As most rap fans know, XXXTentacion passed away on June 18. His fans have been mourning greatly ever since his passing, but now, XXX has released his so-called “last statement.”

There were questions asked as to how he released this album, called “SKINS”. Seemingly, putting an album together with a bunch of random songs would seem patchy, and without a storyline, but somehow, this one was executed perfectly.

The biggest hype for this album before it came out was the hope of hearing X’s voice one last time in the album introduction, as recent album intros were him talking about what the album was made for. He always would mention “his genius,” which was clearly brought out in this album, as it has in the past.

The biggest story with this album was about the second song, called “guardian angel”. It featured familiar sounds from a previous song that was released on “17” back in late August of 2017, called “Jocelyn Flores.” This song was an ode to X’s old friend, named Jocelyn Flores, who committed suicide in May of 2017 while on vacation visiting X. The beat was a new sound for an X song. It brought a calm vibe compared to his previous songs, such as “Look At Me!”. The reason why “Jocelyn Flores” is relevant, is because X simply took the beat from that song, reversed it, and rapped over it. It truly shows that X’s mind in music was more than just being a rapper, but it was being a clever musician.

“Train food,” in my opinion, did not seem that good of a song at first. However, after listening to it a few times, I put together what the song was meant to be, and it turns out that it depicts X’s relationship, or hatred, toward depression itself. He refers to depression as a man in the song, and he raps about the one day where he almost committed suicide by stepping in front of a train, or having the train eat him-hence the name “Train food.” This song had a lot of meaningful lines, such as the first verse, which said, “So I took a different path, in the distance he awaited me / Had no weapon, I’m guessing his hands were just enough for me / Was no question, I’m guessing he laughed just at the sight of me / I was lost,” which put it over the top in my book.

“BAD!” was a song that was released before the album actually came out, as more of a preview to what “SKINS” had in store for the common ear. This song featured a cool background beat, along with a combination of singing and rapping, as X always did. This song gave the listener something to look forward to when the album actually came out on Dec. 7.

Another big story was the instance on the album when you heard the legend himself, Kanye West, rap “and when I’m on the way, X hold the gate.” This signifies that Kanye is sure that X lives on, and when Kanye’s time comes, X will hold the gate for him on his way into the after-life.

The album closes with a song called “what are you so afraid of”, which was a heartfelt song that had X’s fans in tears as soon as his voice became audible. The album closes with this song in particular because it summarizes that you should not be afraid of death or depression. He asks us what we are so afraid of, because now that he has moved on to the afterlife, he assures us that everything will be okay one day.

From asking for one more minute to live and say goodbye in “One Minute,” to the sounds of the tropical song called “woah (mind in awe),” this album was a huge hit, not only in X’s fanbase, but the music world as a whole. No one knows if this is the last that we will hear from X on a track, but the future is bright if his old music continues to be released.