Now usually, I like to start these off with a bit of an ambiguous intro, saying “oh
maybe I’m gonna like this rapper in the end, maybe I won’t”.
So as to not spoil how I feel.
That’s not happening today.
Of course I’m gonna be as fair and constructive as I can, but holy s**t, this is one of the
most challenging videos I’ve ever had to make, let me remind you that Total Xanarchy
made my twin, CDTVThaG, read a book rather than listen to
the music.
So let’s just get on with this.
To prepare for this video, I listened to Total Xanarchy, Xanarchy, Toothache, and CITGO.
So with that being said guys, this is CDTVProductions, (talking about that lil Sponsor button down
below) and
why is Lil Xan one of the worst rappers in the game?
Let’s find out.
Part 1: Voice
Now again, I’m tryna offer helpful criticisms here, but Xan’s voice is honestly best described
as uniquely annoying.
I really don’t know how he manages it, but his voice sounds equal parts irritating and
lazy at the exact same time, and I’m not quite sure how he does it.
Usually rappers are one or the other vocally, they’re either nasally and kinda annoying,
or mumbley and uninteresting.
But Xan is both at the same time.
The best comparison I could draw is he sounds like a baby with no charisma.
(Clip: Lil Xan “Who I Am”).
And that’s how he sounds on the majority of tracks.
Also sometimes he’ll go to either extreme, as there’s songs like F My Teachers where
he removes the baby-ish aspect of his voice completely, and because of that he just sounds
straight up lethargic, and songs like Diamonds where he definitely is less boring, but at
the expense of sounding horribly unbearable.
And don’t get me started on when he uses autotune man.
For some rappers, autotune is a great way to Mask their flaws and make their voice better,
but on tracks like No Love, the way Xan delivers his rapping just exaggerates the bad aspects
of his voice instead of hiding them.
(Clip: Lil Xan “No Love”).
So are there any examples or things that I do like about his voice?
Well there are a couple of tracks where somehow he just manages to make things work vocally.
For example, on Saved By the Bell, his delivery actually sounds nice, it’s more relaxed
in a way that really fits the tone of the song and matches the beat nicely.
This is helped by how it’s mixed too.
(Clip: Lil Xan “Saved By the Bell”).
I also think his delivery works decently on the song Far, that is until he starts slurring
everything.
Up until that point, it’s quite nice.
There’s a few songs I like his voice on, but it’s not enough to get him more than
a 2/10 here.
He really needs to find a way to make his voice work better, because at the moment it’s
bad in a pretty unique way.
Part 2: Flow
Xan’s Flow is a tough one, because I’m having a hard time identifying what his go
to flowing style is.
I mean the biggest issue is the fact that I can compare a lot of the flows he does to
other rappers, and that’s not something you really want.
Tick Tock sounds like it’s biting Playboi Carti with that single syllable flow.
Diamonds sounds like a cadence Lil Uzi would have, albeit delivered in a more grating tone
by Xan.
(Clip: Lil Xan "Diamonds").
And honestly, sometimes his verses don’t even sound like they really have a flow, a
lot of his stuff is just barely rhythmic murmuring.
Like where is the cadence on songs like Goth B***h or Pink Roses?
He just doesn’t rap in an interesting way on so many of his tracks, combine that with
his delivery and it’s a deadly combination in the worst way.
That’s not to say he never has good flows though.
For example, I think he provides a perfectly acceptable one on the song Shine Hard with
Rae Sremmurd.
(Clip: Lil Xan "Shine Hard").
At least that actually has a bit of a groove to it.
His best song, Betrayed also has a very nice flow on the first verse, and Heartbroke has
a cool flow throughout.
Most of the time though, his stuff just doesn’t sound impactful enough flow wise, it all sounds
kinda thrown together rather than nicely crafted.
I think I’ll give Xan a 1.5/10 here because there is a ridiculous amount he can do to
improve his flows.
Out of the 27 songs I heard from him, only a handful had engaging flows.
Part 3: Lyrics
Right guys, the camera angle has changed during this segment cause I need to be able to stand
and walk around during this s**t.
Every single time I’ve said that someone re-defines my definition of worthless rap
lyrics in this series, a new person comes along that sets the bar even lower.
But this might be the last time I say that, because Xan has driven it lower than its ever
been.
Look, if Lil Xan was watching this for some reason, I’d say this.
The way I see it man, you have 2 options.
Either hire a ghostwriter, or step your s**t up.
The purpose of what I’m saying here is not to roast Xan, I’m legit tryna give him advice,
because lyrically, his music is just embarrassing.
I am not asking you to become a complex lyrical rapper, I’m really not, all I want is something.
