Present & Show: BigXThaPlug
Phrases: Peter A. Berry
Editor’s Notice: This story seems within the Winter 2023 subject of XXL Journal, on stands now.
The start of BigXThaPlug’s rap profession included a humble train in multitasking. Months faraway from writing his first raps in a jail cell, he hustled to offer for his rising household. He’d ask prospects to judge his earliest songs whereas working in a makeshift resort room lure home. “I used to be telling folks, ‘Hey, you should purchase this, however take heed to this,’” BigX remembers. “Inform me if that is good.’”
Nowadays, bandos have reworked into full-fledged recording studios, live performance venues and even his own residence on the outskirts of the 25-year-old rapper’s native Dallas, the place he’s at the moment dealing with this interview. His suggestions comes within the type of stellar album evaluations, rising month-to-month streams and TikTok movies that includes his music, indicators of a dream in full bloom.
Since unloading his debut venture, Bacc From the Useless, in 2020, BigXThaPlug has used a charcoal bass voice, witty charisma and a knack for vivid storytelling to turn out to be a brand new face of Texas avenue rap. The Dallas native’s video for his 2022 monitor “Texas” has collected over 19 million YouTube views, whereas the music has earned over 39 million Spotify streams.
Then there’s “Whip It,” a minimize from the deluxe version of his 2023 album, Amar, which might be on its technique to reaching related marks. The #WhipItChallenge—a brand new viral dance pattern that options BigX’s music—is surging on TikTok. Not too long ago, he even cashed in on his rising stardom by finishing the Don’t Mess With Texas Tour, a trek touring throughout the U.S.
“It’s cool to see folks aside from the folks in my state messing with me,” BigX says. “However aside from that, every little thing actually simply the identical.” He appreciates the popularity, however as a former soccer star from the Lone Star State, he’s used to Friday Evening Lights-esque consideration. Because the hot-headed son of two street-dwellers, he’s additionally grown accustomed to a lifetime of extremes.
On the age of 4 or 5, BigX, born Xavier Landum, remembers his mom holding him on her hip as she shot at a would-be thief in an tried theft. “Mama was a gangsta,” he says matter-of-factly. BigX calls his mom his finest buddy, whereas his dad was the disciplinarian. Their strategy to parenthood was completely different, however BigX remembers them exposing him to their favourite music. He’d cruise round along with his father in an old-school Cadillac, with classics from the Isley Brothers serving as their father-son theme music. BigX’s mother was from Houston, so she would play him UGK, after which some Drake and Lil Wayne. What he wasn’t a fan of was college.
By the point BigX was in second or third grade, he was already skipping courses, which led him to relocate to stay along with his father in Commerce, Texas at 9. When he wasn’t avoiding the classroom, BigX was stepping into fights inside them. Fortunately, he discovered soccer. “That was simply away for me to get out loads of aggression,” BigX remembers.
Ultimately, his gridiron abilities mixed with a 6-foot-2, then-315-pound body earned the eye of Division 1 soccer scouts. He grew to become a scholar enrolled at Minnesota’s Crown School in 2016, after graduating from Ferris Excessive College that very same yr. Nonetheless, whereas there, he started promoting weed to college students, and finally, police discovered the product in his dorm room, and he was given a ticket and kicked out of the college. BigX admits he didn’t care at first and even deliberate to pursue soccer sometime. However he wanted a job, and 9-to-5s weren’t his factor. He’d by no means held an everyday gig for greater than 4 or 5 months. “I by no means even filed taxes,” he notes.
Sadly, that aversion to the authorized financial system led the rapper to offer in numerous methods. After a interval of robbing drug sellers, BigX ended up in jail after being arrested on an aggravated theft warrant simply earlier than he turned 18. When he violated his probation a bit of over two years later, he landed proper again in. However the rhymer missed his son’s first birthday this time, triggering an outburst that landed BigX in solitary confinement. There, he battled disappointment and tedium. “I used to be counting the bricks on the wall,” BigX particulars. “After I counted the bricks on the wall like a 3rd time, I used to be like, Hell nah.”
By the partitions, he’d ask inmates how they handed the time. Some mentioned poetry, however the time period was a bit of too flowery for BigX, so he clung to a extra palatable concept: being a rapper. Utilizing a jail-issued medical type known as a med line for medicinal requests, BigX wrote his first raps. As soon as out of jail about two years later, he returned to his hustle with renewed function and plans to turn out to be an artist. He paid for studio time with lure cash and recorded the songs that will turn out to be his Bacc From the Useless mixtape.
After successful a contest that earned him free video route from native video manufacturing crew HalfPintFilmz, he broke out with “Mr. Bother,” the visible for which has gathered over 2 million YouTube views since being launched in 2021. Round that very same time, music distributor UnitedMasters got here calling, and BigX was in a position to depart the streets behind. To this point, the returns have been promising, with an upcoming joint tour with Kevin Gates being the most recent fruits of BigX’s labor.
“[BigX is] extraordinarily clever,” says Ebony Hadley, Director of Digital Advertising at UnitedMasters. “You combine that with the best way he grew up and his passions and the kind of music he listened to and the kind of music he places out, you simply create a monster—in a great way.”
For now, BigX is targeted on The Greatest EP, which arrived Dec. 1, and options subject material extra befitting of his present way of life. “Proper now, we have now convos to purchase actual property, and [about] how we flipping our cash and never simply spending it,” he shares.
His latest hit, “Mmhmm,” samples the Whispers’ 1979 basic music “And the Beat Goes On.” Will Smith’s personal 1997 smash “Miami” additionally sampled The Whispers’ monitor, which BigX’s monitor is paying homage to. BigXthaPlug makes his first look on the Billboard Sizzling 100 chart on Dec. 12 with “Mmhmm” debuting at No. 93.
The glitz of rising rap stardom has moved BigX removed from the lure, however he’s holding onto the notion that he’s nonetheless the identical individual inside. “I’m not a special man,” he gives. “I don’t act completely different. My environment are nonetheless the identical as a result of I didn’t change. No one round me modified.” There’s just one slight distinction: “We simply acquired a bit of extra money now.”
Get the bag.
Learn BigXthaPlug’s interview within the Winter 2023 subject of XXL Journal, on newsstands now. The brand new subject additionally contains the cowl story with Latto and conversations with Killer Mike, Flo Milli, DD Osama, Maiya The Don, Monaleo, Mello Buckzz, Sexyy Purple, BigXthaPlug, Scar Lip, plus extra. Moreover, there’s an unique interview with Fetty Wap, High quality Management Music’s Coach Okay and P focus on 10 years into the label’s progress, and in-depth tales on the recognition of sampling in hip-hop in 2023, the state of hip-hop touring and the very best moments of hip-hop’s year-long fiftieth anniversary celebration.
See Images From Latto’s XXL Journal Winter 2023 Cowl Story
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