\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div> \n\tWhen we arrive at the gym, we head to a multipurpose fitness space, where Shadow, BigX\u2019s personal trainer and body\u00adguard, leads a full-body circuit. With Pooh Shiesty blaring from a speaker, BigX and the rest of us go through 30 seconds at each station: lunges, throwing a medicine ball up a wall (then slamming it on the ground), dumbbell \u00adlateral raises, a cardio step-up workout, shadow boxing, and more lunges. Nobody seems to notice Dallas\u2019 most popular rapper is getting his reps in.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tShadow suggests an ab workout.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThat\u2019s overdoing it,\u201d BigX replies.<\/p>\n \n\tShadow insists. \u201cJust a little bit \u2014 you\u2019re gonna lie on the floor.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cMy client is only human,\u201d says CJ, BigX\u2019s younger brother.<\/p>\n \n\tShadow isn\u2019t taking no for an answer.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cYou not dying,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \n\t<\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t be one of the best artists in the world and have only done one genre,\u201d BigX Surmises.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n \n\t\u201cPhysically, I am,\u201d BigX says, as the pair erupt in laughter. \u201cMentally, I just know I\u2019m not dying, so I\u2019m not complaining. But physically, I\u2019m going through it.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tBigX\u2019s nickname isn\u2019t a coincidence: The former college football player is still stout enough to compete on the gridiron. Nowadays, he works out four days a week, a routine he began last year. He changed his diet, dropping from around 470 pounds to 425 while regaining some muscle. He wants to hit his ideal weight \u2014 350 pounds \u2014 so he can wear clothes that better show off his style. \u201cAll I\u2019ve been doing has been muscle memory from me playing football,\u201d he says. \u201cSo now I\u2019m finna get my body back right.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tJelly Roll<\/a>, his friend and collaborator on the 2025 track \u201cBox Me Up,\u201d recently underwent his own radical weight loss. I ask if he gave BigX any tips. \u201cHe\u2019s like [my] unc,\u201d BigX says. \u201cSo any time I\u2019m around him, it\u2019s more of like a \u2018Bub, this is what I feel like you should do. I smoke healthier. I eat healthier. I walk every day.\u2019 He\u2019s trying to put me on game.<\/p>\n \t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n \n\t\u201cIf we\u2019re being honest,\u201d he admits, \u201cI don\u2019t know why I\u2019m in this gym. Like I said, I feel like I look good already. I know I\u2019m healthy. I don\u2019t eat crazy, stupid shit. It\u2019s more of a mental thing. It\u2019s something I said I\u2019m finna do.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tWhen BigX, 27, sets his mind to something, he sees it through \u2014 to life-changing results. Case in point: After years of making rap music brimming with raw authenticity and regional pride, he decided to release a full-on country-rap album last year, I Hope You\u2019re Happy<\/em>. BigX\u2019s country debut came at a time when country-rap crossovers are more popular than ever (Moneybagg Yo and Morgan Wallen\u2019s \u201cWhiskey Whiskey,\u201d Quavo, Luke Bryan, and Teddy Swims\u2019 \u201cGeorgia Ways,\u201d and Graham Barham\u2019s \u201cOil Money\u201d come to mind), but BigX did something no other artist had done: The album\u2019s lead single, \u201cAll the Way,\u201d featuring country star Bailey Zimmerman, became the first song ever to top both Billboard\u2019<\/em>s Hot Country Songs and<\/em> Hot Rap Songs charts.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tA cross between the polished hooks of Nashville\u2019s hit factory and hip-hop\u2019s vivid street-life tales, I Hope You\u2019re Happy<\/em> introduced BigX to a new fan base and has allowed him to check off some impressive milestones: Billboard\u2019<\/em>s Country Power Players Innovator; a Ryman Auditorium performance in Nashville; closing out the CMA Awards with Luke Combs, performing their song \u201cPray Hard.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n \n\tBigX made the album after a breakup, opening up about his feelings of resentment by exploring the heartbreak-and-whisky ethos of country music. After several albums full of cinematic street rap, BigX spent more than a year and a half immersing himself in Nashville\u2019s meticulous songwriting process. He was learning to be vulnerable as a songwriter, pouring out all of his emotions as a heartbroken narrator on the title track, with Darius Rucker, which set the direction for the album.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \n\tIt was a risk to drop a country album, and BigX knew he might face ridicule for swerving outside of his lane. But his country appeal was always there, heard on songs like \u201cTexas\u201d \u2014 a 2022 track full of steel guitar, home-state repping, and, in the video, BigX rocking a cowboy hat \u2014 and his cameo on Shaboozey\u2019s \u201cDrink Don\u2019t Need No Mix.\u201d His pivot was met with little resistance, especially when Jelly Roll brought him out as a surprise guest at the country-dominated Stagecoach festival in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tCombs gave BigX some words of wisdom after he doubted his acceptance in country music. \u201cIn my head, they can\u2019t be fucking with me for real,\u201d BigX remembers thinking. \u201cBut he was the one who was telling me, \u2018As much as you feel like they don\u2019t want you here, they want you here. So get that out of your head.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tBigX says he wants to be the best artist in the world. To him, this meant he had to venture outside of hip-hop: \u201cYou can\u2019t be one of the best artists in the world and have only done one genre.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cBeyonc\u00e9, a GOAT, a queen,\u201d he continues. \u201cShe\u2019s done pop, country. Lil Wayne: rock, pop. Snoop Dogg did songs with Katy Perry and shit. All these people are greats, from Eminem to Dr. Dre to Ice Cube. Everybody has stepped out of that lane.