Put Posthumous Albums in the Grave

I want to be excited when an artist I love is releasing an album.

An artist I’ve long admired and cherished — Sophie — released an album Sept. 27. I consider any chance to hear Sophie’s music a once in a lifetime blessing. I’ll never get enough of her sound. I should be thrilled.

Instead, I met the announcement of Sophie’s new album with dread — because Sophie died three years ago.

No matter the quality of the album, knowing Sophie did not, and cannot, consent to its release sits like a rock in my stomach. 

Despite this, Sophie’s new release seems, so far, to be a best-case-scenario in the way of posthumous albums. It’s being handled by her siblings, who have worked with her musically and beyond for years.

“I thought, really, it comes down to, would she want this album to come out or would she not? And she definitely would,” Benny Long, her brother, told The New York Times.

But Long’s statement can only be believed to a certain extent. As a producer and spearhead of this new release, he’ll be one of the first to profit from it. We have to take his words at face value, but have limited reasons to.

And many historical reasons not to.

One of the most heinous posthumous careers in recent memory is rapper Jahseh Onfroy, also known as XXXTentacion.

Onfroy was murdered in 2018 at only 20-years-old. At the time he’d released just two albums, but had a committed following.

Since his death, two additional critically unsuccessful albums, which now comprise more than half his discography, have been released, as well as two documentaries, “Look at Me” and “In His Own Words,” and as a clothing line.

All but one of his Instagram posts have been deleted, and ads were posted to his story. Unreleased songs were sold as NFTs. His merch shop is still updated. At this point, nearly the majority of his career has taken place after his death.

All of this, of course, is happening without Onfroy’s consent. His unfinished work and image are being used for profit under a flimsy veil of charity and consoling grieving fans, who are unfortunately literally and figuratively buying in.

One of the more morally disturbing of Onfroy’s posthumous releases was a collaboration with another deceased artist, Gustav Åhr, who went by Lil Peep.

The song, “Falling Down,” was initially pitched as a touching tribute to two young artists gone before their time, and was received as such — for the most part.

After the song was released, controversy began to arise. Not only had the musicians never actually met, fans and friends of Åhr began pointing out his discordant opinions on Onfroy. The artist, among other controversies, had been recorded bragging about nearly beating a gay cellmate to death in juvenile detention. Many found this troubling, as Åhr himself had come out as bisexual.

Benjamin Friars-Funkhouser, who goes by the artist name fish narc, is a member of GothBoiClique, a group of like-minded rappers Åhr belonged to. Friars-Funkhouser denounced the collaboration in an Instagram post.

“This shit is people trying to make money off him,” Friars-Funkhouser said. “He never would have signed up for that, he did not like XXXTentacion.”

These posthumous releases only continue to come out because they’re successful. The commercial success of posthumous releases have been found to not only return pre-death sales levels, but surpass them even several years after the death shock, according to a 2019 University of Texas at San Antonio study.

Even if a posthumous release seems purely driven by artistry and love like Sophie’s, there’s no way to absolutely know if it is, or if the artist would approve. When those releases achieve high financial returns, more posthumous releases are encouraged, and then there’s dead artists with two albums, two documentaries, NFTs, a clothing line and a song with someone who hates them.

Posthumous releases are a slippery slope. Legally, there’s nothing stopping labels and estate owners from profiting prolifically off dead artists. It’s up to us, as fans, to not participate in any posthumous release, no matter how desired, to maintain artists’ legacy and integrity.

I would do anything for a new Sophie album. I won’t listen to this one.