On Aug. 23, well known rapper XXXtentacion, also known as X, posted a disturbing video on his Instagram depicting him killing himself.

After uploading his video, X also posted a clip of his music video to respond to some negative feedback with the caption, “If you thought I would kill myself for a publicity stunt you’re f****** stupid,” but many are still confused as to why the video was posted in the first place if that was not it’s original intent.

X has been in the limelight for a while now, with many of his fans being teenagers. Not long after being incarcerated for beating his pregnant girlfriend, X’s first single, “Look At Me,” gained lots of popularity, and even a spot on Billboard’s Top 100 list. He is also recognized for criticizing other big name rappers such as Drake and Offset from Migos, and facing backlash for it. He markets off of making music for the depressed and suicidal youth, which is why this video is causing such an uproar.

The video reeks of being a publicity stunt for his new album, “17,” which even depicts a letter littered with phrases, such as “There is no end to the pain, you must be numb,” “When will it end,” and “It will never end,” along with a drawing of a noose on the album cover.

Publicity stunt or not, X is in the wrong. With a fan base of mainly depressed and suicidal teens, this is the wrong message to send out. It’s not enough for him to glorify suicide in his music, but he has to put it in his videos as well.

When you know your audience, you act accordingly. When you’re an influence on young teens, or you have people looking up to you, you should also act accordingly. What X did is a brilliant display of suicide glorification, and how desensitized Americans are.

Suicide statistics are continually growing, but instead of help, we cut funding for mental health establishments and continue to glorify suicide in music videos or TV shows such as Thirteen Reasons Why which ended with ‘copycat’ or identical suicides of several teens who watched the show.

Technology has made certain topics and information easily accessible to all age groups, which has proven to harm rather than help because they see their favorite artists and celebrities doing certain things, which makes them want to participate. X already had a bad reputation, and this video isn’t helping.

The comments under X’s post were just as bad as the video he posted. Comments asking whether or not he was really dead or how cool the video was. Some even called the video “art”, saying it set the theme for the album.

Video games, constant news feed of horrific events have led to the increase of humans just not caring anymore. Age restrictions and content blockers are close to nothing now. The internet has almost completely turned away from restricting inappropriate content or content too sensitive for viewers to view, and just in recent years have the rules been much more relaxed now, contributing to a desensitized and unfazed youth that bring us memes about tragic events and topics.

There’s no way to justify X posting this video, and not only did he show everyone how insensitive he was about serious societal issues but displayed the insensitivity of other people as well.