Houston native Craig Xen has lived in L.A. and Miami and worked with many of the new school of rap's key names, including Ski Mask The Slump God, Denzel Curry, XXXtentacion, and Pouya. Now, he has a mixtape on the way, and "Killa," produced by Diablo and featuring fellow rising star Yung Bans, is the first single.
The track has been racking up plays on SoundCloud but the video takes things to the next level, matching the wild energy with violent, colorful animations. The video was directed by Somber Somni, and you can watch it above. “Working with someone who loved their art as much as myself gave me the ease that I was in good hands," Craig Xen explains of working with Somni. "I knew when I got the first screenshots that it was going to be HARD as fuck. If anything it made me want to do a complete project in animation; being my own cartoon character!”
Craig Xen's Hell Bent mixtape drops May 18 via EMPIRE, and he tells us, “Working on this project, my life became my art. I recorded on bad and depressed days, and recorded on good and motivating days. I just never gave up until I couldn’t give anymore. I wanted to give a meaning and a voice to someone that would hear a song and hope it translated into emotion.” Pre-order Hell Bent here.
Check out Yung Bans' video for "Out" below too.
