East St. Louis, Ill. teen Comethazine gave rap a shot, and got millions of streams in return. As his December 2017 video “Piped Up” inches closer to 3 million views, it seems the young rapper made the right choice to leave the regular nine-to-five life behind.

Just two years ago, when he was 17 years old, Comethazine just knew he could be a rapper, despite a limited musical background. “A microphone was $200 and anybody could do the shit, so I was like fuck it,” he tells XXL.

Starting out as an artist focused on socially conscious issues, Comethazine changed his subject matter to revolve more around women and money. “I actually used to write—I flowed on some Joey Bada$$-type shit,” he says. “That shit wasn't going nowhere for me. So I was like, ‘Let me do some ignorant shit, see if this shit work.’"

Comethazine remained focused, putting in endless hours honing his craft. “I didn't have a video game and shit, so I was always in my room, just recording,” he says. “My mom hated that shit, she would yell and tell me 'Shut the fuck up!’ I went to night school, so I would sleep all fuckin' day, and record all night after school.”

All that time spent paid off relatively quickly. Last year’s “Bozo” and “Hella Choppers (Remix)” have both broken the 500,000 stream mark on Soundcloud—the early success allowed Comethazine to quit his job as a mechanic to focus on music full-time. This year’s “Piped Up” is his biggest song to date, with more than 3 million streams between Spotify and Soundcloud.

With his new Ugly God collab "Let It Eat" taking off and BAWSKEE on the way, his short term goals are simple. “500,000 [followers] on the 'Gram, then I'm set,” he says. “I would probably have to drop some fire-ass music. Hit a couple million on YouTube.”

Learn more about Comethazine in the latest edition of XXL's The Break.

Age: 19

Hometown: East St. Louis, Ill.

I grew up listening to: "Too $hort, 8Ball & MJG, Big Mike, Jim Jones, then Chief Keef. Lil Jojo. Shy Glizzy when he came out."

My style’s been compared to: "Everybody, literally. In the game right now, everybody. Fuck it! I get compared to Smokepurrp so much bro, but he's like my brother. I was even compared before I met the nigga, and he know that. But he fucks with me heavy."

Most people don’t know: "I could take apart a whole car in like an hour and put that shit back. Working on cars is fun, but niggas don’t know that. It's like a puzzle, my dude. I can skateboard, I can make pizzas, bro. I used to work at Sbarro's bro, I can do all that flippy shit [with pizza dough]."

My standout records to date have been: "'Piped Up,' 'Bands,' 'Sticks Out the Window' is gonna be a huge record. 'Might Cop A Jag.'"

My standout moments to date have been: "Prolly VFILES, bruh, the VFILES show. It was just lit, it was lit for me, I couldn't even see the audience. I wear glasses and shit, took them shits off and went crazy."

My goal in hip-hop is: "I don't even think that far. Get a house. I don't even know."

I’m going to be the next: "Rick James. He was just saucy, bro. Like the movie Pootie Tang—he was like that. He didn't even have to make music to be popping."

Follow Comethazine on Soundcloud and Twitter.

Standouts:

"Hella Choppers (Remix)"

"Might Cop a Jag"

"Piped Up"

"Bands"

"Let It Eat" featuring Ugly God

See New Music Releases for April 2018

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