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tI Hope You\u2019re Happy<\/em> marked the high point of his country era \u2014 and the end of it. He vows that his next project will be a return to rap form, fueled by his competitiveness to conquer the genre that made him: \u201cI just feel like right now, I got unfinished business. I\u2019ve done more in country than I have hip-hop-wise. Country Innovator of the Year \u2026 I\u2019ve never even been to the fucking BET Awards.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t<\/p>\n \u201cEverybody has a purpose. My purpose is my family.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n \n\tTHE SKIES HAVE TURNED GRAY and rainy as we head back to Big X\u2019s estate, part of a private neighborhood on acres of tranquil land. This is a multigenerational home: BigX\u2019s grandmother Angela; his mom, Courtney; his son, Carter; and two-year-old daughter, Leilani \u2014 whom they affectionately call \u201cBird\u201d \u2014 all live here, along with three of his siblings. A massive island in the kitchen offers ample space for gathering, overlooking the woodscape and creek just beyond the back door.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tYouTube videos of BigX\u2019s songs play on a mounted television that has an IKEA x Virgil Abloh \u201cKeep Off\u201d rug underneath. Angela, a former bodybuilder, has portioned out food for everyone: mashed potatoes with beef and corn, topped with gravy, along with a side salad on the counter. Lemonade Kool-Aid fills a pitcher. On a shelf sits a mini version of a platinum plaque for BigX\u2019s 2023 album, Amar,<\/em> next to a photo of him labeled \u201cEmployee of the month.\u201d There are paintings of BigX throughout the house, gifts from fans. He is the centerpiece here, surrounded by his loved ones.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \n\tBigX decides to hang back at home after the gym, letting me know he\u2019s going to disappear for a bit to shower. The rapper, who is generally in constant motion, has remained dormant this week after a New Year\u2019s Day shooting outside of an after-hours club where he was in attendance.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tInstead, Shadow, Courtney, Angela, and BigX\u2019s youngest sister, Zyon, offer to take me on a tour of Ferris and Pleasant Grove, the nearby neighborhoods that shaped BigX\u2019s music. As we pull into a gas station in the Escalade, Courtney and Angela start sharing stories of his upbringing.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tBorn Xavier Landum, he played football from age five to 18. It kept him out of trouble. He played on both the defensive and offensive lines, and was strong enough to flip giant tires across the field at age 13. \u201cHe was just that popular little boy,\u201d Courtney says. \u201cEverybody wanted to hang around him \u2014 or fight him. They wanted something to do with him, so I knew he was going to be something. Whatever it was, he was going to be big.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThen we got to the teenage years, and I just thought I failed,\u201d she says, laughing. In a past life, Courtney dealt drugs. BigX\u2019s father, Bay, served time in prison for a stretch of BigX\u2019s childhood.<\/p>\n \n\tWe barrel down U.S. 75 toward Ferris. In the front seat, Zyon throws on recent BigX songs \u201cMeet the 6ixers\u201d and \u201c600 Degrees.\u201d Courtney raps along. A few highway changes later, we get to the low-income housing unit where the family lived for 13 years in the 2000s. With nothing but brown flats, a grocery store, and gas stations within walking distance, there\u2019s not much for distractions in Ferris; for Courtney, the housing offered a chance for some stability for her son.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWhen they were little \u2014 [BigX] was maybe nine, and the girls were six, five, whatever \u2014 we would sit around and rap,\u201d Courtney remembers. \u201cMy oldest daughter would do the beat, and me and my son would battle it out\u2026. Never knew it was nothing serious, but he had something in him.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cSo when he started rapping and he was cold,\u201d she continues, \u201cI was like, \u2018Ah, you got that from your mama!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \n\tWhen Xavier was 16, he\u2019d be gone for \u201cthe whole day,\u201d as Courtney puts it. She\u2019d drive around looking for him, and often find him in the same spot: the 600 block of Meadowridge Street, which is where we head to next. This was where the neighborhood kids hung out, and it gave rise to BigX\u2019s label, 600 Entertainment. \u201cIt\u2019d be like 20 guys outside, and you knew Xavier\u2019s in the middle of that circle,\u201d she recalls. Later, he\u2019d shoot the mic-drop performance of his 2021 track \u201cSafehouse\u201d here.<\/p>\n \n\tCourtney tells Shadow to head to South Buckner Boulevard. She recalls where she met BigX\u2019s dad, and points out the apartment she lived in when she was 18 and BigX was three. Next, she nods to an apartment building with neutral exteriors and an unassuming look; this is where she lived when BigX was between five and six. These are the apartments he raps about on his standout track \u201cThe Largest\u201d: \u201cSafe to say I\u2019m the biggest, the largest\/Been steppin\u2019 on shit since my mama stayed in them apartments, regardless.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tCourtney has some regrets: namely, that she struggled to pay rent and resorted to dealing drugs. She reminisces about the family\u2019s worst days. \u201cAll I can do is laugh,\u201d she tells me. \u201cHalf this shit you gonna have to turn that recorder off for. On my soul, I\u2019m not playing.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAngela chimes in. \u201c[Courtney] called me one day and said, \u2018The microwave isn\u2019t working. How do I heat my food up?\u2019 I said, \u2018Oh, my God, she\u2019s never going to make it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n
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\nHoundstooth vest pants custom 5001 Flavors
\nSneakers Adidas Willie Chavarria x Compton Cowboy superstar shoe. Extras from left: (Martin) Top via HOLLYWOOD EXOTIC SHOP, Shorts by GUESS USA. Belt and Necklace by AMAZON FASHION. Boots by RICHALNINI.(Tondreau-Liu) top, belt, necklace,Earrings by AMAZON FASHION. Shorts by GUESS USA. (Solay) top by House of CB.
\nshorts and boots by GUESS USA. Belt by AMAZON FASHION.<\/span><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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