\n\t\ttlanta rapper-producer MexikoDro<\/a> is 10 minutes late to our Zoom call, but he comes on apologetically, telling everyone about an errand at his bank that took longer than he expected. But he\u2019s not sweating it. After all, an issue at the bank might be considered one of those good problems, especially compared with what Dro used to deal with in the streets of Atlanta.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tAs a former member of Atlanta-based production crew Beat Pluggz, he\u2019s a beloved pioneer of \u201cplugg\u201d music, a dreamy offshoot of trap music that made waves on SoundCloud in the mid-2010s. Playboi Carti\u2019s<\/a> rise dovetailed with the plugg era, and Dro collaborated with him on songs like \u201cDon\u2019t Tell Nobody,\u201d \u201cBroke Boi,\u201d and \u201cPlug,\u201d also lacing beats for Drake<\/a> (the officially unreleased \u201cFrom Florida With Love\u201d) and Kodak Black<\/a> (\u201cBoomerang\u201d). But even with that success, Dro calls the ages of 16 to 28 the worst time of his life, with multiple jail stints, and the trauma of his mother\u2019s cancer diagnosis (she\u2019s now cancer-free) almost derailing his music career.<\/p>\n \n\tBut then he experienced a reckoning. Around 2019, during one of several jail stints, he had the realization that he had to change his life, and also expanded his craft from production to rapping, buoyed by fans who were inspired by his interviews (and these days, his inspiring X presence). Now, he\u2019s not just an in-demand producer, but one of rap\u2019s great motivators.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201c[I wanna] make sure these young folks, to the Uncs, to the Goddamn dads know who God is,\u201d he says. \u201c[And] give everybody a sense of direction to do the best that they could do and be the best that they could be. I just started realizing that I do got some type of voice. I could be able to let people know what the real is instead of the fake, [and when] it\u2019s smoke and mirrors you lookin\u2019 at. I want to change lives.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t \n\tHe\u2019s on the way with songs like \u201cNo Date,\u201d his breakout single that caught fire earlier this year. Sounding like his inspirations Project Pat and Juicy J, he dishes off simple-yet-potent couplets like \u201cI got a crib where I lay my head at\/Knowin\u2019 that I\u2019m blessed \u2019cause that\u2019s where my bed at,\u201d and \u201cJust a couple years ago, Dro life a mess\/I be goin\u2019 through it, but I still passed the test.\u201d His lyrics are often delivered over classic synth that feel like so many of Atlanta rap\u2019s main sonic moods converged: triumphant, spooky, menacing.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThe track, like most of his November Still Goin EP, feels like the best of classic Atlanta rap\u2019s properties without the gruff trap tales or drug metaphors attached. What kind of message would prime Jeezy have presented without the pyrex parables in tow? Something like MexikoDro\u2019s.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThat\u2019s why he\u2019s the subject of X observations like, \u201cMexikoDro makes \u2018get your life together\u2019 music.\u201d On the surface, his raps can come across like mundane (\u201cWake up, pray, finna start the day\/Brush my teeth, wash my ass, then I wash my face,\u201d on \u201cMarta\u201d), but he intersperses those straight-to-the-point reflections with gems like \u201cLife got better when I prayed and it did,\u201d from \u201cHeight,\u201d that hint how arduous his journey was.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tHip-hop is more segmented than ever, allowing artists like Dro to be off in their own corner of the landscape, dishing mantras to loyalists, completely apathetic toward \u201cmass appeal.\u201d Songs like \u201cMarta,\u201d \u201cHurt,\u201d and \u201cHeight\u201d offer the kind of motivation that stirs a cult fan base and allows an artist to tour forever \u2014 but, as he says in almost every song, Dro isn\u2019t interested in the typical trappings of fame.<\/p>\n \t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI\u2019m not doing certain things. I ain\u2019t doing all \u2019em shows and all that stuff,\u201d he says in his bellowing baritone. \u201cThat\u2019s not what I\u2019m trying to do.\u201d When I ask why he\u2019s uninterested in performing, his answer is succinct: \u201cThat\u2019s something I don\u2019t do. I\u2019m a pescatarian. A lot of people eat chicken and beef. I don\u2019t eat that,\u201d adding that he\u2019s always seen himself as a more \u201cbehind-the-scenes\u201d type. And when it comes to a full-on studio album, he seems uninterested in the investment needed for a successful rollout.\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\u201cI ain\u2019t thinkin\u2019 about no album. The album stuff is big,\u201d he says. \u201cYou got to put some real money behind everything, man. Don\u2019t nobody wanna [be] sittin\u2019 around here waiting all day for me to drop an album, man. You got my real listeners who want more Mexiko. They want that shit now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tFor now, he\u2019s focused on continuing to flood the market like he\u2019s been doing over the past five years, and staying to himself in the meantime. When he raps \u201cMost of the time, Mexiko, I be at home,\u201d he\u2019s not joking. \u201cI don\u2019t give a fuck about being around nobody,\u201d he says. \u201cI done gained peace. I done gained a sense of direction. I done gained a closer relationship to God. I\u2019ve learned who Jesus was. I\u2019ve been trying to do the right thing. I\u2019ve been trying to help others \u2014 young people, old people, don\u2019t matter who it is \u2014 I want to help what it is, because I was at a time [where] I ain\u2019t had no help.\u201c<\/p>\n \n\tDro was born in the Ellenwood section of Southwest Atlanta. He learned how to make beats at 10 on Fruity Loops software, crafting them from feel \u2014 like he still does today. \u201cThis music theory that people be talking about \u2026 man, what does that consist of?\u201d he asks rhetorically. \u201cI don\u2019t know no notes. I play by ear. My ear is good, of course. I ain\u2019t have to go to no music school or none of that. I ain\u2019t had the time for all that.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t \n\tHis early musical inspirations were Atlanta giants like Gucci Mane and OJ Da Juiceman, as well as scores to video games Resident Evil \u2014 Code Veronica and Goldeneye 007. He melded those influences into his distinct sound, which manifests in four different types of beats (which he won\u2019t reveal). He was the standout member of the Beat Pluggz, who became entrenched in the rap underground with their \u201cPlug!\u201d tag and syrupy beats. The musical layman might frame anything with an 808 and hi-hats as a trap beat, but there are distinctions: Whereas trap beats tend to be haunting and menacing, plugg beats are wistful, with cloudy, saccharine synth melodies spread across 808s like icing on a cake. Dro ushered in that movement, making him an underground pioneer.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tBut while he made a name for himself as a producer, he was also dealing with the trauma of his mother\u2019s cancer diagnosis. He says watching her nearly two-year treatment took a lot out of the then-14-year-old. \u201cBoy, it was awful,\u201d he says, vaguely implying how dark his thought process got. \u201cI ain\u2019t going to get too deep into what I had going on, but I wanted to go out. You don\u2019t know nothin\u2019 about the cancer and how it\u2019s going to take people out and all that. So back then, I wanted to go a little closer to my mother if it came down to it.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
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