Are you an Opium-pilled truecel chud? Have you heard about Clavicular being frame-mogged by an ASU frat leader? If even some of this makes sense to you, you might sit nicely at the intersection of Gen Z brainrot and the underground rap scene.
Foremost in this intersection is the New York-based rapper xaviersobased, whose idiosyncratic music has captivated a certain niche in the popular American music scene. His unpinnable sound is deranged, fusing off-kilter jerk beats with unmistakably weirdo swag, and it is bound to infuriate you the first time you try to conceive of how someone could cook up something so terrible.
But then you listen again. And again. And you find yourself strangely consumed by his delivery, his flow and his lyricism.
xaviersobased, born Xavier Lopez, is no stranger to the underground, having released music via SoundCloud for almost a decade, working with artists from Jane Remover to fakemink to Black Kray, and collaborating within his self-created clique, 1c34. However, what separates xaviersobased from his contemporaries in the current underground is his readiness to experiment, blending the hazy, heavily autotuned vocals of 2010s-era Drain Gang with strange, abusive 808s and distortion you might find in a live My Bloody Valentine set.
But what brought the rapper his first taste of success was his lyricism on top of frantic jerk beats, particularly in “patchmade” off of his 2022 mixtape install. Alongside the oft-rapped-about topics like drugs, sex and guns, xaviersobased drops absurdist, often humorous lyrics as well, citing his disdain for people who are “right-wing” and advising others to leave a girl alone because “she a teen.”
Although one could write these lyrics off as him trying to be witty, xaviersobased’s music does carry some sway in the manosphere-dominated social media apps like TikTok and Instagram, with far-left accounts responding to the recent rise in alt-right content by way of educational short-form videos promoting Marxist and post-Marxist thought soundtracked by xaviersobased’s “worth it.”
However, the one constant among his constantly evolving sound is his aversion to playing it safe, from hopping on Jersey Club beats (see “paterson new jersey”) to his contributions to what is known as the Terror Plugg genre, a genre that takes the spacey, ethereal production of plugg trap and adds obscene amounts of distortion to the 808s, slaughtering the dreaminess with walls of abrasion.
In his debut studio album, he continues the same restless refusal to stay in a single lane, further doubling down on the blown-out aesthetics and quirky songwriting that preceded his rise in popularity.
His latest project, Xavier, is 20 songs long and nearly 50 minutes, his longest project to date. Filled to the brim with vocal oddities, near-psychedelic instrumentals and crazed flows, he takes us on an overwhelming journey, painting us shimmering synth-laden pictures with his broad musical palette, proudly wearing his influences on his sleeve.
Swedish rapper Bladee’s mark can be felt throughout the record, particularly on “iPhone 16,” whose melodic delivery is a page taken straight out of the Gluee-era textbook and whose refrain “bеing smart is hard, ignorance is bliss” is still stuck in my head nearly two weeks after the album’s release.
The next song, “Harajuku,” features a similar singsong delivery, placing a heavy autotune-drenched, nearly whining chorus over a beautiful swirl of blackly ethereal synths. Area 34 synth bloops enliven the track as 808s thud in the background, making this happy-go-lucky rapper feel almost menacing, before beautiful, ethereal synth patterns rise in the latter half and elevate it from its former Hadean beginning.
Another standout track from the album is “100,000,” whose vocals feature xaviersobased melodically rapping in a double-track layered with an over-the-top operatic falsetto, and whose lengthy, lush synth passages are reminiscent of a George Clanton song. “Zelle You” is essentially two songs, split by an intermission before we hear a low-end, hushed reimagining of the opening section; that first half stands out on its own, particularly for the intimate, close-to-the-mic delivery. This kind of structural reworking isn’t new, as frequent collaborator and fellow 1c34 member tenkay employs a similar method on many of his freestyles.
The hazy “Heartfelt” has a jittery, funky beat, with sweet percussion notes contrasting with the gritty, hardcore rhymes from Detroit rapper Rio da Yung OG while the instrumental bears the fingerprints of frequent Drain Gang collaborators Woesum and Yung Sherman all over it, furthering the album’s similarities to the icy melancholy and synthetic aura long associated with the Sad Boys collective.
Speaking of storied producers, the streaming exclusive “Party At My Place” is a collaborative effort between internet legend and dubstep producer Skrillex and 100 gecs’s Dylan Brady. The genre-bending song pulls in elements from SOPHIE’s PC Music collective with crisp, explosive synths, before shifting in its latter half to a vocal breakdown where xaviersobased’s vocals are chopped beyond recognition, a sharp departure from the lo-fi vocal styling we usually hear from him.
For fans of xaviersobased’s oddball character and eccentric delivery like myself, Xavier is an elevation on all parts from his previous work, marking a natural transition into more ambitious production and genre-blurring experimentation. However, others may find themselves more disappointed. xaviersobased’s songwriting is certainly not profound, and some songs do tend to blend into one another. For some, the resulting amalgam may be a sloppy mess, but for the chronically online with “trained ears,” Xavier is heaven, Xavier is nirvana, Xavier is Red Shambhala.
