It’s 5 a.m. and you’re up. What are you thinking about—work? Your relationship? Money? Not if you’re Vegas rapper Mike Xavier. He’s pondering how he’ll sell out the Brooklyn Bowl or House of Blues, per a recent Facebook post. “I believe it’s possible and that’s half the battle conquered!”
At the clip Xavier is going, it’s not an unreasonable manifest. His current local booking—this week’s album release show at Vinyl—sold out a week ago. It follows a momentous 2018, when he performed at Life Is Beautiful; opened for Living Colour, KRS-One and Tech N9NE; and released his second full-length album, Old School Vibes. Xavier wrote that record in the hopes of relaying certain messages he thought others needed to hear. The follow-up effort, Still Dreaming, sees the artist looking more inward. “The songs are based almost entirely on my personal life and experiences of mine,” he says.
That said, those experiential verses are still meant to inspire his listeners, especially those enduring the same struggles Xavier endured just a few years ago. “When I think of how I was at rock bottom just a few years ago, it makes me feel so grateful that I never gave up. … I want this project to be a reminder of how it’s never too late in life to be a dreamer,” he says. “My dreams have become my reality more and more over the years, and this album is a reflection of that.”
MIKE XAVIER with Vic Smith, Miles Low. February 1, 8 p.m., $10. Vinyl, 702-693-5000.
