"It's Easier To Manage A Dead Artist Than A Live One" | Rapper Lil Xan Goes Full "Karen"
Throws former manager Stat Quo under the drug enabler bus
What do you call a male "Karen?"
Before, the fictitious "Ken" felt appropriate, but now rapper Lil' Xan fits perfectly.
Nicholas Diego Leanos, aka Lil Xan, is a rapper from California's Inland Empire who was part of the wave of successful early Sound Cloud artists.
Although he has been honest about his drug addiction to his stage namesake, Xanax, he claims to be sober now. However, in his newfound state of clarity, he is making sure to blame his now ex-manager, rapper Stat Quo, who Xan has now labeled an enabler.
Now wanting to be known as Diego, the aggrieved artist took to his Instagram Live, in a now saved post captioned "The Dangers of The Music Industry," where he went in on his addiction and Stat Quo.
"Do you guys remember the whole Lil Peep, the story when his management was giving him drugs and it just wasn't helping out and all that?" asked Xan in the video.
"That happened to me on tour. My manager, well I don't even like to call him my manager anymore, Stat Quo, remember that name, Stat Quo."
According to Xan, while he was on tour in 2018 and 2019 with Nicki Minaj and Juice WRLD, his "manager was supplying me with drugs," he said.
Lil Xan said that Stat Quo's enabling extended to contacting his drug dealers and scoring for him to stave off his withdrawal symptoms. According to Xan, his manager knew he couldn't perform while withdrawing, and he made sure to solve the problem.
With the deaths of Lil' Peep, Mac Miller, and more in the entertainment industry over the years from substance abuse, Xan considers himself the revealer of an industry norm.
However, he is less Deep Throat as he is male Karen.
Stat Quo had his recording industry dreams at one point. Eminem and Dr. Dre's former protegè, once signed to Shady Records and Aftermath Entertainment never dropped his debut album Statlanta on the two labels.
However, he eventually released it in 2010 through the label Dream Big Ventures. Now an artist manager and independent label head, Xan positions Stat Quo as a nefarious industry veteran that would "make calls" and spend thousands on the substances Xan needed to perform on tour.
But how much of that is on Stat Quo, the manager versus Lil Xan, the rapper?
"He's gonna act like he didn't do that, like a fuckin' hypocrite, and I'm really feeling like I should take him to court," Xan said. "Because that was a time I almost died from the drugs. I was so skinny, unhealthy. Yeah, but his name is Stat Quo; I'll even f**kin' pin this right here."
According to Masterclass, a music manager is a person (or group of people) who oversees the business affairs of a musician or band.
Enabling a drug addict is wrong; however, if a musical artist is requesting the substances and declaring a lack of them will impede his earning potential, the artist is placing the manager in a precarious position.
Now performances, no money. Also, as a full-grown man, Lil' Xan acts as if Stat Quo made him do something he wasn't already doing before he met Stat Quo.
In August, Lil Xan spoke to 60 Minutes about how his addiction began. He explained that at 18, he was prescribed benzodiazepine for anxiety. Later he switched to Xanax, which became his drug of choice.
"I looked in the mirror and I'm like—it was just that moment you know, like, if I keep doing this, I'm gonna die soon," Xan said to 60 Minutes.
However, what should be a moment for self-reflection and healing turned into a blam-game with potential legal ramifications. Xan claims Stat Quo also stole his car and moved him to Corona, California, away from his Los Angeles base of influence.
The threats and mobilization of a prosecutorial opening statement have transformed Xan into the neo-Karen. Stat Quo is a Black man, and aside from his guilt in keeping Xan high, there is a slippery slope in cases like this.
Xan places significant blame on the fall off of his career on Stat Quo's shoulders due to enabling his abuse. However, he never addresses why he took the drugs or needed the drugs.
Moreover, why didn't he go to rehab and leave the tour? Did The lure of money entrance Lil Xan to stay on tour and get through his withdrawals by any means necessary?
Of course. The two are two peas in a pod, living the fast life in the public eye and capitalizing off the badassery that the music industry portends as a lifestyle.
To attempt to bury Stat Quo is unfathomable without solely blaming yourself as the user. Lil' Xan acts like a trafficked artist who was kept in order through narcotic dosing. However, it was voluntary, and is a music manager oversees the business affairs of an artist; Stat Quo was following the guidelines his artist set.
Was it a good strategy from a morality standpoint? Not. However, Lil' Xan cannot disengage his culpability in exchange for Stat Quo's. It's a convenient narrative with an infamous history across racial lines in America.
Lil' Xan joins Tekashi 6ix9ine as yet another visitor into rap culture that has brought conflated street and morality politics into a corporate music game created to enslave tortured creative souls.
When asked how he felt about his chosen stage name spurring more usage of drugs by his generation, he told 60 Minutes, “I have no one to blame but myself.”
Stat Quo only serves as a bow for Lil' Xan to wrap his varied box of problems around.