No Matter Where He Goes, Hunxho’s Always Home

Photos by Matthew “Ghost” Thompson

When you reach a certain point of success, forgetting where you came from can be as easy as losing touch with an old friend. Deep down, the truth is that no matter how far you stray from the place you were born and raised, it will always be embedded into your DNA. Rising rapper Hunxho has come so far in the past five years—including signing to a major record label and collaborating with one of the biggest rappers in the game, 21 Savage—but his love for his home of Eastside, Atlanta has not wavered one bit.

Before his music career blew up, Hunxho was on a very different path, spending most of his life making it in the streets and going to college for basketball. He had a passion for music and religiously listened to the legends from his city, but he never envisioned music to be his main path. However, within only a few years, he has flourished by leaps and bounds and now stands alongside some of the most praiseworthy players in the current scene.

On a brisk day at Inked NYC, we had the pleasure of catching up with Hunxho to ask him how he turned his life around so he could put his all into music, the stories behind his plethora of tattoos and what is so significant about the number 22. You can listen to his new album, “22,” dropping on March 22.

Can you tell us a little bit about who you are and where you’re from?

I’m a rapper from the Eastside of Atlanta. 2nd Avenue to be exact. My kind of music is pain music. I like to send messages to the streets, like people who feel pain, you feel me? Or anything mental.

How would you say growing up in Atlanta has influenced your music?

I’d say it did a lot. My music is like my story, my pain, what I’ve been through. Growing up in the struggle, pops not there when you need him. We weren’t a big house and it’s a lot of us. Stuff I did in the streets, what I’ve been through in the streets. I’ve been in jail about what I did in the streets. And then it’s about me changing my life around to what I’m doing now.

So many legendary artists come out of Atlanta. How does it feel to come from the same place? Have any of those artists inspired or motivated you in particular?

I ain’t gonna say they motivated me musically, but as I was coming up, like when I was a teenager, I was listening to Thug, I used to listen to Rich Homie Quan, Skooly, Future, Gucci Mane… really all the Atlanta artists.

How and when did you realize music was something you wanted to pursue seriously?

At first, I was on a whole different track. I was going down the wrong road at first. I think it was 2017 [when] I made my first song. I decided to write a song, it was a remix song. I can’t remember what the song was. That’s when I started making music. I was doing what I was doing, but I was still in the streets, all the way up until I signed my deal in 2022. So that’s when I was like, oh yeah, it’s real. I gotta take in all of this here.

Did you come across any particular people that pushed you in that direction?

It was really just me. I seen it as the way to get outta the hood.

Your music has a lot of different sounds. It’s very heavy and hard-hitting, but your flows are very melodic. How did you develop your style?

It’s really just me. Because when I was younger, I never wanted to be a rapper. When I was a little kid, I used to be walking around the house singing. But I can’t really sing, though. So when I started rapping, it was like my light. So I started trying to put it together and harmonize it with my music.

Did you have any other hobbies or interests when you were younger?

Yeah, I was playing basketball. I played basketball my whole life. I started playing basketball when I was 7. I went to college for it, but I dropped out my first semester. That was my thing, but I dropped out cause I felt like I was wasting time, so I just put it all in music.

How did you land on your name?

When I was in seventh grade, the word “huncho” was popular in my city. It stood for hundreds, like money. So boom, I changed my Instagram name to “huncho.” And then my bro TJ started calling me “Huncho” outta nowhere. And I just remember everybody started calling me “Huncho.”

Your last full-length album was “Street Poetry” from last year. I really like the name of [that project] because it’s kind of contrasting grittiness with elegance.

I came up with that ‘cause I feel like my music is poetry. When people read poetry and say poetry, you can feel it. You can feel what they’re saying. But [my music] is coming from the street. I put it in the street perspective, and put it together to get street poetry.

Your song, “Let’s Get it” featuring 21 Savage, definitely propelled you more into the mainstream. How did you get to working with 21 and how did you feel when the song started blowing up?

Me and 21 Savage, [our connection] was already mutual. I ain’t gonna say I used to be with him personally, but he’s from around that same area. His little bros is some of my bros out in the same area, Eastside of Atlanta. What really happened, he reached out to me on Instagram and was like, I need to get on “Let’s Get It.” He told me to give it to him. The label got it to him and he got on it.

Was it the first time you talked to him?

Yeah.

Were you excited?

Yeah, I was happy.

Tell me a little bit about signing to 300 Entertainment. How does it feel to be so young and working alongside some of the biggest names in the industry? Do you want to collaborate with any other artists?

It feels good. I knew when I signed, I felt like I did all I could do myself. So now I feel like my label is gonna help me get to the next level. They’re gonna plug in pieces that I couldn’t. Collab-wise, I ain’t really too much into collabs. I want everything to be genuine, you feel me? Like if I meet you and we start vibing and everything cool, we can do something together. I just ain’t got no collabs in mind.

