custody, while another person of interest was named today.
