Jahseh Onfroy, known to the world as XXXTentacion, was never just a rapper. He was a lightning rod. By the time he was murdered in 2018 outside a motorsports dealership in Deerfield Beach, Florida, he’d already become a symbol of everything beautiful and broken about the SoundCloud rap era. The 2022 Hulu documentary didn't just try to recap his career; it tried to perform an autopsy on his soul.
But a documentary is only as good as the people willing to sit in front of the lens. To understand the cast of Look At Me XXXTentacion, you have to understand that this wasn't a group of actors. These were survivors, grieving parents, and former friends who were often at odds with each other.
The Inner Circle: Family and Management
At the heart of the film is Cleopatra Bernard, X’s mother. She’s a polarizing figure in the fandom. In the documentary, she’s remarkably candid about her failures as a parent during Jahseh’s early years. She admits she wasn’t always there emotionally, which X himself frequently lamented in his music. Cleo also served as an executive producer, which led some critics to wonder if the film would be a "hagiography"—a fancy word for a biography that makes someone look like a saint.
Spoiler: It wasn't.
Joining her is Solomon Sobande, the manager who navigated X’s meteoric and chaotic rise. Solomon is the guy who saw the business potential in the "mugshot" era of X's career. He provides the industry perspective, explaining how a kid with 15 felony charges became the most-streamed artist on the planet.
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Then there’s Deandra Ellis, Jahseh's aunt. She offers a softer, more domestic look at the boy before he became the monster/idol. She’s the one who often bridges the gap between the violent public persona and the nephew she loved.
The Most Critical Voice: Geneva Ayala
If you’re looking at the cast of Look At Me XXXTentacion, the most important person on screen isn’t even X. It’s Geneva Ayala.
Geneva was X's ex-girlfriend. She is also the survivor of the horrific domestic abuse that defined much of his public infamy. For years, the "X fans" harassed her, called her a liar, and literally ran her out of public spaces. In this film, director Sabaah Folayan gives her the floor.
It’s uncomfortable to watch.
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Geneva talks about their relationship being a "grim fairytale." She describes the cycles of violence followed by intense affection. The documentary doesn't flinch here. It shows the photos of her injuries. It plays the secret recordings where X admits to the abuse. Seeing her sit down with Cleo—the mother of her abuser—is perhaps the most heavy, surreal moment in modern music documentary history. Honestly, it’s a miracle they both agreed to do it.
The Collaborators and "Members Only"
You can’t talk about the Florida scene without the guys who were in the trenches with him. Ski Mask the Slump God (Stokely Goulbourne) is the big one here. He was X's best friend, his brother, and his musical soulmate. Their relationship was famously strained toward the end, and you can see the weight of that unfinished business in Ski Mask’s eyes.
The documentary also features:
- John Cunningham: X's primary producer for his later albums like 17 and ?. He’s the one who helped X pivot from distorted "trap-metal" to the acoustic, melancholic sounds that went #1.
- Craig Xen: An early collaborator who was there for the "Members Only" era.
- Bass Santana, Cooliecut, and Kid Trunks: Members of the collective who witnessed the group's rise from SoundCloud obscurity to global fame.
- Jenesis Sanchez: The mother of X’s son, Gekyume. She provides a look at the "redemption" phase of his life—the short window before his death where he was trying to be a father.
Why This Cast Matters
There are archival appearances from people like Juice WRLD and Trippie Redd, but those are mostly contextual. The real meat of the story comes from the people who had to live with Jahseh Onfroy, not just XXXTentacion.
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Director Sabaah Folayan deserves a lot of credit. She’s a Black feminist and an activist who didn't want to make a fluff piece. She pushed the family to include Geneva. She pushed the collaborators to talk about the fights and the "demons."
Critics, like those at Uproxx or The Guardian, have pointed out that the film still feels a bit like a "salve for guilty consciences." Maybe. But seeing the cast of Look At Me XXXTentacion all in one place makes one thing clear: nobody really knew how to handle him while he was alive.
He was a kid with untreated bipolar disorder, a massive platform, and a penchant for self-destruction. The documentary shows that the people around him were often just as lost as he was.
What to watch next
If you've finished the documentary and want a deeper understanding of the timeline, your next step should be to listen to the "In His Own Words" interview. It was released as a companion piece and features the raw, unedited audio from 2017 that formed the basis for much of the documentary’s narrative. It’s a chilling, 14-month-before-death look into his psyche without the filter of other people's memories.