Lil Xan

**Diego Leanos** (born September 6, 1996), known professionally as **Lil Xan**, is an American rapper, singer and songwriter from Redlands, California.

## Early life

Leanos was born on September 6, 1996 in Redlands, California to Mexican parents.Growing up, Leanos was poor and lived in motels most of his childhood.He attended Redlands East Valley High School, but dropped out of high school in his freshman year, and spent several years at home unemployed.Leanos took a job as a street cleaner and sold drugsbefore he began rapping.Leanos later pursued a photography career in support of several friends who were rappers. He eventually had his camera stolen, and chose to begin rapping in lieu of investing in a new camera.

## Career

Leanos began to gain recognition through platforms such as SoundCloud and YouTube. His popularity grew after the release of the music video for his song "Betrayed" in August 2017.The song peaked at no. 64 on the *Billboard* Hot 100.In an interview with *XXL*, Leanos announced his debut album *Total Xanarchy*.The album includes collaborations with artists such as Diplo and Swae Lee.In December 2017, Leanos announced his Total Xanarchy Tour,which sold out in five hours according to *Billboard*.

In 2018, Leanos announced that he would change his stage name to "Diego" in order to support his anti-drug message,though he later said in an interview he was not sure if he would change his name.

 However he has since expressed uncertainty toward officially going through with the pseudonym change.[11]

Leanos released his debut studio album, *Total Xanarchy* on April 6, 2018. The album was a moderate commercial success, debuting at number ten on the *Billboard* 200 and selling 28,000 copies in its first week.[20]The following month in May 2018, Leanos announced the mixtape *Heartbreak Soldiers*[21] which was released on July 8, 2018.[22] In September 2018, Leanos announced he had been working on an album titled *Be Safe* as a tribute to Mac Miller, as these were the last words he said to Leanos before his death.[23][24]

Leanos has given a number of contradictory statements regarding his yet-unreleased sophomore album. Initially, he planned on releasing his *Be Safe* project in 2019, but the album entered production limbo and was eventually scrapped. In November 2019, he announced his next album would be titled *When September Ends* and released an accompanying album cover, but this also never came to fruition.[25] In January 2020, Leanos announced that his album was finished and that it would be called *Sorry I Didn't Quit*, revealing a new album cover that took inspiration from Lil Wayne's *Sorry 4 the Wait*.[26][27] The album still remains unreleased as of September 2020.

## Artistry

Leanos has listed Pharrell Williams and N.E.R.D as early influences in hip hop, with other influences including Arctic Monkeys, Cage the Elephant and Queens of the Stone Age.Leanos has also described Drake and Mac Miller as musical inspirations.According to Pigeons & Planes, Leanos' music started off as "typical trap" and later shifted towards "a murkier, dream-like sound".*The New Yorker* has described Leanos as part of a "sad rap" movement.

## Controversies

Leanos made headlines in 2018 when during an interview he rated the late rapper Tupac Shakur only a "2" [out of 9] and called his music boring. After the incident fellow rapper Waka Flocka Flame claimed on Twitter that Leanos is "banned from hip hop".However, Leanos later paid tribute to Tupac by playing the song "California Love"

## Personal life

Leanos started dating singer and actress Noah Cyrus on June 30, 2018.The couple released the collaboration "Live or Die" in August 2018. They broke up in September 2018 after Noah jokingly sent a photo of singer, Charlie Puth, photoshopped on a naked porn star's body to Leanos, prompting him to accuse her of being unfaithful. Leanos initially asserted that the relationship was forced by the couple's record label, Columbia.[28] However, weeks later he appeared to walk back this claim in an interview on *Open Late with Peter Rosenberg*, stating "Honest to God, I would say like most of the reason the breakup happened was because of me. It was my fault. We could have still been together, but I just feel like I fucked everything up. It also put me in a darker place because I was getting slammed left and right." He went on to say that he had "nothing but love for the Cyrus family."[29]

Leanos was formerly addicted to Xanax, along with opiates and other benzodiazepines, but he was able to quit the drug after two years of addiction.[30] Leanos currently speaks out against Xanax abuse and urges people to stop using the drug altogether.[31][32]

On September 28, 2018, Leanos was hospitalized and was treated for stomach pain after "eating too many Flamin' Hot Cheetos". According to a CNN report, Frito-Lay said that Flamin' Hot Cheetos meet all food safety regulations.[33][34]

In February 2019, Leanos announced that he and fiancée Annie Smith are expecting a child.[35]

On April 6, Smith revealed that she had experienced a miscarriage,[37] sharing the information about the incident via a video and photographs on Instagram.[38] However, in a *No Jumper* interview weeks later, Leanos revealed he had suspicions that Smith had been faking her pregnancy; this came about after a number of the rapper's fans on social media pointed out that the couple's ultrasound photos looked identical to ones that could be found on Google.[39] The pair eventually separated, with Leanos later claiming the relationship had been toxic. He began dating YouTube vlogger Gabby Parsons in November 2019.[40]

## Trivia

* Leanos was formerly addicted to Xanax, along with opiates and other benzodiazepines, but he was able to quit the drug after two years of addiction.

## References

1. ↑ https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/latin/8061630/hottest-latino-mcs-hip-hop-today
2. ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/18/arts/music/eminem-g-eazy-lil-xan-nf.html
3. ↑ https://www.vibe.com/2018/03/who-is-lil-xan/
4. ↑ https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/hip-hop/8094841/lil-xan-betrayed-interview-chartbreaker
5. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0zJub4oD-g
6. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzXBq8KCw8I
7. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGLpAdzqGtk
8. ↑ https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/8094303/lil-xan-betrayed-you-should-know-video-interview
9. ↑ http://www.xxlmag.com/news/2017/11/the-break-presents-lil-xan/
10. ↑ https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/8014759/pandora-predictions-lil-xan-lyrica-anderson-mahalia
11. ↑ https://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100/2018-02-17
12. ↑ http://www.xxlmag.com/news/2017/11/the-break-presents-lil-xan/
13. ↑ https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/hip-hop/8094841/lil-xan-betrayed-interview-chartbreaker
14. ↑ https://www.hotnewhiphop.com/lil-xan-reveals-dates-for-total-xanarchy-tour-news.41208.html
15. ↑ https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/hip-hop/8094841/lil-xan-betrayed-interview-chartbreaker
16. ↑ http://www.xxlmag.com/news/2018/01/lil-xan-plans-changing-name/
17. ↑ https://www.hotnewhiphop.com/lil-xan-officially-changes-name-to-diego-on-big-boys-neighborhood-news.42216.html
18. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzXBq8KCw8
19. ↑ http://pigeonsandplanes.com/interviews/2017/12/lil-xan-interview-2017
20. ↑ https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/8094303/lil-xan-betrayed-you-should-know-video-interview
21. ↑ http://pigeonsandplanes.com/interviews/2017/12/lil-xan-interview-2017
22. ↑ https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/01/08/lil-xan-and-the-year-in-sad-rap
23. ↑ https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/hip-hop/8235941/waka-flocka-flame-lil-xan-tupac
24. ↑ http://www.complex.com/music/2018/03/lil-xan-performs-2-pac-california-love
25. ↑ https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/dont-accept-noah-cyrus-rapper-lil-xan-go-public-fans-arent-happy-220117784.html
26. ↑ https://genius.com/videos/Lil-xan-breaks-down-betrayed