Chart-topping Dallas rapper BigXThaPlug talks how his new album “I Hope You’re Happy” showcases how he’s expanding is artistry, creativity.
Dallas’ BigXThaPlug discusses ‘I Hope You’re Happy’ album
Chart-topping Dallas rapper BigXThaPlug discusses how his new album showcases how he’s expanding his artistry and creativity.
- Dallas rapper BigXThaPlug is releasing his third album, “I Hope You’re Happy,” which incorporates country music.
- BigXThaPlug’s foray into country music began after he jokingly announced a country project in a Billboard interview, leading to collaborations with artists like Jelly Roll.
- He embraced Nashville’s songwriting process, collaborating with artists like Darius Rucker and Luke Combs, resulting in a blend of rap storytelling and country sounds.
- His collaboration with Bailey Zimmerman, “All The Way,” reached No. 1 on the country charts and is gaining popularity on pop radio.
- BigXThaPlug aims to expand his musical reach across multiple genres, including pop, as evidenced by his song being featured on Beyoncé’s tour.
Dallas-born rapper BigXThaPlug will end the year having sold the equivalent of over 10 million singles over the past five years.
“I Hope You’re Happy,” his third album in five years, released August 22, adds country music to his repertoire of Southern pop sounds.
Don’t expect BigXThaPlug to roll out his country crossover draped in rhinestones like Lil Nas X or astride a white stallion à la Beyoncé.
“Dallas, Texas, is the concrete jungle, so I’m scared of bugs and ain’t never rode a horse,” the 27-year-old said. “But being a Southerner runs deeper than that. It’s about people who might not have the same sound or style, but share the same soul.”
He’s still very much the street-hardened hustler, not the polished Music Row insider. It’s been less than a decade since he was expelled from Minnesota’s Crown College for selling marijuana to fellow students and arrested for aggravated robbery.
Xavier Landum, whose stage name is BigXThaPlug, was arrested in Dallas County, Texas on charges of marijuana possession of less than two ounces and unlawful possession of a firearm on Aug. 22 — his album’s release date.
Landum said he first pitched a country project as a joke during a Billboard magazine interview in 2024.
“Everyone looked at me, surprised,” Landum said. “Then, when people like Jelly Roll read the interview, he started shouting me out directly in interviews, saying he wanted to collaborate. Then other country artists started reaching out with open arms. That’s when my team and I realized we had to do it.
“Like the classic R&B I grew up listening to, these are songs with catchy hooks, but they also have substance and meaning and tell a story.”
Transitioning into Nashville’s music scene was surprisingly seamless for Landrum.
“It’s ridiculously crazy,” he said. “For many Nashville artists, before I even started coming to town to write the songs on my new album, I was already their favorite rapper. I can walk into Losers (in Midtown) and there’s Ernest, or I can be in a songwriting room and there’s Ella Langley and I’m getting as much love from them as I get from people in my hometown.”
Songs like his duet with Langley for the antagonized heartbreak ballad “Hell at Night” didn’t arrive from hastily scribbled writings, punching in adlibs and hooks over chopped up vocal tracks, or committing the hottest 16 bars of a freestyle session to memory.
For Landum, stepping into Nashville’s songwriting rooms was initially “stressful” because he felt pressure to prove himself to top-tier writers like Ben Johnson, ensuring they weren’t “wasting their time” on an artist still untested beyond country radio norms and long-held genre stereotypes.
For his part, Johnson said working on songs for “I Hope You’re Happy” with Landum was “magical.”
“It’s amazing to see people now coming to Nashville from different cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds with unique musical tastes,” Johnson said. “But when we get in the songwriting room, our shared love of music is the one language we unify to speak. Writing with BigX on ‘All The Way’ (yielded a hit) because it was a magical experience.”
The result is a collection of songs, like the album’s title duet with Darius Rucker and the Luke Combs collaboration “Pray Hard,” that blend power-pop guitar riffs with soaring, unmistakably country choruses. Beneath the hooks lies the heart of the project: raw, unfiltered storytelling delivered with the cadence and conviction of someone who’s lived every word.
“All of these songs arrived because of patiently following country’s long, drawn-out songwriting and production processes,” Landum said. “Following what people are already doing with genre-bending songs and projects, along with how I understood (country’s processes), allowed for what I feel like are perfect songs to develop.”
BigXThaPlug infuses Houston roots into ‘I Hope You’re Happy’
Though unfamiliar and initially uneasy with Nashville’s songwriting process, BigXThaPlug found sonic footing thanks to fellow Texas native Tony Coles, one of several producers shaping the album’s sound. Coles builds tracks that feel like they were born from crate-digging at a family barbecue — pulling grooves from dusty vinyl and old-school CDs to craft rap hits with soul.
His past work includes flipping instantly recognizable samples like the Dazz Band’s “Let It Whip” for “Whip It,” War’s “Slippin’ Into Darkness” for “The Largest,” Carl Carlton’s “She’s a Bad Mama Jama” for “Meet the 6ixers,” and The Whispers’ “And the Beat Goes On” for “Mmhmm.” On this latest project, Coles blends those nostalgic textures with swampy Southern soul and red-dirt grit, creating a sound that’s both familiar and fresh.
But Landum’s connection to country runs deeper than production choices. His platinum-selling 2022 breakout “Texas,” built on Shuggie Otis’ bluesy, psychedelic soul track “Sweet Thang,” already hinted at his Southern lineage. With shoutouts to Texas icons like Beyoncé, Pimp C, Devin the Dude, Trae tha Truth, and Z-Ro, plus nods to Houston’s syrup-soaked street culture, the song is a sonic love letter to the Lone Star State, and proof that country’s spirit has long been in his DNA, even if he doesn’t wear the label.
“I didn’t like the beat or the concept because I thought it sounded clichéd and corny. But my team felt like it was something that could be good. So I just said, “B**** I’m from Texas, we made the rest of the song and obviously, it went crazy.”
BigXThaPlug collaborates with Shaboozey, Bailey Zimmerman, more
By August 29, BigXThaPlug’s Shaboozey collaboration “Home” is poised to break into the top 40 on the pop charts.
Meanwhile, the album’s lead single, the Bailey Zimmerman duet “All The Way,” will be three months removed from topping the country sales chart and is now spinning in full rotation on pop radio nationwide.
In June, Landum made a surprise appearance during Zimmerman’s Sunday night set at CMA Fest, electrifying a crowd of 50,000 die-hard country fans.
“CMA Fest is different than even playing Coachella or Rolling Loud. The artists support each other the same way the fans in the crowd do,” he said.
“In country music, I’m going to grow with my peers,” said the rapper, whose album features Zimmerman, Luke Combs, Jelly Roll, Ink, Ella Langley, Shaboozey, Tucker Wetmore and veteran performers Thomas Rhett and Darius Rucker.
“I want to be an artist capable of conquering every style of music, regardless of genre. Like how boxers work their way through multiple weight classes to be declared the best, I want to work the same way through rap, country, every genre that I can.”
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.tennessean.com ’
