Before you start reminiscing on the good old days of Kashpaint beats and Tenkay collabs, please don’t write off xaviersobased yet. Yes, the new once more EP is his major label debut. No, that does not mean he’s the next SoFaygo. That doesn’t mean he’s the next Travis Scott, either. Because of xavier’s singular, ragtag approach, the Manhattan rapper-producer’s trajectory feels unmappable. You’d almost expect him to stay unsigned forever on some casual Underground Legend shit, flooding SoundCloud with loosies that jolt, restart, slow down, and speed up with reckless abandon. But the same kid whose cabalistic, devil-may-care cloud rap once yielded “far” and “dancer” and “vibrator” has been fine-tuning his work into something more legible, particularly since his acclaimed coming-of-age tape, Keep It Goin Xav, dropped last January. The writing has been on the wall for a minute now.
Today xaviersobased is an Atlantic signee fresh off of a gleeful Lollapalooza debut. Sure, circumstances have changed. But musically, he remains true to himself. If once more’s slaphappy heaters indicate anything, it’s that xavier isn’t sacrificing his sound to sit next to Zack Bia at the Illuminati banquet (at least not yet). Many of the idiosyncrasies that have colored his work for years sound sleeker than ever: Peep how the 808s sync up with the cymbal crashes on “ion kno” (like on “what r we posed to b”) or how “fly” is built around these strange, airtight loops you can’t help but jig to (like on “why evenbother”). “worth it”’s jumpy synth stabs kick off and circulate at such an awkward point, you would think xav recorded his verses in the middle of a malware infection. No matter how strange the textures or how daunting the pocket, he almost always manages to turn it into something irresistible and dancey. It’s the core of his appeal.
The most awe-inducing moment on once more is “uncomfy,” a shoegaze-inflected track with OsamaSon that stands head-and-shoulders above the rest. Shoegaze, as it’s practiced by young rappers and bedroom musicians in 2025, is predicated mostly on loud, vacuous guitar crunch. I feel like a lot of the kids are misguided. Shoegaze’s droning, amorphous euphoria is equally crucial; the so-called “wall of sound” is meant to seep into you, not bombard you. With “uncomfy,” xavier and NYC producer nurse distill this elusive feeling of bliss at the heart of a beat you can Harlem shake to. The claps, click-clacks, and snare hits bring the EP’s smiley kineticism to a fever pitch, all while reverb-slicked guitars and feedback tones whir away in the distant background. It’s one of the most ingenious beats I’ve heard this year.
