If future cultural archeologists wonder how hip-hop turned into a distorted Soundcloud party in the 2020s, they should start with Upper West Side’s Xaviersobased. His debut album, Xavier, came out in January, the culmination of three years of underground work that turned millennials into the old heads that they swore they would never become. For every pristine melody the 22-year old churns out, there’s another moment where he’s determined to confuse, or even repel. To hell with the old heads, though. More than his underground aesthetics, Xavier’s ambition is obvious. The blockbuster potential jumps out on grandiose tracks like “iPhone 16” and “Wrk Wrk.” He’s also the total rejection of the hyper-capitalist, overly controlled, loner personas that once defined a rap star in the 2000s. In many ways, Xavier feels like the cool New York rap star that we haven’t had since the murder of Pop Smoke and losing A$AP Rocky to A24. He’s laconic, curious, community driven, but also aware of what it means to be a star. A few weeks ago, I met Xavier at a salon and we talked about his latest record, underground hip-hop, and what makes his music different from what came before.
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BUFORD: One of the coolest things so far about your music for me is that it feels like a new movement, but it’s without the toxicity of a lot of the stuff that has gotten older in hip-hop. Would you agree with that?
XAVIERSOBASED: I agree with that, but I feel like every movement comes with toxicity. Obviously not as much as other movements, but I definitely agree with what you’re saying.
BUFORD: Where does that come from?
XAVIERSOBASED: Probably me feeling like I wasn’t accepted when I was younger, and that in turn made me want to make others feel accepted.
BUFORD: Maybe toxicity was the wrong term, but it feels like your movement is ambitious, but also grounded in community. And that’s legitimately inspired me in a lot of ways. I became a little bit disillusioned with the hip hop scene in general. I think around 2023 I discovered your music, and it’s really brought me back in a lot of ways.
XAVIERSOBASED: Appreciate you. Yeah, that’s a great way to describe it though.
BUFORD: I think hip hop is a combination of a lot of different things. It’s both a really transgressive art, but it’s also rooted in love and community and peace. It also has a lot of different identity groups though. How have you added to that lineage?
XAVIERSOBASED: Just combining all the things I fuck with in my own way. Me and you probably both like totally different things about rap music. So I take the things that I like and form it into my thing. If you do the same thing, it’ll come my way differently. You know what I mean? I just take it from the things that I like and put it into my craft.
BUFORD: Yeah, absolutely. What do you think has made you so popular with the youth? Your music really just feels like it’s for them. But also, a lot of old heads don’t give you enough credit for the fact that your music is conceptual. I think they think your music is just for kids.
XAVIERSOBASED: One thing about that is a lot of my influences are very internet. A lot of people that aren’t internet heavy, like the old heads, don’t really get it. But once COVID hit and TikTok started popping, Bladee and all the underground shit started getting super popular because everybody was on the internet to find it so quick. So now more people understand where I’m coming from with my influences.
BUFORD: Yeah, I think your music is definitely rooted in the internet scenes, but also I think your stuff always has a vignette style songwriting to it, and it’s really honest. I think about “Pediatrician”, which kind of reminded me of being at a dentist office on the Upper East Side when I was a kid.
XAVIERSOBASED: That’s so fire that you just said that though, because that’s literally the type of vibe we’re trying to invoke. I used to go to the pediatrician on the Upper West Side, on 96th and it was definitely a similar experience.
BUFORD: Mine was actually around the corner. I remember when I listened to “Pediatrician,” it brought me back to those days, like reading Sports Illustrated for kids, being bored and wishing I could get out of here. Some things don’t change, but also everything changes, right?
XAVIERSOBASED: Exactly. A lot of it is rooted in memories too, or rooted in personal experience and definitely a bunch of things that I used to listen to. Because obviously I’m from the streets, but a nigga wasn’t in the streets like that. So obviously a lot of songwriting is more about things I listen to, things I’ve seen, things I’ve been around.
BUFORD: The record Xavier is really interesting because it really showcases your rap nerd intellect. And on “Wrk Wrk,” there’s kind of a little bit of Shawty Redd in there.
XAVIERSOBASED: Yeah, I can see what you’re saying. I definitely listened to a lot of Gucci [Mane] growing up and older artists like that, and I feel like a lot of it just seeps out when I rap. It’s not like an inherent like, “I’m going to be on this,” but I’ll damn near sing a bar from a song that I used to listen to years ago and not even realize, you know what I mean?
BUFORD: Your opening line on the record is one of my favorite bars from you: “Yeah, this rap shit stress me out, but nigga, I don’t hate it.” It reminded me of something that an early Drake or early Lil B would say like, “I’m becoming a star, but I’m also emotionally intelligent enough to understand that with this comes a lot of stress and a lot of pressure.” What pressures come with that for you?
XAVIERSOBASED: It’s down to the little shit, like watching how I got to act around certain people because I know people trying to read me, trying to figure out what I got going on or like what I’m thinking in the exact moment. I try not to, but you tend to watch the things you post. You tend to over analyze your whole life. Because other people are over analyzing, so it’s like you try to compensate for that. That’s one of the biggest stresses.
BUFORD: I know what you mean. Because it’s like, “Okay, all eyes are on me now and that puts a kind of pressure on what you’re saying to the public.”
XAVIERSOBASED: Not even just to the public, but it goes all the way down to even day-to-day with family or with homies. I don’t know, like I might not get back to somebody and now niggas is like, “Man, what happened?” It’s like, “My bad. I was busy.” And I tend to overthink things like that too, because I don’t want people to think I’m on some fool shit.
