Do Every Thing Wrong!: XXXTentacion Against the World

by Jarett Kobek

20 years of life.

27,000 tweets.

171 pages of sympathy for the devil.

Genres: Music

176 pages, Paperback

Published December 7, 2018

Reviews

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is less about XXXTentacion than it is the world that shaped him. I thought this was pure Swiftian satire until I discovered (decrepit old man that I am) XXXT was a real person; on the other hand, Swift's satires were also, sadly, built on facts, not imagination, and also not nearly so funny when you realize it's not a thought experiment into the absurd, but a document explaining reality as it unfolds.

[Rosemary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kobek is a master at exposing the usually unseen and unknown institutional racism, and the ways our culture both exploits and condemns certain of its "heroes". And he's able to show us what's been hidden, in plain sight, within a compelling narrative. Not an easy read, but poignant.

[Andrew]

Someone on this site informed me that Kobek’s work of which he was proudest was this volume. In his shoes, I would be too. This was well-researched, weird, angry, and at times utterly beautiful. I am beside myself.

Am I a fan of XXXtentacion’s music? No. Being a boring millennial oldhead, the 2010s mumble rap phenomenon just seemed like the worst tendencies of the emo I hated in high school, but delivered with Gucci Mane’s flow, which I also hated. But as a prism through which to view America? I couldn’t have chosen anyone better, at least among musicians, although Tupac would also be an excellent candidate. And given the legions of psychopathic drill crews that have dominated rap over the past few years (not that I would want to spend any time with him, but I’d rather listen to, say, Bobby Shmurda any day), his music seems downright innocent. And as for a lebensphilosophie as scryed by Kobek, doing every thing wrong isn’t such a bad idea. Worked for me.

Too bad if you look at the Amazon page, the first thing you're recommended is a seemingly AI-written text about Juice Wrld. Kobek would probably have a thing to say about that. Or at least I do.

[Ignacio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Este libro tiene gran parte de lo que le pido a un ensayo: una serie de tesis que se argumenten más allá de lo superficial; no tener miedo de pasearte por lugares problemáticos que exploren y saquen a la luz las contradicciones propias; y, finalmente, una formulación del texto que vaya más allá de un discurso expositivo. Jarett Kobek engarza estas tres ideas en un repaso a la vida de un rapero de Florida, muerto con 20 años tras conseguir el éxito al margen del sistema superando una serie de comportamientos repudiables. Ya desde la documentación utilizada (las decenas de miles de tweets escritos por XXXTentacion) queda claro que en Hazlo todo mal hay mucho más que un biopic. Sobre todo un discurso meridiano (e inevitablemente demagógico) contra la doble moral que nos acompaña en nuestro día a día de máquinas de juzgar. Muy recomendable.

[Marc Nash · Rating 4 out of 5]

Coruscating, analytical, satirical dissection of poverty, class, race, celebrity and a career constructed entirely online. A blend of Kobek's serious literature as in ATTA and his most caustic satire I Hate the Internet & If You Won't Read, Then Why Should I Write?

Kobek always delivers

Video review https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyBBo...

[Mecca_Hannah · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was super excited for this book even though I wasn’t sure if it was a recount of X’s life or just a summary of his tweets over the years - the answer was sadly neither - instead I felt it was a strange non-linear mish mash of facts, subjective opinions & the author’s own autobiography. I really disliked the timeline jumps around X’s death, to his legal issues, to his death again, then back to his commercial success - there was no literary benefit to this order and it was super jarring.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I Will admit to know very litttle about the rapper XXXTENTACION before his untimely murderS though what I knew wasn’t positive. Through reading this book he isn’t made to look like a saint or be forgiven his sins, but it tries to present a humanity to the person or personae and tries to explain why so many people who are fans are die hard and in essence felt like he was their voice.

The book also takes a look at his relationships all of this through as many of his twitter posts as he can but also research baby and all Information available. Court records, interviews, videos, concert footage, mixtapes, albums

As the boom examines and deconstructs xxxtentacion by taking a look at all the Elemis and culture he was around that contributed to not only his upbringing but many youth like him. Raising points about mental illness, racism, systematic racism, class, machismo, Twitter, authenticity, sincerity, gender roles, the prison industrial complex

As with his book I hate the internet he lays out how basically XXXTENTACION represents the internet because that is what raised him and influenced him and how it sent him down a path it also managed to let him be able to explore worlds that he wasn’t necessarily ever going to see and expose him to culture, hope and art that he might not ever had known about without the internet

