Chapman - "XL Life"

Although he exists most explicitly on the internet, IRL Chapman is more striking than your average rapper. He stands at a long and lanky 6’3” and is often found wearing either all white or all black; nodding, swaying and occasionally shaking dat ass to 90s R&B or more current hip-hop. He’s been mostly hiding from the spotlight, but with debut mixtape XL Life he’s moving from tweet to spoken word, fully committing to a rap career and making music that listeners can more than just sway to. “I want people to have the most amount of fun and feel the most euphoric when they listen to my shit,” Chapman says. “Even if it’s not a party song I want people to root themselves in it. It’s hypnotic, a little dark and gritty, but it’s definitely one big party. ”

As a loose afiliate of Yung Klout Gang, a gang of young artists (which includes Chippy Nonstop) who all met on Twitter and have amassed a following that includes A-Trak and Ryan Hemsworth, Chapman knows his way around a timeline. “Twitter folk are who I feel most comfortable with,” he admits. And they helped him pursue his dreams too, “It was encouraging that the online community was down for me and I could start from there.” So in honor of premiering XL Life (remember he’s 6’3”), we have a five-point strategy from the artist formerly known as @Pizza_Pimp_ on how to reach internet fame, or at least get internationally famous DJs to respond to your tweets:

Define your internet brand

“If you want to be recognized for your twitter skills, it's important to know who you are and what you're trying to convey to the internet world. It might take a while to find your footing depending on your familiarity with social media, but over time people should be able to see all of your tweets as signature to you/your brand. For example, pizza is my first love, so I tweet a lot of jokes with pizza as the subject. #Pizza.” 

Be a pop cultural critic

“Don't think you're better than talking about what the rest of the world is talking about – if you can come up with a unique, funny tweet about Miley Cyrus you should do it. Lots of stans just spend all day typing in the name of whatever thing they obsess over, so you increase your chances of viralness by addressing popular subjects.”

Make friends with like-minded tweeters

“Twitter is at its best when it's communal – I really started using it because I enjoyed making friends with people who I thought were funny, like Jazper and the rest of #YUNGKLOUTGANG. If you surround yourself with people who relate to your twitter humor (and vice versa), you'll have more people looking to retweet and @ you.”

Don’t force a tweet (see above: an unnecessary tweet I forced recently while bored at the studio) 

“Some people spend all day tweeting weak shit in a desperate attempt to create a #viral moment. This is not the move; Twitter is about quality, not quantity. Get used to filtering yourself and you'll be able to tell what's worth your while to tweet—some things should just stay in your head.”

Have fun

“Keeping all these rules in mind, don't forget to have fun—not just because having fun and being ~posi~ is awesome, but because if you lose a genuine joy for tweeting, you're way less likely to connect with people. Real recognize real, and if all you do is tweet to get retweeted, people won't feel a connection.”