"Sad!" is a song by American rapper XXXTentacion from his second studio album, ?. It was released as the lead single from the album on March 2, 2018. The track was produced by John Cunningham, and written by XXXTentacion. The song is XXXTentacion's highest charting in the United States, peaking at number one on the BillboardHot 100 following his death on June 18, 2018. A music video for the song was released posthumously on June 28, via his YouTube channel.
Background
XXXTentacion began working with the producer for "SAD!", John Cunningham, in January 2018 after a preview of an acoustic song was uploaded to X's Instagram page showing Cunningham playing the guitar whilst X sung. On January 11, 2018, X uploaded a gaming video to his YouTube channel showing him playing the popular video game, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. The intro to the video was a preview for "SAD!" and X further previewed the song a month later in a video on February 4, 2018, using it for his intro, after speculation the song was titled "SAD n Low" following a mass amount of snippets uploaded to YouTube. X went on to preview the song one more time in a YouTube video before its official release a few days later.
Release and reception
On March 1, 2018, X announced he was releasing two songs from his upcoming album ?, saying on Instagram "Dropping two songs from my album tonight at 12:00 am est, play them more times than you can count." "SAD!" was released on March 2, 2018, on Spotify, Deezer, iTunes/Apple Music and Tidal alongside "Changes". HotNewHipHop compared "SAD!" to the singles on X's debut album, 17 due to its emo hip hop aesthetic, saying "Once again, the young Floridian is veering into emo territory — with a lo-fi synth string loop and crisp percussion, the melodic ballad showcases X's ear for melody." XXL noted how the "upbeat instrumental" varied from the lyrics that shown XXX "struggling with depression and suicide over an ex-lover." Rap-Up also pointed out the "emo-melodies" that surround the track and spoke on the theme of suicidal thoughts over an ill-fated romance. On May 10, 2018, Billboard reported that the song was removed from Spotify playlists after their newly enacted hate content and hateful conduct policy came into effect. Six days after the playlist removal, the song's streams dropped 17 percent per day in the United States on average.
Chart performance
In the United States, "SAD!" debuted at number 17 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the week beginning March 12, 2018, becoming XXXTentacion's highest debuting and highest charting song in the country, gaining 66 million streams in 12 days. The song later rose to number seven, making "SAD!" XXXTentacion's first top ten entry in the US. In the United Kingdom, "SAD!" was at number 33 by the midweek, becoming X's highest charting song in the country next to "Jocelyn Flores", which peaked at 39 and his second top 40 entry. The song officially debuted at number 26, becoming XXXTentacion's first top thirty in the country. "SAD!" reached the top 10 in Sweden, Australia, and New Zealand. It also reached the top 20 in Ireland, and the top 40 in Norway. "SAD!" amassed 10.4 million streams on Spotify on June 19, 2018, the day after his death, breaking the single-day record for streams on the platform. Following XXXTentacion's death, "SAD!" reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on the week beginning June 25, 2018, jumping from number 52. He became the first act to earn a posthumous Hot 100 number-one single as a lead artist since The Notorious B.I.G. with "Mo Money Mo Problems" in 1997, and overall, the eighth soloist to have topped the chart posthumously. It also reached number 12 in the Netherlands.
Music video
The music video for Onfroy's “SAD!" premiered one day after his memorial service at the BB&T Center on June 28, 2018. The video was written and "creative directed" by Onfroy himself, and directed by JMP. In the video, an older X attends the funeral of his younger self. When X approaches the casket to look at his younger self, the younger X suddenly returns to life. The two begin fighting in the church and out in the alley. Before, during, and after the fight, a dark figure speaks to X, asking various questions and advocating for a way of thinking centered on love rather than hate. X defeats his younger self and leaves him lying on the ground in a completely white location. The video concludes with the words "LONG LIVE PRINCE X". The video has over 260 million views across YouTube as of June 2020.
