Billboard Cover Star and being named as the ‘Future of Hip-Hop,’ BigXthaPlug, is taking over. The rapper has risen with his Texas flare music, and he shares his journey of becoming a footballer to a rapper, his next move with country music, and more!
Category
🎵
MusicTranscript
00:00I feel like for the first time in a long time, I'm talking about something.
00:03For one out of all the people that, you know, they love music, they see,
00:06that's what they grew up off of. And so now here is this young dude,
00:10they sound old, but he on these young old beats. Like I literally mixed everything up
00:15for that. Everybody could live it and that's what it's doing.
00:30I'm going to try to be something I'm not. I feel like that's what's gotten me this far too.
00:35I didn't do music because this is what I grew up wanting to do. I wanted to be a football player.
00:39This is just, I looked at it as a hustle, a way to
00:42provide for my kids. I'm not going to say that it wasn't a part of my life because it was always
00:46there. Like it was always something going, but it just wasn't the path I thought I was going to
00:51take. I never was recording. I'm not one of those kids that grew up in studios. The first time I
00:56ever remember like a mic being in my face had to be like nine, 10, pops had a spot. And in the
01:02middle of that spot, it was just like a round wooden table. And it was a mic. You know what
01:08I'm saying? I guess the people that was in there doing what they was doing for them,
01:12they were trying to rap or whatever. And pops had brought me to the spot and he was like,
01:15man, y'all niggas can't rap. My son got more than what y'all got. And the nigga just put me on the
01:20mic and I just got to rap and I'm just saying shit. You know what I'm saying? I'm just thinking,
01:24I'm trying to impress my pop. But he was like, nigga, you're good. You need to rap for real.
01:29And I was like, nah, I'm going to the NFL. I just did that because you wanted me to.
01:34So that's one of the earliest memories for sure. So it's like, when I go back and think it's like,
01:39yeah, my pops been telling me a long time ago that he was good at this. This is what you should do.
01:44I'm really just talking my shit. I'm not one of these rappers.
01:47We really like that in real life. We shoot movies like actors.
01:50I never even realized that I just had a voice until I start rapping. And people start telling
01:56me, man, your voice. And I really just start listening. I was like, all right, there's not
02:00many people with the voice that you got. When did you know you were going to take
02:03rapping seriously and like, hey, we might have something here?
02:05I don't remember the exact year, but it was the last time I was in jail for a long time. I was
02:11in jail for like three or four months for a probation violation. And then I missed my son's
02:16first birthday. And when I got out, I just, I like, I made a promise to him like whatever I did to go
02:23in there, I'm not going to do no more. You would think whenever you had your first kid,
02:26it would kick in right then. Like whenever you're holding him for the first time, oh,
02:30I got somebody that I really got to live for. But it didn't really kick in until
02:33I missed that first birthday. That's what made me just, I don't know, I guess lock in for real.
02:37And really it didn't even have to be rapping. Whatever it was that I kind of said, all right,
02:42baby, that's what I'm going to do. I was going to do like to the full, but yeah,
02:46because it's like I ain't got nothing else. I done made these promises. I can't do what
02:50I was doing before. I don't believe in doing something I don't know how to do.
02:58You know what I'm saying? So I knew me stepping in this music industry, I didn't know what I
03:02was doing. So I kind of just took it into like a football aspect. Like before all of this rap
03:07stuff happened, I was a football player. I didn't have the grades to go to a D1 school at first. I
03:12wasn't prepared for division one school. So what I do, I chose to go to this lower division school
03:18so that I could better myself before I go to this division one school. You know what I'm saying?
03:23Because nobody wants to be, nobody wants to sit on the bench. Being on the bench is equal to being
03:27shelved. Nobody wants to be shelved. Nobody wants to be benched. So I went to this distribution label,
03:34this JUCO, you see what I'm saying? And I went and I grinded and I basically just pulled a Cam Newton.
03:41You know what I'm saying? Like instead of going through all the steps, I just went crazy at that
03:47JUCO and could have damn near went to the league from the JUCO if that was possible. But you know
03:52what I'm saying? I think my first ever recording session with U-M, I made like nine songs in one day.
03:58They was all horrible. You'll never hear none of those songs, like none of them. I don't know, like when I first
04:05ever started recording, I had no money. I didn't really know too much about studios. So I was in
04:10the closet at first. Once I learned about real studios, I still didn't have like the bread,
04:15like I had a little money. So the little bread that I did have, once I paid the bills and whatnot,
04:20I had like a hundred, maybe $200 left. I'm calling the studio to see, okay, how much for an hour?
04:26$50, $65. All right, cool. I'm finna write all these songs and I'm finna go record these songs.
04:33And I was recording two or three songs in an hour. It went from having to get it all done
04:38immediately to like now we take more time with it. Like now we're taking basically trips to
04:45Arizona. You know, we just take a trip somewhere where it's quiet, beautiful,
04:49peaceful, and we just kind of let it come to us. We don't force it.
04:56Safehouse put me on in my city. Safehouse was what made me a rapper in Dallas, Texas.
05:06Texas made me, that put me on in Texas. That kind of took me global.
05:12Hot 100, yep.
05:13Yeah, and after that, everything, it's just been everything. It's just been, you know,
05:17we ain't stopped.
