About Me
Xavier Vasquez: Prince of New York... Some Hip Hop royalty are unsung heroes who truly broke ground in the culture before any names were taken. A new strain of industry savvy artists, schooled by these mothers and fathers of Rap, is breaking out. Xavier Vasquez, the Prince of New York, has mastered his innate skills and takes his throne. Xavier had early Hip Hop education--from the music blasting off his pop’s banging system to the lyrical schooling handed down to him by his mother who rapped back in the day. Str8 from Bed Stuy, Brooklyn, raised in (El barrio) Spanish Harlem, Xavier packs eight years solid at the age of 23. His flow is not the trendy “Rap 101†style common today. His flow is about what he's seen, what he knows and what people relate to. Although he lauds Jay Z, BIG PUN, Slick Rick and Doug E. Fresh, “Juicy†by Biggie first inspired Xavier. Born just five minutes before Biggie’s death, Xavier considers his reign in rap music a birthrite. Xavier gets nods from industry favorites like Skane Dolla, Jermaine Dupri, Angie Martinez for the freestyle battle he won on a local champion’s own turf during a business visit back in Brooklyn. He got nods from the crying girls after his debut performance of his Donnie Hathaway sampled single, “All the Thingsâ€. Nods came from Teen People who offered Xavier a seven-figure deal with their new label, Purple Leopard (a Jive Records subsidiary), after he rocked a show at Brooklyn College. By his unpredictable style, just know he’s coming. With the philosophy to take notice in order to learn, Xavier excels in anything he does. He’s a natural leader, team player, and family man. His creativity as a child was crafted in a school for the gifted and talented. Xavier dropped out of the eighth grade when school failed to feed his hunger, and he sporadically attended high school. However, Xavier’s strong will and the reading habits instilled in him by his father got him accepted into college without a high school diploma or GED. The Prince of New York has always had a love/hate relationship with the streets--from Malcolm X Blvd in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn, to Washington Projects in Spanish Harlem, through interrogation, harassment, and being on both sides of gunfire. At 15, Xavier lost his first child. He witnessed the murder of his best friend Iceberg. Despite these traumatic events, Xavier did not fold. He penned, “Walk with Me†in honor of their memory. "There is a lot to live for. Living to die is selfish.†Xavier exemplifies “building on whatever you got and turning it into something". Xavier was nominated for Mix Tape Artist of the Year, 2003, for his work with the “Riot Regime†on the Mix Tapes circuit. Angie Martinez called him the underdog’s favorite. At the EA Sports Battle, Jermaine Dupri called Xavier the winner of a battle he lost due to a unanimous decision that aired on BET’s RAP CITY. The soul of the streets may color his style, but Xavier’s lyrics are about dealing with reality, so much that he has not put pen to paper in seven years. His flow comes readily, from the heart. “It’s me versus the beat, the beat versus me. No premeditation, no ideas. It’s everything—a memory train…(hard times) don’t make a rapper,†says the Prince of New York as Biggie whispers in his ear, “It’s the person inside, how they get the message across, creatively with a twist of imagination. It’s called dreaming & I can’t stop, because once I stop, it’s over…I speak for the young dudes in New York with no chance praying for a way out.â€