From working at Walmart to working with his favorite artists, the 19-year-old is seeing his dream realized
Upgrading your primary means of transportation from a skateboard to a plane is a measure of success unique to DIY artistry. While the larger hip-hop come-up trope has the potential to be trivialized by an increasingly suburban presence, the story of 6obby suggests that the narrative hasn’t been watered down, but simply shifted perspective. Hailing from Graham, Texas (population 10,000) the rapper engulfed himself in music in a place of desolation. Saying that 6obby has not been shy about divulging his struggles is an understatement, with his music serving as snapshots of true-life events marked by being doubted by others, and at times, doubting his own existence. Having defied the odds by doing things his way, 6obby strives to provide a thread of hope in his new music, but he has hardly forgotten where he’s come from.
“The biggest thing we have there is Walmart if that tells you anything,” 6obby says of Graham, a town near Wichita Falls in the North Central region of the state. “I didn’t really have a lot of friends growing up, so I would just chill at home most of the time or go smoke or skate at the elementary school right behind my house because there wasn’t anything to do.” Despite the professional-quality Tom and Jerry tattoo on his neck that surely required an ID to get, everyone from fans to gas station attendants tends to view him as a high school student. 6obby, however, recently turned 20 in July. is homebody status has been a consistent theme throughout his life, which facilitated his dedication to music. Even as a teenager, he kept a regimented schedule that would ultimately take him one step closer to his dreams. “I would just wake up every day, get ready for school, hate my life, and then right after school I’d have to go into work at Walmart right after,” he says as he recollects wandering the aisles of the electronic section, envisioning what song he’d write next. “I’d get home and work on music literally all fucking night and every check I’d get would go back into the equipment and shit that I needed.”
In addition to the motivation felt by the lack of career prospects in Graham, 6obby was inspired by the culmination of post-hardcore and mainstream rap that defined his generation. Asking Alexandria, Bring Me The Horizon, Taylor Gang, and Chief Keef were kept on rotation, laying the groundwork for the crossover style he performs today. There was one pivotal night with a skater buddy during his sophomore year that thrust 6obby into the world of underground rap. “We were just hanging out and he was like ‘I got to show you this music I’ve been listening to,’ and I was like sure, even though I had never given anyone a chance to show me their music because I was so picky,” he states. Yet, it was the style, lyrics, and aesthetic of Pouya’s “Get Buck” that made him pause the video and write down the name of the song. From there, Bones and Xavier Wulf became favorites. His style and work ethic were solidified, but as he continued to be stuck in the small-town bubble, his hope began to wane as he waited to reap the benefits of his efforts.
6obby continued to work at Walmart but felt pressure from his grandmother to invest his checks into moving out of the house they shared rather than into music. “I was going through so much in my life and I was like nobody is really fucking with my music” he recalls. Eventually, he channeled his feelings of dejection into one fateful song. “‘Nobody’ was supposed to be like a suicide note, to be honest,” he says of the track, which has since garnered almost three million plays on Sad Chill’s YouTube channel. Lyrics like, “I just wanna one day finally get up out this place / But that’s always been the dream, same shit a different day” resonated with other discontent listeners with big dreams, which, in addition to moving Kingdom Hearts Samples, earned 6obby fast fans. In a brush of fate, it was his would-be final admission of hopelessness that launched his career. “Honestly, I was so amazed,” he admits. “I knew I had to take this shit even more seriously and started planning out music videos for this song and that song.” As the rapper continued to get his plays up, he went from monotony in Graham to monumental life changes.
After having his daughter, Kinsley, with a longtime classmate in July of 2017, 6obby became even more motivated to take big risks to reap big rewards, for himself, but now also for the future of his child. He talked extensively through DMs with videographer Darrin Cole, who believed wholeheartedly in his artistic vision. Darrin eventually invited 6obby to move in with him in Chicago, which also served as an opportunity to work on music full time. To 6obby, the answer was a clear yes, but the road from his tiny town in Texas to the third-largest city in America was not smoothly paved. “I told my grandma about it and she was so unhappy about it,” he recalls. “She was like ‘You don’t even know the people you’re moving in with, what if they do something to you.’” He was told that if he left the house he was never able to come back, which was only made worse when he missed his flight after arriving just ten minutes too late – an easy mistake when the nearest airport is two-and-a-half hours away. When he retreated to his grandma’s house, he came home to find his room already repainted and his remaining belongings, gone.
Desperate, 6obby called Darrin, who was able to help him reschedule his flight for a different day. “I didn’t even have enough money for extra luggage,” he laughs. “I just had this big backpack, so I shoved in all my clothes, my mic, my laptop, and I put on like five jackets and five long sleeves.” His first time out of Texas, he recalls being struck by an overwhelming wave of emotion. “I was on the plane crying like maybe this shit will actually work out, who knows, you know?” As soon as he landed, it had become evident that his hope was becoming a reality. Darrin greeted him with a hug and a blunt, and after stripping his many layers of clothes, 6obby began settling into the dynamics of DMs IRL. “On the way to his house we smoke and talked, and he immediately treated me like family,” he says of the friendship. Nevertheless, he came ready to work. With his old job at Walmart ghosted, he put the visions he developed while walking the aisles into reality with the help of the creative minds in proximity.
In the summer of 2018, 6obby moved back to Graham to tend to his responsibilities as a father. While he was excited to see Kinsley, returning to his hometown felt like a regression. “I didn’t get to go back to Chicago, so I was back where I started and didn’t know what to do next,” he says. He moved in with his brother and sister, who remained skeptical about the lifestyle of an internet-based musician despite his ability to pay his fair share. As tensions mounted, 6obby found salvation in the form of a winter run with convolk and the Renaesance gang, explaining “As soon as I flew in [for the tour] everything felt right; they were like Darrin, giving me hugs and treating me like family.” He also accepted an invitation to go live with the crew in Louisiana, where he would be able to take advantage of a recording studio at a nearby university. 6obby made a quick diversion to Graham when the tour went through Texas, grabbing the rest of his clothes and his beloved pug, Benji. Ever since, 6obby has called Louisiana his home with those who care about him most. “When I moved here, I was just balling on the couch…I was so clueless how people I never even met in my life until now could love me,” he says of Renaesance, who he considers his family.
While 6obby has found stability in newness, his life is, of course, not without tribulations. “I’m still human, obviously, and I’m still dealing with stuff,” he explains. He describes his 2019 album Lovesick as a “moviesque story” about his relationship with an abusive ex. The line “Told me that you love me, then you kicked me out the door” from “Bullet” describes countless situations where he was turned out, including one particularly upsetting instance where he was forced to carry a six-week-old Benji in his hoodie pocket through 30-degree weather. 6obby emphasizes that he does not share these experiences to garner sympathy, stating, “I don’t want it to be like oh, I’m so sad, please feel sorry for me.” Rather, his goal is to maintain his honesty with his fans while introducing a message of hope. “I want it to be like, yeah, I’m still sad, but what can I do about this situation? I can choose to make it better, or I can choose to be depressed about it.” With new visuals on deck, excitement for rising artists like Shrimp and Nascar Aloe, and a daughter who just celebrated her second birthday, 6obby has much motivation to keep moving, and he encourages those listening to follow suit. “I never want to be a role model,” he insists, “but I want everyone to see that all of the negative things just make way for better things in the future.”