By The Hip Hop Writer
Hip Hop Vibe Staff Writer
By way of San Diego, Young Lyxx is among the rappers on the Atlanta hip hop scene rising to fame. One of the hardest-working rising rappers in the game, Young Lyxx is putting on for San Diego and working with many of Atlanta’s biggest stars. Two months ago, he released his mixtape, LYXXTAPE, Vol. 1, hosted by Don Cannon.
Different from many other mixtapes out, Young Lyxx refrained from loading up on collaborations on the tape. Instead, Young Lyxx let his own work shine through and he featured a small number of guests. Young Lyxx did pay homage to his current city, with features from Atlanta stars, Yung Joc and Quez.
Hip Hop Vibe talked to Young Lyxx earlier today about his new mixtape. In the interview, Young Lyxx spoke on the LYXXTAPE, Vol. 1, his work with Don Cannon, and much more. During the interview, Young Lyxx explained all that he has going on in the game right now and what is coming next.
Read the entire interview below:
What was the concept behind LYXXTAPE, Vol. 1? Really, I thought of the name, itself, a few years ago. With everybody dropping mixtapes, I decided to do a “Lyxxtape.” As I began recording, I decided to really do the “Lyxxtape” because I do not rip other beats, I treat all my projects like albums and then LYXXTAPE, Vol. 1 really happened.
Of course, the title is a pun on your own name and the mixtape craze, why did you choose to take this route? I decided to take something and grow with it. Get the people used to it and, as the title evidenced, this is the first mixtape in a series and this is great branding for myself. The whole concept of this mixtape is me doing original music like an album, so I think people will really grab that concept as I do more volumes.
It has been two months since the project came out, do you like the feedback you have been getting? Yeah, I definitely like the feedback I have been getting. I know a lot of people were probably shocked by Don Cannon hosting the mixtape, but this project was big and there is a lot more in the works, music videos, shows, there is a lot of work in store.
Why did you choose to not have many guests on the project? I figured since this was my first big tape, I wanted to keep it authentic and work with people I really wanted to work with, as opposed to getting big names. This project was about my talents and about my craft and that is what I wanted to show.
Can you talk about the guests you do have on the tape, Yung Joc and Quez? Yes. It was pretty cool to work with them and I randomly got up with Yung Joc and he hit me up at 3 in the morning about a track and we knocked it out. Yung Joc has been cool with me for a whole and I was hanging out with Quez and I showed him a couple of tracks and then asked him to get on one, so he ended up doing it and we had a fun session. Having both of those guys was pretty dope. Quez is the only person I did not have the chance to work on the whole record with in the studio.
Will you be working on other projects with these guys? Right now, I am more focused on the promotion of LYXXTAPE. I have made a couple guest verses, but when I get back to recording my music, I see myself working with them in the future.
How did you and Don Cannon link up and begin working? Well, Don Cannon is someone I was running into a lot, since we both live in Atlanta. I was doing a lot of recording and then my manager knows him and then the bug was put in his ear about the tape and my plans, he liked the idea. Then, down in Austin at SXSW, we ran into each other and then we got back to Atlanta to begin working on the tape and he knocked it out. There was three different angles with me and my manager working on him and then him liking my music.
With Don Cannon being a mixtape legend, did you feel any additional pressure working with him? I definitely did and when he agreed to do the tape, I went back in to redo some of the songs on the tape. However, I did not feel the need to change my style of music. But, I had to step things up a little bit, it is crazy, I remember downloading one of his mixtapes and seeing him. So, when I got into music, I knew I wanted Don Cannon to host one of my major tapes, so him doing it is a dream come true.
What was that overall experience like and how did the project, as a whole, benefit? It definitely put me into a bigger category in the game. Don Cannon is a mixtape legend and having his stamp put me into a new bracket. Then, with me being from San Diego, I am the first from the city to have this kind of thing going, so it is definitely a good thing for me. The feedback has opened up a lot for me and now Don Cannon’s big fan base knows about me and hopefully they like what they see and hear, everything is good and it is only going to get better with time. So, the plan is to now continue to push this tape.
Where can fans connect with you online? Twitter and Instagram and I talk to my people. Just look up @YoungLyxx.
