“Xavier,” xaviersobased’s studio debut album, is the cloud rapper’s latest release, dropped on Jan. 30. It was oddly fascinating, to say the least; however, the album maintained consistency with xaviersobased’s previous discography. The producer’s style consists of experimental mumble and cloud rap, analogous to Bladee, Yung Lean and the general Drain Gang collective.
Instrumentally, the tracks are breathtaking. Songs such as “100,000,” “Give It Up” or “Negative Canthal Tilt” are astounding in both beats and melody — filled with dreamy piano rolls and bass-boosted beats. Every song in the album is ethereal in production and overall melody. Xaviersobased’s talent is definitely demonstrated in each melody, given that the album never sounds like repetitive mush — at least instrumentally.
Unfortunately, xaviersobased eventually starts rapping. The rapper’s vocals drown in effects such as reverb, autotune and delay — oversaturating the experience. The ad-libs are often unfit for the style of the song; they are disarranged and do not complement the track whatsoever. The rapper’s voice breaks with the insane amount of autotune — even if his style of music is known for its excessive autotune. In the opening song for the record, “I Don’t Gotta Say It,” xaviersobased begins with a potent and angelic intro, but then starts vocalizing using an autotune that makes his voice turn into a weird vibration.
The flow of his voice did not seem to change with the tempo of the song. Instead, it seems he was spitting run-on sentences in every single track. It was challenging not to compare some of the songs on “Xavier” to the songs of parody rapper, Yuno Miles. The satirical rapper uses low quality renderings of rap songs that reference Gen-Z slang or situations, all while having horrible lyrics and instrumentals. “Zelle You” and “iPhone 16” sound exactly like something Miles would sing, only with higher microphone quality, mixing and mastering.
The quality of music should not be defined solely by its rhymes, but having proper lyrics does elevate the listening experience. The album’s lyricism is overall indecipherable and often strange. An example of this would be a bar on “iPhone 16” that says, “They been trying to steal my swag since I was sixteen / I just blocked a bitch ‘cause she was sixteen.” Lyrically, the best songs on the record are “Dat Shit Fr” and “Minute,” having a more tolerable flow in the verses.
Had it been any other rapper on the mic, the aura of the album would have definitely been altered for the better. With the overwhelming vocals, the album feels like a very bad trip.
Xaviersobased definitely has extravagant skill as a producer, given that this album shows growth in comparison to his previous albums despite the fact that those records already had a prominent quality of production. Regardless of his skill, his hypnotizing instrumentals are completely drowned by his fear-inducing vocals.
