“In My Past Life, I Was a Nudist”: One Night in New York With Rapper BigXthaPlug

FRIDAY 10:06 PM NOVEMBER 7, 2024 GRAMERCY

BigXthaPlug performs best naked. The Houston-born rapper made it through just four songs at his concert last Thursday before he set down the mic and took off his t-shirt. “I hate clothes,” the 26-year-old explained. “I think in my past life I was a nudist.” On his latest mixtape, Take Care, the Texan bares it all in a different way. His usual in-your-face bravado gives way to occasional moments of tenderness, especially when rapping about his two young kids. At the New York stop on BigX’s North American tour, we caught up with the BigX backstage at the Gramercy Theater to talk about being vulnerable, having a blunt at the ready, and off-beat mosh pits. (“Now everybody just looks crazy,” he quipped).

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EMMA STOUT: You take your shoes off as soon as you finish a show?

BIGXTHAPLUG: Yes. I think in my past life I was a nudist.

STOUT: I mean, your shirt is off too. You’re halfway there.

BIGXTHAPLUG: I hate clothes. If I could walk around naked all day, I would.

STOUT: I’ve never seen a room full of grown men get so excited about a guy taking his shirt off.

BIGXTHAPLUG: I haven’t either. I don’t know how to feel about it when it happens.

STOUT: How do you decide when to do it?

BIGXTHAPLUG: You just kind of go based off of the intensity in the room. I know if it’s dying down, I can take my shirt off and it’s going to shoot back up. I wait until it mellows out.

STOUT: How are you feeling about being in New York?

BIGXTHAPLUG: I love New York. I got a distribution at UnitedMasters, so I’m always out here. It’s like a second or third home.

STOUT: You don’t think it stinks here?

BIGXTHAPLUG: Nah. I smoke a lot of weed, so a lot of the time it just smells like weed to me.

STOUT: I saw you smoking on stage. Do you come with it pre-rolled?

BIGXTHAPLUG: Yeah, all my weed already be rolled. They used to be rolled before I woke up. But now I’m here on tour by myself. I got to make sure they already rolled because you never know who’s going to piss you off. When they piss you off, just light the Backwood. You got to have it ready.

STOUT: How much did you smoke tonight on stage?

BIGXTHAPLUG: Oh, I had the same blunt on the stage. I ain’t even finish it.

STOUT: It’s a fat blunt.

BIGXTHAPLUG: It lasts me the whole time. I start smoking, but then I get into a song. Next thing I know I’m three or four songs in and I’m just holding it.

STOUT: It’s a good accessory.

BIGXTHAPLUG: No, for sure. Whenever I feel like I get overwhelmed or something on stage, I just light it up and I’m good again.

STOUT: Do you get nervous?

BIGXTHAPLUG: I don’t get nervous, but I think I’m just more vulnerable with this project. I damn near didn’t even want to drop some songs on the project, and now I’m performing these songs back to back. And I don’t even want nobody to know all this that I’m saying.

STOUT: Because it’s heavy?

BIGXTHAPLUG: Yeah, I’m not one of those people that… I’ll go through something and just hold it in. And here I am telling people my problems. That’s not what I do.

STOUT: You have a song called “Therapy Sessions.” What’s your preferred mode of therapy?

BIGXTHAPLUG: Smoking. I feel like once you smoke it doesn’t matter. Somebody could have done the worst thing possible to you. And it’s like, “All right, I’m going to let you. I’m good.”

STOUT: What’s on your tour rider?

BIGXTHAPLUG: Two bottles of 42, some wings, a pack of Twizzlers, Liquid Deaths, and some fruit. That’s it. But all I care about is the 42. And I don’t even drink that until after the show.

STOUT: Have you cracked it open yet?

BIGXTHAPLUG: Did they even give me 42 this time, or did they just give me a buyout?

MANAGER: Buyout.

BIGXTHAPLUG: This tour I’ve been trying to drink less.

STOUT: What’s a buyout?

BIGXTHAPLUG: Basically, they just pay you instead of getting what you need. They give you money.

STOUT: What would you not do for a bag? You said that you would start an OnlyFans if necessary.

BIGXTHAPLUG: Yeah, let me fall off. I’m slanging that motherfucker. But what would I not do? I don’t know. Anything that takes away from my character, I wouldn’t do. I got kids so I’ll damn near do anything to provide for my kids. If it’s something that I can’t stand on, I can’t do it. But I stand for a lot.

STOUT: In the middle of the show, you got a Facetime from your friend RoSama.

BIGXTHAPLUG: Yeah, we was in the middle of yesterday’s show and he got a text. It said, “I’m three centimeters dilated.” He pulled his phone out and showed it to me, and I told him to go. He didn’t even leave. We finished the show, and after the show it went from three to five centimeters. He was gone on the first flight back to Dallas. But they here, he got twin girls.

STOUT: I hope everything went well.

BIGXTHAPLUG: Everything’s straight. They’re preemies, so I just got to check in. My daughter was preemie and now she’s big and beautiful.

STOUT: Who else came on tour with you?

BIGXTHAPLUG: Everybody that signed to me.

STOUT: The 6ixers.

BIGXTHAPLUG: Everybody meeting the 6ixers on this tour. Me, Osama, Young Hood, MurdaGang PB. I brought people that’s in my circle. Eventually, I’m either going to fall off or retire, and they got to keep it going. I’m basically just preparing them for when I’m gone and everybody splits.

STOUT: Do you buy everyone a chain when you sign them?

BIGXTHAPLUG: Yeah, everybody got one. My cameraman got one. I didn’t sign him. My manager got one. Everybody heat. Everybody look good. I can’t be the only one shining. It makes me look bad.

STOUT: I was so impressed by you on stage. You’re a good dancer. You have movement.

BIGXTHAPLUG: You didn’t think a guy my size could do that type of shit? It’s okay. You can say it.

STOUT: I wasn’t even thinking that. Why didn’t you stage dive?

BIGXTHAPLUG: All right. Let’s state the obvious. If you were in the front and I looked at you and said, “get ready,” What would you do?

STOUT: I’m there. I saw the crowd moshing though. Do you like that?

BIGXTHAPLUG: Sometimes. It just depends on what it looks like. Sometimes they don’t have no rhythm, so they’ll jump on the wrong part of the beat. Now everybody just looks crazy. And they be in the moshpit like a tornado, bumping into each other. That’s cool. But to go in throwing bows—now I got to stop the show.

STOUT: Speaking of fights, who do you have between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul?

BIGXTHAPLUG: It’s Mike Tyson. The most ferocious. But it really just depends on if he gets in touch with his inner Tyson. Right now, he’s a good guy. I hope Jake Paul does something to piss him off.

STOUT: What’s in your Notes app right now?

BIGXTHAPLUG: Just raps that I wrote. I started rapping in a different day and age, so now I write in my Notes. But it used to be something… Oh, shit. Word.

STOUT: Microsoft Word?

BIGXTHAPLUG: Yeah.

STOUT: What’s the after party tonight? What are you doing after this?

BIGXTHAPLUG: Probably Starlet’s.

STOUT: Does New York have the best strip clubs?

BIGXTHAPLUG: No, but we going to make do.