You’re really prolific with your music. Every year since 2017, you’ve come out with at least one project, sometimes more. How do you stay so prolific and consistent with your drops?

I just stay locked in. I stay in the studio and perfect my sound. And then I make some music, I ain’t got no choice but to drop my music and stack up. If I could drop every day, I would.

Maybe you will get to that point. Before you signed, you spent some time in jail, and also in recent years you became a father. How have those experiences shifted your worldview or your creative process, if they have?

Jail did. ’Cause when you’re on the street—me, personally—I wasn’t taking no time to think. Everything just go, go, go. I was just doing, doing, doing. And then when they sat me down, I was like, I ain’t got nothing but time. So I was just really thinking, writing down my plans, thinking how I can change my life. I need to do this, I need to do that. Writing down my music and all that. I ain’t gonna say people should go to jail, but jail helps you though, you feel me? You become smarter when you go ’cause you ain’t got nothing but time to think and learn.

I ain’t gonna say [having a kid] changed my approach to music, but I definitely mention him in a lot of my music. Almost every song I talk about my son. I feel like me and my dad ain’t really have no bond, so I feel like I gotta give my son the bond that I didn’t have.

Do you hope he pursues music when he gets older?

Nah, I ain’t gonna lie, I don’t hope he do nothing. I just feel like, whichever way he wants to go, I support. Whatever he wants to do, I ain’t gonna force nothing on him.

Moving into some tattoo related questions—do you remember your first tattoo?

Yeah. It was a star, it’s covered up now. I can’t really get into detail on why I got it, but I just got a star on my chest when I was 13. My mama was mad as hell. She said, “If that tattoo isn’t off by the time I get home, I’m gonna cut it off.”

Did you just keep getting more after that even though she was mad?

That’s how I did it. So she wouldn’t get mad at my next tattoo, I got her name on my arms. I got her name, so how is she gonna get mad at that? ’Cause it’s her name. Then I started going crazy.

Do you feel a difference between the earlier tattoos you got and the tattoos you got since your music career started taking off?

Yeah. ’Cause one of my first tattoos was a basketball, that’s when I was still playing basketball. Now I just be rapping and I ain’t got nothing basketball-related. Basketball ain’t really got no means in my life no more.

Do you have a favorite tattoo or a tattoo you feel is very meaningful to your musical journey?

I ain’t gonna say my musical journey, but I got one that’s important to me. My favorite one—the tattoos on my eyelids is “22.” 2200 is my hood, that’s where I’m from in Eastside, Atlanta. I like it so much ’cause I was thinking when I got it, I’m gonna get tattoos on my eyelids, but it’s gonna say my block. So whenever I die, my eyes are gonna be closed, and this is what they gonna see.

That’s pretty heavy, but cool. What is your most recent tattoo?

The “22” on my stomach. I just got it 2 days ago. Same thing, my block. I ain’t done yet. I’m gonna keep getting 22 everywhere—on my hand, my arms, my back.

Was it really painful on your stomach?

This one hurt the most, on my stomach.

Yeah. I feel like those are always the worst.

Shit hurt bad and it was big as hell, so I had to sit through that long ass, painful ass session. I try not to think about the pain, though. I just think about what it’s gonna look like after.

So with that, the basketball, and your mom’s name and everything, it’s kind of like your tattoo collection depicts all different stages of your life.

Yeah. And when I can’t think of nothing else to get, I’m gonna just tell them to put whatever on me.

Can you explain some of the tattoos on your face?

The first tattoo I put on my face—is the heart right here or is the heart right here? *Points to both sides of his face* This heart used to be broken, it was a broken heart on my face. It’s fixed now, but it was a broken heart. It was just all pain. All the shit that I been through.

*Points to gun on the side of his face* I got a “K” on my face. ’Cause first, I had a tattoo of someone’s name, but then I covered it up. I just told [the tattoo artist] to put a big ass stick on my face just to cover the name up. And then I got my son’s name over here. I had to get my son on my face. I’m gonna get my son again, but I’m gonna get his face. I’ll probably put his face on my back or my arm.

Do you have any upcoming albums or projects that you want to let the readers know about?

I’m finna drop my first album on March 22nd, called “22.”

I see what you did there.

Got 22 songs on there. You can see I’ve been going with the whole “22” thing.

Do you feel like [the album] is a culmination of everything you’ve been doing so far? What can people expect from it?

Really, it’s a little bit of everything on there. It’s some pain on there. There’s some slow shit on there, some turnt shit, like you wanna go to the club. But through all the songs, I tell my story.