05:18We got Beyonce, try the truth and we can't forget Devin.
05:22Big shout out to them boys and I can't forget about them Texans.
05:25I think we'd have waved like how Atlanta had their wave, Memphis had their wave,
05:30Miami had their wave. It's Texas time. I feel like for the past decade, there's just been a lot of
05:36mumble rap or just people not talking about nothing.
05:40Let's talk about Take Care. You know, you really brought us into a vulnerable side,
05:44talking about your kids, you know, mentally and everything you're going through.
05:47I guess, why'd you want to bring us into that world for you?
05:50I didn't.
05:51You didn't? Oh, so it just...
05:52I didn't.
05:53So what was the punch there?
05:54Yeah.
05:55Man, a lot of those songs, I didn't even want to drop.
05:57For the longest, we was, you know, we was making the album, but we was just recording songs,
06:01you know, trying to get a good body of work. And then, I don't know, just like,
06:05I was always recording songs where like, well, I actually just started this. Like,
06:09if something was going on, I was saying whatever, I would just go record
06:13instead of just holding it in or whatever. And so I just, I don't know,
06:16I started putting it in the music, started doing it in the music, and it was sounding good.
06:20But they wanted me to drop it, and I was like, hell no.
06:22It really just took for my granny to just call me one day.
06:25And that's when, you know, she did the Take Care phone call, yeah.
06:28I just want you to be safe, stay strong, keep your head up. I love you. Take care.
06:34And that's kind of just when I put two and two together.
06:37Because I was like, when I thought about it, I was like, man, I ain't, nobody check on me.
06:41And so that made me just think, think, think, and I put everything together,
06:45and I was like, all right, that's it. And then when I started telling people,
06:47okay, we're going to drop this song, we're going to drop this song.
06:50They were like, damn, why? And they didn't realize until we was,
06:54I think we was in Phoenix, Tennessee, wherever.
06:56And we got to writing all the songs down on the board.
07:00And they just seen the body of work, and they was like, damn.
07:03I want to talk about the country mixtape you mentioned. Is that going to be an EP mixtape?
07:07I'm going to say we're experimenting, but it's like, we've done songs,
07:12and they sound so good, and it's like, why not make a little body out of it?
07:16And I think Take Care is going to hold me over for a little minute.
07:20You mentioned Jelly Roll, Morgan Wallen, Luke Combs.
07:23You've been trying to get them on the album. Have you talked to any of them yet?
07:26These are all people that we've already talked to.
07:27They're willing and ready to work.
07:29Whenever I told you that we was in Tennessee, that's what I was there for.
07:32But Post Malone, Luke Combs, all those guys, they claim I'm their favorite rapper.
07:38That's crazy to me. So yeah, we're definitely going to work.
07:42I ain't never done none of this shit before, so my first Rolling Loud was crazy.
07:53Bonnaroo, crazy. Just everything that we've done, man, it's been a blessing to do.
07:57Coachella, even Lollapalooza, we did that. We was like, oh yeah, we're doing something.
08:01But now they're like, Coachella, that's the big dog. That's the biggest of the big.
08:06They don't get no bigger when it comes to festivals.
08:08And then to know I'm one of the few rap artists that's on it is even crazy.
08:13So I don't know, man. Like I said, it's a blessing.
08:26I like I said, I've looked at everything that I didn't know.
08:29I looked at it from a football standpoint and I just knew,
08:33for one thing, what you wanted to do in life.
08:35So obviously, whatever little passion or whatever you got for it is going to die out
08:40because you love football. You love that with everything in you, and that died.
08:44So I know that's going to die eventually.
08:47You just got to be ready and prepared to do the next thing.
08:50I'm ready for it. I said, I'm going to do whatever I got to do to provide for my kids.
08:53So after this is all over with, I'm definitely going to be in some movies.
08:58I'm already got sound placements with movies.
09:01You see, I'm kind of verging over right now. I've been doing a lot of commercials.
09:04It's already like a movie that I'm basically pitched for.
09:06I just got to do a small little screening for it, like everybody else do,
09:11just to see if I get the part.
09:12And I'm not in this to compete or do that with nobody.
09:16Because since the beginning, I don't always talk about what I was going through at that time.
09:21Even when I first started rapping,
09:23I was just talking about what I was going through at that time.
09:24I just changed the direction of what I was talking about.
09:27That's because I'm not doing that no more.
09:29That's not me.
09:30They can't fall in love with you if you're not you.
09:32If you're a robot, nobody wants to fall in love with a robot.
09:36Nobody wants to fall in love with a plant.
09:37Nobody wants to fall in love with something that's fake.
09:40It's got to be a given.
09:42I heard her say earlier,
09:43Oh, X is just being humble.
09:46No, it's just me.
09:48This is just me.
09:48I don't...
09:49Listen, I'm the same person.
09:51I don't even know.
09:52I don't know you from the can of paint,
09:53but I bet you I can make you laugh in five minutes.
09:55You see what I'm saying?
09:56Like just with us walking past the street,
09:58that's the type of person I am.
09:59I'm not no...
10:00I don't know.
10:01I don't portray to be something I'm not.
10:03I feel like that's what's gotten me this far too.