Lil Xan is stepping away from music. Born Nicholas Diego Leanos, the 23-year-old rapper rose to fame on SoundCloud and gained mainstream attention when his 2017 track “Betrayed” peaked at No. 64 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. But Leanos is putting all that behind him. Instead, he’s choosing to focus his attention on his clothing brand Xanarchy.
The rapper made the announcement that he’s leaving music on his Instagram story on Saturday. “I quit rapping and I’m only gonna focus on moving forward with the Xanarchy clothing line and brand” the post reads.
#LilXan Says he quitting rap to focus on his brand, clothing line pic.twitter.com/xdmrNTjhKX
— Febrazy Media (@realfebrazy) December 14, 2019
After releasing a slew of singles on SoundCloud and YouTube, the rapper dropped his debut album, Total Xanarchy, in September. Leanos had previously stated a follow-up project would be his tribute to the late Mac Miller, titled Be Safe, as those were Miller’s last words to the rapper. But it seems with this announcement that those plans have been indefinitely shelved.
More recently, Leanos made headlines when he pulled a gun out on a heckler in a gas station. The heckler had confronted Leanos about his comments on Tupac after the rapper had stated Tupac’s music was “boring.” It is important to note that until this announcement there were other plans in place to make more music, too. In November, Leanos announced he would be releasing his sophomore record, When September Ends, in early 2020. There’s no indication about whether his recent announcement impacts the record’s release.
