We recently connected with DeAngelo Xavier and have shared our conversation below.

DeAngelo, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

I’ll rephrase my answer by saying the most impactful project I’ve worked on was my latest album, Gone Fishing. My whole career I’ve done albums with the mindset of figuring out how to please everyone else. Appealing to the listener is of course important but I felt like catering to myself was more significant, you know what I mean? I wanted to create something that I was genuinely proud of. Something that I felt I could present to the world knowing that I can make an impact by being myself and letting other inspired artist know that you don’t have to follow this trend of doing what’s popular to make it.

Prime example, I’ve been placed on a few big stages with big name artists since the release of the album. I opened up for Benny the Butcher, Rome Streetz, Stove God & Smif N Wessun since the album released.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

The Rap God. I’m Shao Kahn of rap,

I got into music because of someone else believing that I could do it. I was into sports at the time I started recording. Never had dreams of being a rapper, know what I’m saying. My vocabulary was nice though and I think that’s why my friend from high school wanted me to get into music.

I didn’t know nothing about recording or writing songs back then. I knew how to write poetry but that don’t have nothing to do with the technical side of rapping, recording in a studio or rhyming on beats. So it took me about a year and a half to really learn how to become an “artist”. It took a while for me to truly learn my voice and what I wanted to create musically. I wanted to study the game and how my favorite rappers growing up did it. I had to learn different patterns and cadences to perfect my flow, know what I mean?

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Just being in a space where you can be yourself. You don’t have to fabricate anything because it’s your own personal expression.

It’s always a motto that I follow, “nobody can be you, except you”

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My drive comes from my past failures. I played football in high school, talented but didn’t make it to college. Ran track, played baseball and basketball but didn’t make it out of high school. So when I found my true calling in music, I stuck with it and I’ve been making my stamp.

I also want to find a way to break this generational curse. A lot of people in my family had what it took to become something big but always found a way to fall short. I’m not trying to be the next victim, know what I mean?     

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/deangeloxavier
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/_deangeloxavier?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DeAngeloXavierMusic?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/_deangeloxavier
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@_DeAngeloXavier

Image Credits
Avery Vereen