The line between hip-hop and animation keeps getting thinner, and its newest crossing point is one of the most closely guarded catalogs in the culture. XXXTENTACION, the late artist born Jahseh Onfroy, is the inspiration behind Make Out Hill, an original animated feature revealed this past weekend at DreamCon 2026 in Houston.
The project pairs X's estate with Martian Blueberry, the animation studio built by husband-and-wife team Carl and Love Jones. That first name should stop you. Carl Jones helped shape the voice and look of The Boondocks, holds a Peabody, and has lent his hand to visual work with Tyler, The Creator and Kid Cudi. His studio's résumé runs through Roc Nation, Sony Music, Major League Baseball, and the Lakers. The people entrusted with X's story are not learning on the job.
And to be clear, this is not a biopic. The Joneses have framed Make Out Hill as an original cinematic world rather than a recreation of a timeline. "XXXTENTACION changed music by refusing to fit inside a box," the duo said, positioning the film as an extension of that same instinct. The early synopsis follows a fractured young soul moving through interconnected fantasy worlds, hunting for the missing pieces of his heart. Sit with that premise and the medium makes sense. Animation can hold grief, imagination, and transformation in ways a straight live-action retelling almost never reaches.
That framing came directly from the family. X's mother, Cleopatra Bernard, described the film as a way to honor her son's spirit and imagination rather than restage his life, pointing to the questions and dreams he poured into his work and the throughline of growth and self-discovery he left behind. It is a notable posture for an estate that has been protective of how his name gets used since his death.
The context underneath all of this is heavy and worth stating plainly. X was 20 years old when he was killed in his home state of Florida in 2018, only months removed from his album ?. Posthumous releases Skins and Bad Vibes Forever followed. His story reached screens once before, in the 2022 documentary Look at Me, named for the debut single that broke him into the mainstream. Make Out Hill takes the opposite road, trading archival footage for invented worlds.
Here is why the launchpad matters as much as the film. This did not debut at a festival press junket or a label showcase. It debuted at DreamCon, an anime and creator convention, in front of the exact audience that treats animation as a first language rather than a novelty. That placement is a signal. Black storytelling, creator-led studios, and anime-adjacent aesthetics are no longer waiting for permission from legacy Hollywood pipelines. They are announcing generational IP on their own stages, to the fans most likely to carry it.
For a generation raised on both Boondocks reruns and X's discography, Make Out Hill lands squarely at an intersection that used to be treated as a niche and now looks a lot like the center. Casting and a release date have not been announced, and the film is still in pre-production. But the pieces already assembled, a Peabody-winning animator, a trusting estate, and a debut aimed straight at the culture, suggest this one is being built to be remembered.
Make Out Hill is in pre-production now. We will be watching for a first look.
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