YouTuber Tré Melvin posted his obituary on social media on Wednesday. Fans who assumed the actor had died were initially devastated when he posted the image.

The image shared Melvin’s birthday and listed his death date as May 6, 2022. Melvin captioned

“An outdated variant of Dayton, Ohio-born actor, writer, producer, singer, songwriter, designer, poet, philanthropist, clairvoyant, and digital creator Tré Melvin peacefully departed this life, for the thousandth time, on Friday, May 6, 2022,” the obituary said. “Upon his deathbed, he documented his final thoughts.”

After learning the YouTuber hadn’t died, fans were outraged and flooded his comments to share their thoughts on the announcement.

“Honestly bad marketing. Don’t play with death. Nothing funny or cute about this ad,” a commenter wrote on Instagram.

“Not funny.. A future dated death?” another user added.

“I think this is just the end of an era, the date he ‘died’ on is in two days,” a commenter wrote.

Melvin, however, told Blavity exclusively that the obituary was posted ahead of his new single “Die 1,000 Times.” He added that there’s a thought-provoking message behind the controversial marketing move.

 

“I chose to explore the cycle of death in this particular chapter to venerate my late best friend, Katherya Pacheco, and each of my benevolent ancestors,” he tells Blavity. “Each individual’s relationship with death differs from the next. Many view it to be taboo; too frightening a subject to discuss. But one thing I’ve learned from the car collision that rendered Kathy and I unconscious in June of 2020, and her earthly passing the following day, is that death is everything but.”
He continued, saying that “my belief is that through death, and the exploration of it and rebirth via my art, she shall live on. Be it physically or metaphysically, there is no life without death. There is no beginning without end. Death is my birthright, and it is yours too.”
Tré Melvin