Because right now, his lyrics are devoid of any meaning, it’s so simplified that I actually
feel insulted when I listen to it.
Being an artist that is mainly focused on the vibe or creating an atmosphere is fine.
But it’s not an excuse for s****y songwriting.
If you’ve listened to any of his songs, you’ll know exactly what I mean.
If you’re gonna condemn Xan’s in one song, it’s not a good idea to promote every other
drug under the sun on the very next song on your album.
If you’re gonna rap over emotional beats, give me something emotional that’s personalized
to you.
If you’re gonna rap over a hard beat, give me something hard that’s personalized to
you.
Right now, he’s just not doing it, and because of that, it gives him absolutely 0 personality
or character.
Speaking of 0, that’s his score for this segment.
Yep, a nice flat 0.
Not once has he laid down a single verse that has engaged me, and that is pretty astounding.
Part 4: Beat Selection
Have you ever heard someone say that a rapper gets “carried” by their production?
Cause a lot of the time, Xan gets f*****g airlifted by his.
But hey, at least we have a somewhat positive segment in this video.
Straight away I will say Bobby Johnson is a fantastic producer, and has provided some
relatively simple but emotional sounding beats to Xan.
It’s a shame Xan can’t match the emotion of the instrumentals with his lyrics, but
nonetheless the underlying beat is great.
Betrayed, Deceived and Pink Roses all have these spacy pad sounds and they add this really
floaty feeling to the songs.
(Clip: Lil Xan "Betrayed").
He also produced the track Xanarchy, giving it a really upbeat vibe with the synths and
bell melody, so big shout outs to him.
Other favorite beats of mine here are No Love, Shine Hard and Moonlight.
Overall it’s mostly positive here, but the issue really comes in when Xan tries to rap
over beats that don’t suit him at all.
What beats am I talking about?
I’m talking about the dark, sinister ones that don’t suit him because he doesn’t
portray an intimidating rapper in the slightest.
A good example of this is OTW.
I think it’s produced pretty damn nicely, but it is not a good fit for Xan in any way
whatsoever.
(Clip: Lil Xan "OTW").
This is an issue as well on the songs Talixan (yes it’s actually called that), Been Bout
It, Wake Up and Tick Tock.
He raps over these beats fairly often, and it’s something that he needs to stop doing
in my opinion.
They don’t work with his voice or persona.
Overall though, like I said, it’s mostly positives for this segment.
I’m gonna give Xan a 7/10 for this beat selection, I just think he needs to work on
picking more suitable beats sometimes.
Part 5: Enjoyment
Hmmmmm I wonder if I’m gonna give him a positive score here?
I mean I’ve loved everything so far.
So, in terms of enjoyment, my ranking goes like this for his projects.
From favourite to least favourite, it goes Xanarchy, Toothache, Total Xanarchy, and in
last place CITGO.
I really wanted to put Total Xanarchy last because that album is just shockingly bad,
like Charli XCX had the best rap verse on your album!
but CITGO has nothing redeemable about it really.
It’s much shorter sure, but it has no highlights.
Xanarchy was definitely the easiest one to get through, so that’s why that takes my
favorite spot, and Toothache is basically Betrayed and 2 other tracks so it could be
worse.
Yeah, this was not a good one.
I’m being 100% serious when I’m saying this took so long because my head hurt every
time I tried to write the script.
His stuff panders to fake emos and teenage schoolgirls more than Twilight.
Seriously, songs with titles like “F My Teachers” have led me to believe that the
only possible fans of Xan must be teenage schoolgirls.
And if that’s true, and this is actually what some females listen to, I might change
my sexuality just to avoid you.
Lyrically he’s awful, inconsistent and struggles to follow a theme, his flows aren’t anything
unique and he delivers his vocals in a really irritating way.
There’s a select amount of songs he has that I’d say are alright, but the only one
I’m definitely gonna listen to more is Betrayed.
Xan is gonna score a 0.5/10 for all of these reasons.
It was really hard for me to have a good time with his music.
Part 6: Verdict + Ranking
So Lil Xan scores 11/50 as his overall rating for this video.
This unfortunately does not place him as the Worst Rapper in the Game, but it does put
him at number 20, the second to last spot, below Lil Pump and just above my 2007 God,
Soulja Boy.
You might think that sounds harsh, but I’d genuinely rather listen to Pump.
At least his energy and flows have been improving recently.
If we wanna look at this in a positive light, Xan has an insane amount of room for growth,
so that’s something.
So there you have it.
A painful experience, but it’s one I went through so the lucky ones of you who haven’t
went through it, don’t have to.
(Outro)