BUFORD: Something that I can’t stand about detractors of New Gen SoundCloud, is that people talk about it as if it’s so different from some of the stuff that they grew up on, right?
XAVIERSOBASED: I do feel like it’s different though, because the music reflects the state of the world, and the state of the world is different. It is the same concept of we just rapping about what we go through, though. But what we go through is way different than what they went through. You know what I mean? It’s the same idea of just different lived experiences.
BUFORD: You have a line on “iPhone 16,” where you say, “Being smart is hard, and ignorance is bliss.” What does that line mean to you?
XAVIERSOBASED: I mean, I still got homies that’s on block type shit. Niggas that’s not into what I’m into. A lot of people are good at masking shit too though. It’s kind of like, when you’re not worried about it, you don’t know about it, then what is it you think about?
BUFORD: I think when people have eclectic taste, when people have tastes that go just beyond whatever’s on the radio, I think also it can tend to become something that … I’m trying to say this in a way that’s diplomatic, but sometimes it becomes easier for these fucking white kids from the suburbs to enjoy it.
XAVIERSOBASED: These are facts. I mean, I keep all types of different people around me. So people see that and that I embrace all types of different people. Being with Ren, he’s Peruvian and Italian, and then you got fucking all the homies. We’ve got Ecuadorian, Dominican, Black, right? None of that ever mattered though. That’s what keeps all kinds of different people fucking with us though.
BUFORD: It reminds me of a time in New York that felt different than what it is now. My high school had a lot of Black and Brown kids and a few Italian and Irish sprinkled here and there. It was like a genuine, diverse coalition in a way. So what is it about New York for you that has helped you become Xaviersobased?
XAVIERSOBASED: The diversity. Like you said, my school was the exact same way and it’s like everyone was into all types of different things. I feel like I was kind of growing up in the start of the scam era, and the early drill era for New York, like 2017, 2018. So it’s a lot of different shit going on, you feel me? Having a Spanish family and then just being on the internet.
BUFORD: Yeah. I feel like it’s cliche at this point to bring up your mom and your brother, but I know they were very influential with you in terms of music. Being in a musical home like that, what’s the greatest memory of them helping you?
XAVIERSOBASED: Definitely just me and my brother, scrolling on the internet, scrolling on YouTube, watching shit. And my mom playing music in the house. These are my favorite memories for sure, as far as that goes.
BUFORD: What was some of the hip hop she was playing in the house, if anything?
XAVIERSOBASED: Just like regular shit, you feel me? Like 50 Cent, niggas like that. Who else though? Like fucking Kris Kross. There’s more people though.
BUFORD: Yeah. Kris Kross has a youthful energy that I think you have a little bit of.
XAVIERSOBASED: I fucked with them when they came out. Whenever my mom was playing it, they were snapping for sure.
BUFORD: When it comes to fashion, what have you been on lately? What is the best Xaviersobased fit?
XAVIERSOBASED: I mean shit, they see it. I’ve just been on a bunch of extreme sports vibes. I’ve been on the designer, but don’t get me wrong, I haven’t been too focused on the designer. But I’ve just been more against shit that I used to look at as a kid. I used to watch Danny & The Dingo and shit like that, like fuel TV shit and just things like that when I was growing up. That’s more of the type of vibe I’ve been on with fashion.
BUFORD: Facts. Growing up, was there a rapper whose fashion you were inspired by?
XAVIERSOBASED: The earliest ones were probably like A$AP [Rocky], Mac [Miller], Tyler [the Creator]. The Supreme came out. I mean when they was rocking the HBA, niggas was rocking. Just like that blog era type of swag. That was my first introduction to fashion.
Xaviersobased, photographed by Jayson Buford.
BUFORD: I love the way [Chief] Keef looked because to me, he looked cool, but it was away from high end fashion stuff at the time. He was just in True Religion jeans.
XAVIERSOBASED: Somebody that was on that in their own way was Bladee. The way Bladee used to be swagging and dripping, and just the whole Drain Gang. And then it came more to Slay World and them. They were the first ones that I seen really doing the archive drip. Carti and them, and Ian [Connor] and all that was on them before that. But when I started looking at Weiland and Summrs, they was really rocking. Number Nine Mickey and Undercover Pants and shit like that.
BUFORD: Hell yeah. I have crazy ADD, and I’m wondering how much of your music is based on the new generation and attention span?
XAVIERSOBASED: I’ve never been diagnosed, but I could say I’ve just always struggled with paying attention. Always just doing what I wanted to do. I couldn’t even fathom doing something I wouldn’t want to do, whether it’s going to school or just doing an assignment. It used to be a problem like, bro. I used to be crying when my parents would be helping me do the homework and shit. Everything was always an issue, but that definitely plays a big role in my music too, because you could hear it, bro. I got songs that really scratch that brain itch of just, shit is overly sped up and overly bass heavy for no reason.
BUFORD: I think about “You See Me” It’s great to me because it’s kind of like a snippet as a song in a way.
XAVIERSOBASED: That’s definitely why I make more faster songs too. But that’s also why this time around, I was challenging myself to make longer songs.
BUFORD: Why do you think it threw people off?
XAVIERSOBASED: Because, like you said, this generation. Everybody’s on the phone. Everybody’s giving themselves ADHD at this point. So it’s just like, you got to get with the times.
BUFORD: Do you ever feel any pressure to be the king of this new generation?
XAVIERSOBASED: Hell no.
BUFORD: I think that’s cool, man. You don’t think selfishly, which I really noticed in your music. It’s so community based. I think that’s what makes you really a special artist too.
XAVIERSOBASED: I appreciate that.