Photo courtesy of Camdyn Thigpen
Getting involved in the music industry is no easy feat; however, in just his first year as a college student, Xavier Bell, has made great strides. The freshman music business major from Baltimore has become well known by his stage name, OfficialX.
During the fall 2021 semester, Bell won a contest on a radio station called i108.3 WHIZ-DB, which earned his song “Love & Affection” a spot in their regular rotation.
“Afterwards, I saw the views go up a lot, not just [“Love & Affection”] but on my other music videos that are on YouTube,” he said. “I began to get more followers and more reposts, more notoriety with the song. That really did something for me.”
Bell thinks of God as his biggest supporter, along with his family members, but he also says that he’s felt a different level of support since he’s come to Hofstra.
“Before coming to Hofstra, I wasn’t the most confident with my music,” Bell said. “It was always something that I stopped and started doing, and it was always something that I was never serious about, because I was always afraid of judgment. It is a competitive field, and it shouldn’t be, because at the end of the day, it’s all about talent. I would say coming here and seeing people really rock with my music really does something to me.”
The rapper says that the support he’s felt hasn’t come exclusively from Hofstra, but throughout New York, as he’s made connections with different people within the state.
Bell acquires inspiration for his lyrics in his everyday activities and routines. “I’m in the shower, and next thing I know these bars will just come to my head. That’s somewhere where my creativity really starts,” Bell said.
He also gets inspiration while listening to other genres of music. “If I’m listening to gospel music, I’ll just start hearing these bars in my head,” Bell said.
Bell doesn’t just want his growing audience to enjoy the melody or rhythm of his music; he wants the message in his lyrics to resonate with his listeners.
“I want people to feel good. I want them to feel the way I feel when I’m making it,” he said. “If it’s a song where I’m feeling myself, and I feel like I’m hot stuff, I want the listener to feel that way … I want people to be able to relate to things that I’m saying.”
His first live performance was at a campus event hosted by the Hofstra NAACP chapter. “I was nervous,” Bell said. “I was like ‘I hope that they like me. I hope that everyone is engaged … and I hope that they can hear what I’m saying.’”
Despite it just being a campus event, it was Bell’s first live performance as OfficialX. He remembered feeling validated afterwards by the reactions of the people who attended the event. “It was like ‘Wow, I must have [done] something,’” Bell said.
Bell has multiple musical inspirations, including Michael Jackson, Nicki Minaj, Jay-Z, Lil Wayne and Kanye West. In the future, he wants to collaborate with Nicki Minaj and Justin Bieber on different works.
While writing his music, Bell likes to include the Spanish language wherever he can. To him, incorporating Spanish into American music is something that not too many other artists are doing. He also feels that doing this will broaden his audience, as his music can resonate with Spanish speakers along with English speakers.
Bell heavily integrated Spanish into his most recent song, “Sum Slight,” which was released on Friday, Feb. 11. He planned to include the language in his song even before it was written.
“I knew I wanted to have Spanish in it somewhere, but I didn’t know exactly where,” he said. “It took me eight months to get this song together.”
When he came up with the beat, Bell was at a point in his life when he felt like he did not have anything special to rap about.
“As time progresses you experience things,” Bell said. “Your mindset really grows, and I feel like that happened to me.”
“Sum Slight” is currently out on all streaming platforms.