[Kelby Losack · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fast, thoughtful, intense read. My favorite I've read this year, so far. I dig the single-sentence lines, and the sort of like talking/sort of like blogging style prose.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jarrett Kobek really is the public intellectual we need. He’s pieced together the story of xxxtentacion using tweets, social media and the lazy music journalism that consistently focussed on the most salacious, alarming and exploitive (also often untrue) elements of this young artists life. Kobek calls out racism, classism, misogynoir (as it applies to the free pass Chris Brown seems to have received in recent years), AND breaks down how the big three music publishing corporations and streaming services alike function like wine makers with artists as fat grapes. He also gets at the crass hypocrisy that gets deployed by music press and the internet at large, when rap authenticity gets really real, and grapples with how to contend with musical genius when it comes with a real, very messy and problematic life. Also mental ill health x fame x drugs. I really like how Kobek’s mind works.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kobek read all 27k+ of XXXTentacion’s tweets. Of course I wanted to know what he thought about him. A lot of the more general statements about society expressed are re-hashed ideas from his other books, but I didn't mind that...remixing yourself as a writer seems appropriate to do.


“The way that you use a tool initially, is the basis of how you always use that tool…he was locked into the persona that he’d created when he was fourteen, and that persona became the center of his whole public self.”


“The rough rare meat of your life goes into a machine and comes out as flavorless pink sludge.”


“And this hints at an idea that I could bother developing in this book, but wanted to get in anyway: the origins of death metal are Floridian.”


“Being in love is fucking common.

It’s an easy emotion.

Anyone can be in love for four months.”


"But whenever a Black person stumbles upon the anthems of the ruling class, which is to say punk and indie rock, there’s a music journalist waiting to say that the person’s influences are wide-ranging and eclectic.”


“And like anyone with bad luck, a great deal of it was self-inflicted.”


“Everything seems thin, like the border between reality and fantasy is a wet piece of paper that you can poke your finger through”


“If you had the right eyes and ears, you could look at him, and listen, and know exactly what he was and where he was from.

And I don’t mean Broward County.


That dude was from the Internet.”


“If the whole game is rigged, and your behavior is constructed by invisible social pressures, then there’s only one thing you can do.

Do every thing wrong!”


“This was how morality was manufactured…By people who wrote their morality on devices built with slave labor.

By the people who had ethnically cleansed the Fillmore, Bed-Stuy, and Dogtown, and then tweeted about Black Lives Matters.”


"I’m sick of a culture built around naming and shaming.

And I believe in forgiveness.”

[Tammy Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book itself, as judged by the cover, appears to be a mini biography about an artist but there are some important points noted about rich and poor people and their roles in social media.

There is also a cool music lesson in chapter 4 explaining timbre and how it plays into an artist's style.

[Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

I fuck with Kobek

[Sashka Kumari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kobek validated my longstanding love for X.

[Josh Pendergrass]

I’m convinced that Jarett Kobek is one of our most important contemporary writers. This book is a deep work of empathy and a serious examination of the culture that creates massive injustice and suffering here in the US and around the world; a culture with which we are all complicit. Kobek ties all of these threads together through the examination of the life and music of Xxxtentacion. We type and post away about how important it is to put an end to injustice and racism on the very mediums that create and re-enforce this life-destroying culture…On social media that was designed by sociopaths to turn us into addicts; on “smart” phones built with minerals mined by child slaves in the Congo. Xxxtentacion was a true child of the internet, a case study of the trauma that our culture inflicts and the penalties it dishes out, added to the amplifier that is social media and what it is like to grow up with that. But he is also proof that even amidst a dying culture; a culture which pits us against each other and against ourselves, which turns everything about our lives into a way to enrich billionaires; art somehow finds a way through.

[Sean · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic book of cultural criticism. Book reviewed more fully here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IQFP...

[headsofcabbage]

Lord forgive me. Atta was a surprise favorite from last year.

"The spiritual barrenness, the wasted lives in wanton bodies."

Kobek's tweet-opera historiography of XXXTentacion is sincere and empathetic but never fully achieves the teenage poetics of the posts it emulates. Kind of like the Vice to Atta's Talladega Nights

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

A breezy read. I wish there were more writers like Kobek, willing to defend whoever the two-minute-hate of the day focuses on. I guess in this day and age, authors like Kobek are few and far between, and the major publishers show no interest in deviating from their usual crap anyway. Oh well!

[Sil · Rating 3 out of 5]

What? How is everyone giving 4+ stars?! Okok the book had potential, but it’s so scattered and so repetitive. It did make me meditate on a lot of issues, and maybe it is more poignant for Americans, but 4+?! How.

[Daniel Solís · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bastante flojo, nada que no puedas leer en la red.

[David Catney · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting idea for a book. i really enjoyed reading this.

[Brice Fuqua · Rating 2 out of 5]

A book-length apology for a violent psychopath.

[Kavita · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love love love love I love xxxtentacions music and reading this book was amazing and was a good experience

[Maisie Rossall · Rating 5 out of 5]

it describes jehseh onfroy so perfect and it tells you about all his past trauma it’s excellent and i would recommend because it makes you think about him in a diffrent way

[Luka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good and i love xxx just rude how the author talks about him

[Year 5 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like it rip