Stop Sleepin: XV

This Wichita, Kansas bred MC has everyone in the mixtape circuit buzzing about his talent and latest release Everybody’s Nobody, which was cosigned by the world famous DJ Enuff.

Having started rapping when he was 15, this 24 year old MC traces a lot of his unique sound to an East Coast influence, but don’t let that fool you into thinking he sounds like other NYC MCs.  XV is riding through the hip hop game in his own lane, and as he says, “only looking back to see how far he’s come.”

What separates XV from the other MC’s that have jumped onto the hip hop scene this year, is that he comes across as a somewhat nerdy kid from the Midwest who one day simply chose to pursue a career in hip hop.  Since XV is not a drug dealer and didn’t have an an extremely hard life (unlike most hip hop stars), he chooses to connect with fans that share his interest in video games, movies, and TV shows.

With his music, XV compares trying to make it in the music industry to high school, where he says he was also a “nobody” trying to be “somebody.”  To get a better feel for XV’s interests and personality, check out the intro videos he created that are spoofs off of Dos Equis’ “Most Interesting Man in the World” commercials:

Those videos sum up XV’s personality pretty well, but if your looking for a introduction that is a bit more professional, check out XV’s EPK. (Electronic Press Kit)

To get a sense of XV’s musical style, take a listen to “Everything’s Cool” off of his The Square in the Circle mixtape.  This tape helped XV gain the attention of internet bloggers everywhere, as well as to get the official co-sign from DJ Enuff:

XV uses this track to comment on the current hip hop artists who are killing the game, and how he doesn’t fit in with these hustlers, trappers, thugs, and party rappers who stay rockin’ in the club.  He feels a bit out of place, because XV raps about his personal interests which are very different than what you hear on the radio.  Speaking about his music and today’s hip hop fans, XV says:

“I Can’t even say Imma do this for the fans,
All they wanna do is dance,
It’s like what your parents always say,
If soulja boy jumped off a bridge we’d all be dead.”

That quote is a pretty hilarious effort to try and wake fans up to the way hip hop has become extremely commercialized.  It also challenges artists to be more creative with their lyrics and style.  XV feels as if a bunch of artists are simply biting the style of whomever is hot at the moment.

He finishes the track with a series of rhetorical questions for his audience:

“You may wonder, How you going to write raps if you don’t be up in the trap?
You may wonder, Man I thought you get fresh, then where your big chain at?
What about your street cred homie, didn’t you go to school?
I just wonder why all these fools think everything is cool!”

These questions reflect XV’s belief that hip hop is simply an artistic expression.  Due to this belief, XV will continue to express himself whether or not people respect the fact that he’s not fitting in with the hip hop artist stereotype.

Another mixtape that gave XV a tremendous amount of buzz was 40 Days and 40 Nights.  The name of this mixtape comes from XV deciding to send out  80 tracks over the course of 40 days and 40 nights, which he later comprised into the single mixtape.  A standout track from these 80 that shows XV’s personality and creative side is the track, “If I could Draw.”

Spitting off the concept of God taking away his rapping skills and replacing them with the ability to draw, XV takes us on an adventure into his mind and interests.  The impressive thing about this track is how easily XV is able to make us understand his passion for drawing.  He says at the beginning that this song sounds like some Sesame Street shit, however I think this track belongs on Reading Rainbow!

Those mixtapes are impressive, but XV’s best work lies within his latest mixtape entitled Everybody’s Nobody, which was released on July 31^st and reached over 10,000 downloads in only the first few days! This tape is full of impressive tracks, and makes a new listener ask themselves why they hadn’t discovered XV’s music earlier.  A topic that XV himself addresses with the track “Blinded,” as he spits, “Everybody been sleepin on me so long, you would think they would realize my dream.”

The track which shares the name of the mixtape itself, “Everybody’s Nobody,” displays XV’s skills on the mic.

XV also uses this track to comment on how the industry is being misguided by a bunch of “yes men” and mindless bloggers who are just saying what they know people want to hear:

“Everybody twitters and everybody blogs,
But nobody’s saying shit they just copy paste it all,
That’s how one person’s opinion become everybody’s thoughts,
When the blind leads the blind then everyone gets lost.”

XV goes on to explain whey he doesn’t really mingle with other artists and divas because he has found these people to be extremely fake.  It seems that people really need him now that he’s making a name for himself, but before they couldn’t care less.  (A lesson Mike Jones desperately tried to teach us a few years back!)

Other tracks from the tape such as “Vizzy Vizzy Vizzy”  and “Gobstopers,” show XV going  in over the new age sounding, bass heavy beats which thanks to Seven’s production, take XV’s music to the next level.

But don’t take my word for it, Listen to this mixtape now and experience XV’s sound for yourself: (trying to throw in as many Reading Rainbow references as possible!)

If your wondering what XV can do outside of mixtapes, give this video a glance that features XV with fellow up and comer J.Cole spitting a freestyle on DJ Enuff’s radio show!

With all of this buzz, XV is looking to sign a label deal and release his much anticipated album entitled, The Kid With The Green Backpack.  (This title comes from the nickname given to XV in high school by kids who didn’t know his real name).

Until that day comes, all we can do is stay tuned into XV’s blog TheCoolNiverse.com, and wait for this comic book, action figure, and video game obsessed “big kid” to let the whole world know exactly who the kid with the Green Backpack is!