In the music industry, however, his controversies were mostly shrugged off. Apart from a brief moment in which Spotify removed him from its playlists, his ascent went largely unchallenged. XXXTentacion was a phenomenon — wildly popular (his first two albums reached No. 2 and No. 1 on the Billboard album chart) and also wildly influential, proving irresistible to many, including the pop star Billie Eilish (a SoundCloud rap-era star in all but genre).

“Bad Vibes Forever,” which is billed as the final XXXTentacion album, was released on Friday. It is full of promising sketches of songs and stuffed with collaborations with more established artists, including Rick Ross and Blink-182. Just two years ago, songs like these would have sounded unlikely, but in part because of the crossover success Juice WRLD experienced — he had hits with Ellie Goulding and Panic! at the Disco’s Brendon Urie as well as YoungBoy Never Broke Again — they sound like the direction pop was moving in.

At around the same time XXXTentacion was first finding popularity, Lil Peep was working similar musical territory, albeit with a more robust emphasis on singing. Unlike XXXTentacion, who thrilled in abrasion, Lil Peep sounded like a fully formed pop star almost from the start, slowed only by emerging from a scene most hadn’t heard about.