Photography by Jonathan Mannion
xaviersobased is the latest FADER cover star. In addition to being the 22-year old rapper and producer’s first cover story, this also marks the return of digital covers to The FADER since 2024.
The story — written by Ben Dandridge-Lemco and shot by Jonathan Mannion — revealed new insights to the Xavier rapper’s life and backstory. Here are a 8 key takeaways from xaviersobased's FADER cover story.
Xavier is xaviersobased’s major label debut
Xavier, released January 30 on Atlantic Records, was Xavier’s major label debut, following a 2 year period without full length releases. The album continues the development of Xavier’s signature style, defined by surprising and “jagged” synths, pulsating 808s and out of the box samples (like 2024’s “fix my mind” which features the sound of a Mac startup).
He’s upping the sound quality on the new album (some old songs were recorded on a gaming headset). “I'm still pushing the sound, but now we could put this in the club,” he tells The FADER. “Make it more — not accessible — but just package it better.”
Xavier reflects on the Upper West Side’s gentrification
Dandridge-Lemco reports on Xavier’s upbringing in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, writing:
He grew up in the Upper West Side near Riverside Park where his mother’s side of the family, who emigrated from the Dominican Republic, has lived for the last 40 years. "It's still at the ending stages of gentrification," Xavier says of the neighborhood. "So it's a weird in-between."
Photography by Jonathan Mannion
Xavier was early on the Fakemink wave
Xavier was already collaborating with the newly minted British underground super star, Fakemink, before his rise in 2022. He expresses his love for discovering new music and “just searching for it" to The FADER.
Xavier grapples with “TikTok music” and internet irony
Though Xavier’s music thrives on TikTok, he definitely doesn’t consider himself a TikTok artist, or particularly strategic about his social strategy. “A lot of people from the outside looking in look at it like it’s some TikTok shit when I feel like I never really played into it, on some trying to play the algorithm. That's why it grew how it grew.” he tells The FADER.
Xavier’s grandma saw his live show mayhem
Dandridge-Lemco reports that he watched Xavier’s uproarious Webster Hall show beside Xavier’s own grandmother. “She has her phone turned sideways, following her grandson across the stage with its camera,” Dandridge-Lemco writes. “While Xavier skips and grooves from one side of the room to the other, and the sea of kids in front of him lose their minds, I watch the whole thing through her phone screen.” It’s a family affair, no matter how brain tingling and bass heavy the music is.
Photography by Jonathan Mannion
Tony Hawk’s Underground: Pro led him to form his music crew, 1c34
Stuck inside in the 2020 pandemic, Xavier recruited his friends from playing “Tony Hawk’s Underground: Pro to be a part of 1c34, a gaming clan turned music group that laid the foundation for his own musical world.”
Xavier is a go kart aficionado
Xavier’s FADER interview took place partially at Supercharged Entertainment in New Jersey, where Xavier had his birthday and where he had visited just two weeks prior. In the story, Supercharged Entertainment is described as a “Dave & Buster’s on steroids,” reportedly featuring “largest indoor go-karting track in the world.” “When the light turns green, Xavier is the first out of the gate. I don’t see him on the track for the rest of the race,” Dandridge-Lemco writes.
Read the entire xaviersobased cover story, here.
