BIGGER Than TEXAS - BigXthaPlug

put Texas rap back on the map. Now, on the heels of a hypnotic album packed with hits, he's plotting to take his Lone Star appeal worldwide.

- Frazier Tharpe

“WouLD IT BE unprofessional if I picked up weed?”

BigXthaPlug is in the end zone of a long day. He caught a flight back to his hometown of Dallas from North Carolina—where he performed at DaBaby’s birthday bash amid a lineup of trap-rap all-stars that also included 50 Cent—then went straight from the jet to a four-hour photo shoot. Now he’s in his pickup truck, his six-foot-five O-line frame slumped behind the wheel, dreads tucked into the hood of his black sweatshirt, and we're barreling down the highway toward his house, where his baby daughter, her mother, and X’s mother are waiting to welcome him back home.

But first, a pit stop.

The liminal space between courting prestige situations and remaining prepared for “anything” is where BigX finds himself in the wake of delivering one of 2024's most anticipated—and, subsequently, one of its best-rap projects with Take Care, his sophomore album. Over the past couple of years, BigX—short for Xavier—has slowly but surely emerged on the front lines of hip-hop’s freshman class with a booming voice fit for a Star Wars villain, spitting earworm hooks over catchy songs with fresh flips over familiar samples. That his witty rhymes and nimble flows were coming out of Texas, hardly the epicenter of rap right now, inspired intrigue.

Embracing the Texas was what put X on the map: Surely, you've heard his 2022 ode to the Lone Star State, with lyrics saluting hometown heroes from Beyoncé to Devin the Dude and the all-encompassing enthusiasm for ATVs and MAC-11s. That song, “Texas,” landed on Amar, X’s debut album, which cemented him as one to watch. With Take Care, X isn’t just proving himself worthy of any self-respecting rap fan’s attention—he’s commanding it.