Latisha Saunders

English 2.9 song

I spoke to the devil in Miami he said everything will be fine

XXXtentation

This is a song I saw circling over the internet probably last year I saw different people covering it all over youtube and it was one quite far down in X’s SoundCloud.  That I never really got the chance to listen to it. I feel like this song really makes me feel the discomfort he once felt in his life when he was alive. Whether this was in his late teens or whether he was going through issues with the law I really feel like this song lets us into a really deep emotional part of X, is since it is very hard to listen to now, although it is still a beautiful song. We will never lose his music.

This song is about him being controlled by the higher power people/ the evil. The devil in the industry, in everything he does, what he can and can’t do because he is famous, or because he sold his soul away.  He signed a contract with someone or some people who are more powerful than him, in exchange for whatever he wants eg. success, money and woman. The devil told him to do so.

The title of XXXtentations song ” I spoke to the devil in Miami, he told me everything would be fine” speaks for itself, the devil manipulated him into thinking everything would be fine’ if he gave his soul. They then own him and everything he does. The evil consumed him and he feels trapped, betrayed by himself. He may have all these materialistic things but realizes that those things don’t matter because he can’t get his soul back. He is regretting his decision but realizes he can’t do anything about it. 

He wrote this song probably hoping that people would see the lyrics and the truth. He is putting this in front of our eyes and we choose to ignore it, he is trapped inside himself. His mind isn’t his own. This was his way of asking for help. The lyrics express how much regret he is feeling though he was manipulated into this. He was innocent, now he’s a slave. Below is the meaning of some of my favorite powerful lyrics given in the song from X;

“And I’m always where the Sun don’t shine.”

It’s known that X has been struggling with his depression for most of his life. People with depression usually feel like a cloud of sadness follows them wherever they go. X always feels like his life is in a dark place where happiness or the sun cannot reach him. 

“Tears don’t show, won’t Hurt me now ’cause Heart’s been broke.”

X is saying he is already broken and therefore you cannot do anything to help him. These lyrics mean that he has reached such a low means that he cannot be hurt more than he already has been. The damage has been done to him. The fact that his “hearts been broke” is symbolized with a tattoo of a broken heart below his left eye in person, and the fact he has become numb is symbolized with one below his right eye.

“I Hate myself but It won’t show, I Constantly lose all My remorse.”

X is saying all that has built up in the previous lines, including the numbness he has to everything happening around him and mentioning elsewhere that he will always feel like the elephant in the room, he doesn’t care about what he does wrong, about how his actions make other people feel, and how he may be ruining someone else’s life for the benefit of his own.

“now I’m Trapped in a changing maze Setting my soul ablaze Couldn’t control the pace.”

X is saying that since trading his soul with the devil, he is completely trapped. He is now in need of liberty and seems to understand what he did, especially in the next few lines, was not right, and he was convinced by what the devil had to offer. After his soul was no longer his, he had no control of what he was doing; everything around him was happening so fast, and he was not thinking about what he was doing and did not know at all what was bound to happen next. He was no longer himself, but a shadow of the devil.

“Heartless is recklessness.”

Saying he is heartless is referencing back to him saying he has had his heart broken.X is saying that him being heartless only makes him reckless. He may be implying that due to his heartless recklessness he blindly, without thought, sold his soul to feel the pleasure of pain.