Putting the BigX in Xanadu: Texas’ BigXthaPlug Takes Brooklyn at Billboard’s Hip-Hop Live

The most eye-popping, brightly-colored space to open this summer in Bushwick, Brooklyn has been Xanadu – “Xanadu Roller Arts” as it’s officially named. The 1,200-capacity roller skating rink, nightclub and music venue sports a large, round floor bathed in purple, pink and orange lights with multiple disco balls overhead. Next to a long bar, a food counter serves up nachos, hummus, three types of popcorn, six kinds of hot dogs, throwback cherry Icees, and just for a taste of Texas, the delicacy known as Frito Pie.

But on Friday, September 6, that wasn’t the only Lone Star State item on the menu. Putting the “X” in Xanadu was BigXthaPlug, Dallas’ homegrown real one with the booming voice and no-holds bars, who’s not only seen his career blow up in a short couple of years, but was recently named Amazon Music’s latest Breakthrough Artist. The occasion was Hip-Hop Live, part of Billboard’s Hip-Hop/R&B Power Players event, and the first live appearance by the Big Stepper from Big D since receiving the Amazon accolade.

“Light those phones up cause we got BigXthaPlug coming to the stage right now,” his DJ proclaimed just prior to the set, and there was a telling visual on the LED screen behind him: a floating crown. Any Brooklynite knows rap and the image of a crown conjures just one person: the legendary Notorious B.I.G. BigXthaPlug – at an imposing 6’ 2” and large enough to have once contemplated a football career – has always leaned into his girth. But just in case anyone on the packed Xanadu floor missed the connection, his hype man, by way of an intro, drove it home: “You know who was the last biggie in the world that went crazy? Biggie Smalls, from New York City! Am I right? So light this up!”

BigX bounded on stage to the strains of 2023’s “Back On My BS,” the lead track on BigX’s late-2023 EP The Biggest, one of two projects that took the rapper to No. 1 that year on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums chart, along with his debut LP, Amar.

A dozen songs in a half hour set doesn’t leave a lot of time for chit-chat, and Xavier, decked out in an all-white track suit (the shirt came off only three songs in) prowled the stage as he launched into a string of his most notable, including last year’s celebratory “Climate” (“These diamonds they shinin’”) and earlier hits “Mr. Trouble” and “Big Stepper” – tracks that maintain the bounce but allude to the rapper’s past support for himself and his young son. In the most-told story of BigX’s hardscrabble background, it was while locked up in solitary confinement that he began getting serious about writing lyrics – partly to preserve his “sanity” – and pursuing rap full-time upon his release.

He hasn’t looked back, and is currently topping Amazon Music’s Rap Rotation, thanks to his latest, another typically rowdy plus-sized flex that picks up where The Biggest left off: “The Largest.” It takes aim at his detractors, has its indulgences – “30K on my wrist for the hard times” but also talks of just building the simple necessities: “Told my BM to furnish the crib / Walk out the mall with some shoes for the kids.” “The Largest” came five songs into Friday night’s show and the fact that most of the audience immediately knew the relatively new tune was another promising sign of BigX’s endurance, as “The Largest” is the first taste of BigX’s second full-length, rumored to be out this fall.

Then it was time to move. No song in BigXthaPlug’s catalog was more suited for the disco-fied setting of Xanadu – those mirror balls just begging to be lit up – than the Amar album’s  “Whip It,” with gangster verses over the unmistakable sound of the 1972 electro-funk essential by The Dazz Band, “Let It Whip.” (The song’s video had BigX and dancers in head-to-toe Seventies drip, afros and all). The track is a reminder that no small part of the rapper’s most infectious tunes have come from collaborating with producers – including Tony Coles, BandPlay, and Charley Cooks – who laid the MC’s bellowing bars over a classic jazz, funk or soul track. “Levels” features 21^st Century’s 1974 “Remember the Rain”;” Isaac Hayes’ 1970 “Ike’s Mood” is sampled on “Big Stepper;” and Shuggie Otis’ 1971 “Sweet Thing” opens “Texas;” while the aptly named “Badu Flow” features Queen Erykah’s 2000 “Didn’t Cha Know.”

Most memorably, the approach worked on the irresistible “Mmhmm,” BigX’s first Billboard Hot 100 entry and his highest charting single to date. Officially released nearly a year ago, in October of 2023 (it had already had significant club play before), its basis is The Whispers’ 1979 “And The Beat Goes On.” Nineties heads may remember the song as also sampled in Will Smith’s hit “Miami,” but these days it’s all BigX’s, and the opening notes gave the Hip-Hop Live crowd on hand an extra jolt – they joined the rapper on every word, including the call-and-response, “Uhhuh!” and “Mmhmm!” chorus.

From there on, it was nothing but net for BigX – or maybe a better metaphor, given his background, touchdowns. “Levels” followed, the upbeat, post-blow-up fan favorite that boasts, “I’m poppin’ like corn on a kettle,” and finally, “Texas” the twangy, mid-tempo monster that first put BigXthaPlug on the nation’s radar in 2022. Like many (most?) Texans, the rapper is not shy about repping for the sprawling state. While he’s mostly stood for Dallas – a welcome emissary for a city that’s had a divided hip-hop history and long lived in the shadow of Houston when it comes to Texas rap – he’s now more likely to embrace the state as a whole.

“I’m from Dallas,” he announced to the Xanadu crowd, most of whom likely knew that. “And I came all the way here to New York to show you how everything is in Texas!” The Northerners roared their approval, and again matched him verbatim, on the platinum-selling hit’s verses that call out Texas musical icons Beyoncé, Trae the Truth, Devin the Dude and the late Pimp C, and include the famous warning not to “mess with” the Lone Star State: “Ayy, we always strapped,” he spits. Big, brash and smart, and with just a little good-natured menace, not unlike BigX himself.

And with that the big man was off, to be followed by more southerners on the Billboard Hip-Hop Live bill: Tallahassee’s BossMan Dlow, and Beaumont, Texas’s Teezo Touchdown, awarded Rookie of the Year at Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop Power Players event only the night before. As for BigXthaPlug, there will be plenty more chances for the rest of the country to see him this fall, when the Big Stepper’s Take Care tour launches on October 25 and runs through mid-December. He’ll wind down 2024 in a major way, with an appearance at Rolling Loud’s 10^th Anniversary festival, in the city where the hip-hop mecca all began, Miami.