From the moment he entered the world, music was already waiting for him.
That voice belongs to $onny XL.
Born and raised in Springfield, Massachusetts, $onny XL’s story begins at the crossroads of culture, heritage, and sound. With parents of African American and Cherokee Indian descent, and deep family roots stretching from Fort Greene in Brooklyn to Mount Vernon and Yonkers in New York, he was immersed early in the environments that helped shape hip hop from its foundation. These were not distant influences. They were living, breathing parts of his upbringing.
As a child, hip hop was not simply something he listened to. It was something he absorbed. Legends like KRS One, Nas, The Notorious B.I.G., 50 Cent, and Tupac were more than artists. They were storytellers whose voices and instrumentals felt like windows into real worlds. What captivated him was not only what they said, but how they said it. The beats became landscapes. The lyrics became lived experiences. Even his name carries that influence, inspired by Rakim, with Nasir nearly chosen as his first name as well. That lineage alone planted a seed that would grow into a lifelong devotion to music.
By the age of seven, $onny XL had already written his first sixteen bar verse. Writing quickly became a private ritual. Composition notebooks filled with lyrics, hooks, and poems, often hidden from his mother due to their raw honesty. From ages seven to eleven, he wrote relentlessly. From twelve to fourteen, he studied battle rap and diss records, approaching lyricism as both art and competitive sport. He was not just listening anymore. He was learning structure, cadence, and intention.
At fourteen, everything crystallized. A cousin who rapped brought him to a recording studio, and something clicked instantly. The space felt familiar, almost like home. Watching the process unfold confirmed what he already knew deep down. This was where $onny XL belonged.
By fifteen, he was recording his own music. Studio time was expensive and unforgiving. Sixty dollars an hour for long sessions, plus mixing and mastering costs every two weeks. After months of investing heavily and feeling unsatisfied with the final sound, frustration turned into resolve. Instead of quitting, he chose to learn.
At sixteen and seventeen, he built a portable home studio. The early equipment was cheap and imperfect, but it became a classroom. He studied software, practiced vocal engineering, and refined his ear. By eighteen, with upgraded equipment and sharpened skills, he began recording, mixing, and mastering his music himself. The sound was cleaner. More intentional. Entirely his own.
At nineteen, the world began to respond.
Tracks like Ransom and Brothers earned recognition from Jadakiss and Tony Yayo, both of whom personally selected $onny XL’s songs for their SoundCloud playlists. Before his passing, DMX did the same with a track titled Talk 2 God. These moments carried weight beyond validation. These were the voices he grew up listening to. The same artists who inspired him to write were now supporting his work.
That support opened doors. Jadakiss provided the intro for his mixtape Before It’s All Said And Done. DMX supplied a drop for a forthcoming project. $onny XL found himself in studios with Dave East and Styles P, sharing his music and his vision. He performed at events, collaborated with Big Mike The Ruler, and held shows across Connecticut and New York. Magazine features followed, including coverage from ThisIs50, along with placements on platforms like MyMixtapez.
Momentum continued to build. A recent track titled Lil Ole Freak has surpassed thirty thousand streams in just a few months. A collaboration with Tony Moxberg, an artist from Jadakiss’s camp, is on the way. And looming on the horizon is a deeply personal project titled Til Death Do Us Part, slated for release in 2026.
His music is grounded in lived experience. Every record is drawn from real events, real environments, and real people. $onny XL sees himself as a voice for those who grew up in similar circumstances and never had the chance to be heard. His storytelling is not exaggerated or detached. It is reflective. Honest. Purposeful.
That commitment to authenticity is inherited. Before he was born, his father was already making music, rapping and DJing as part of a group in the early 1990s that toured with LL Cool J, NWA, Big Daddy Kane, Digital Underground, and others. The group even appeared in a Pepsi commercial before eventually parting ways. His mother, a poet in her teenage years, carried her own deep connection to hip hop. Cleaning the house to the sounds of TLC, Smiff N Wesson, Beenie Man, Naughty By Nature, and Mobb Deep, she unknowingly helped shape his ear. Old issues of Word Up magazine lined his walls, ripped out and taped up like sacred artifacts. Coming from Mount Vernon, she and his grandmother even crossed paths with singers and future celebrities long before fame found them.
For $onny XL, music is not entertainment alone. It is transformation. Life turned into poetry, layered over soundscapes that set the emotional scene. His goal is to create worlds listeners can step into without leaving their own comfort zones. Every track invites you into his reality, not as an outsider, but as a witness.
This is not just music. It is lived experience, translated into sound.
And the story is still being written.
