The Leaf
In the long, storied history of Texas rap, Waco has largely been ignored. Practically no rappers have emerged from the city onto the national spotlight, and even now, the scene remains unreported on. Wacotron is here to change all that. Not only is the MC putting his entire town on his back, he’s already positioned himself as one of the most exciting voices coming out of the Lone Star State with only a few songs under his belt. But no matter how successful breakthrough hits like the Southside-produced “Cut Me Up” make him, Waco is loyal to the ‘hood that shaped him.
“I always represent where I come from. I’m from South Waco,” he explains with confidence. “Everything I do is for my people. We’ve been through too much shit, it’s about time I’m able to put on for me and mine.” Waco’s music is infused with a relentless desire to make good on his limitless potential. He’s seen the bottom, and he’ll never go back. Part of what makes Waco’s music so intensely relatable is the truth behind every bar he spits. Waco taps into his biography―the early days of hustling and struggling, his desire to make a name for himself―to inform every song he makes. On his latest single, “Toothpaste,” which accrued just under 100,000 streams on YouTube in its first week, Waco lays out what pushes him to succeed: “Come from the bottom, right under a basement/And this for the people that want to erase me.”
Waco’s ability to seamlessly blend witty one-liners (“I never switch, I ain’t KD or Brady”) with frank, powerful tales of his rise to stardom makes him one of the most potent lyricists in the game. It’s perhaps why production legend Southside of 808 Mafia has been so eager to collaborate with the Texas upstart. “It was a long ass drive to his studio in Houston, so I had to make it worth my time,” he says with a chuckle.
With few hometown MCs to look up to, Waco took to his dad’s CD collection as a boy and immediately gravitated to Z-Ro. He’d get kicked out of class, spit some freestyles with his homies, and bump the H-Town legend when he got home. Z-Ro’s workingman mentality permeates through Waco’s music, too; Waco’s not afraid to get his hands dirty in weaving tales about his life. “After hearing Z-Ro for so long, I knew that I could do that, too. My story was good enough to tell.” After dabbling in rap after high school, Waco finally began taking the game seriously after seeing too many of his friends lose their lives to the streets. “I’ve seen too many of my people go to the grave to keep going back out on the streets,” he explains. “I needed to get some money everyday, but it wasn’t worth it. Rap saved me, and now I do it for my people that are gone.”
As Wacotron continues to ascend, he promises to honor his roots in South Waco. Kids know his songs, his little girl thinks he’s an icon, and his crew is thrilled that one of their own is forging a way forward. No matter how big he gets, though, Wacotron will always rap about the people that made him, and the places where he became the man he is today. “I’ll always belong here, and the community will always fuck with me,” he says. “They love me because they saw the struggle. They saw me go from nothing to something. That’s what makes it different.” Wacotron is proud of where he’s been, if only because it’s a testament to his indomitable will. “No matter where I’m at, whether it’s high or low, I tell my story,” he explains. After a quick pause, he adds, “I’m always gonna be 100% me.”
Follow Wacotron on IG @wacotron
