- GOV’T NAME: Neko Bennett
- AGE: 20
- REPPIN': Dallas
- X: @4batzz
- INSTAGRAM: @4batz
- TIKTOK: @4batz
- NOTABLE RELEASES: Songs: “act i: stickerz ‘99,’” “act ii: date @ 8,” “act ii: date @ 8 (remix)” featuring Drake, “act iii: on god? (she like)”; Projects: U made me a st4r
- LABEL: Unsigned
- CURRENTLY WORKING ON: New music coming this year.
- WHO ELSE SHOULD BE PART OF THIS YEAR’S CLASS: “Tyla.”
- INFLUENCED BY: “Dru Hill. Kut Klose. Keith Sweat. SWV. Mint Condition. The list goes on and on. I just love the ’90s R&B, and, of course, Texas music. Z-Ro. Paul Wall. [’90s R&B] is nostalgia. I just feel like that was the best time and the best music in that certain genre, and I feel like that R&B, if those people didn’t make that music, then I don’t know what music would sound like now, honestly. That was like the heart of R&B. The best time of R&B and that really influenced me to make what I make.”
- AS A FRESHMAN IN HIGH SCHOOL: “I barely was a student. I barely went. I used to fight a lot in school, and they used to send my ass to alternative school, I feel like, every two months. They’d send me to alternative school to the point where my sophomore year, I was like, F**k it, and I just stopped going.”
TRUTH ON BEING AN XXL FRESHMAN: “I think I was in the living room at my home and my team called me and said, ‘Yo, you’re XXL.’ I was like, ‘Freshman? I’m XXL?’ ’Cause they had that fake list, so I thought that sh*t was not it, but it was actually for real. I couldn’t believe it. I was turnt up. I went to party right after that sh*t just tryna do some sh*t.
I’m not gonna lie, God is good, because growing up as a ni**a from the hood, seeing XXL, they was like our heroes. You get on XXL, you made it and you’re like set. They see you on that cover, ni**a, you are like a superstar. So, me being on that sh*t, it’s a dream come true.
Right now, I’m most focused I’ve ever been in my life. I think I’m ready for it. I think my music is ready for it, I think the world is ready for it. So, I’m excited.
I’ve been focused, I’ve been turnt, I’ve been excited, but at the same time I’m just at a different level now. You have to shape your career, you have to know how you want people to look at you, and part of my thing is I feel like even though I do what I do, I need to be here. That’s how I want people to look at me and sh*t. ’Cause it’s like, why not? I ain’t never had sh*t, so I take every opportunity with everything, bro, because there was a time when I couldn’t get this. Now I’m getting it. I’m excited. I’m turnt up.”
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