My Time
Fresh off his viral smash hit, Rob49 is stepping into the spotlight with his first headlining tour and bold plans to push his music to new heights.
Interview: Stacy-Ann Ellis
Editor’s Note: This story appears in the Fall 2025 issue of XXL Magazine, on newsstands now and available for sale on the XXL website.
Rob49 is a praying man. For the past five years, the New Orleans-bred rapper, born Robert Thomas, has been living in a spirit of gratitude and preparedness. The week his viral breakaway single “WTHelly” came out this past March, he admits on a Zoom call from his hometown in late August that he was praying “heavier than I ever prayed.” Days before this chat, the 26-year-old rhymer was nine time zones away performing at BLU Dubai nightclub, but the jet lag is hardly detectable. Instead, he smiles through his praise of witnessing the biggest song of his career take over everything: “Like, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.”
The inescapable song, from his latest album, Let Me Fly, peaked at No. 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and has 20 million streams on Spotify to date. The album itself debuted at No. 180 on the Billboard 200 in May, two months before the deluxe edition. From choir covers on TikTok to the NBA Finals, “WTHelly” birthed a catchy new addition to the pop culture lexicon.
Rob49’s unplanned rap career has taken off at record speed. Still a curious rap neophyte in 2021, his gritty banger “Vulture Island” officially pushed him into burgeoning rap popularity. Fast-forward, and he has traded bars with heavy hitters like Lil Wayne (“Wassam Baby”), Lil Baby (“Vulture Island V2”), Cardi B (“On Dat Money”) and Travis Scott (“Topia Twins” with 21 Savage), the latter of which racked up over 323 million Spotify streams. Rob also tee’d up “WTHelly” remixes with G Herbo and Justin Bieber this year. To top it all off, he set out on the 17-city Let Me Fly Tour across North America—his first solo headlining trek—in October.
As much as he is spiritual, Rob is also extremely self-aware. While he’s keyed in on his streak of good fortune, he’s just as aware of the perception people have of him as both a rapper and a man. Rob wants to show critics he can rap, acknowledging the doubts some may have about his lyrical prowess. But he intends to show and prove on his own time, not anyone else’s. He’s got a busy fourth quarter to tend to.
Here, Rob49 talks to XXL about being strategic, how “WTHelly” was ruined a bit, why he’s scared to go on tour, the absence of hip-hop cosigns, a potential mixtape with Sexyy Red, his next album and going cold turkey.
XXL: Thanks for taking the time to chat after such a long trip. What was your first time in Dubai like?
Rob49: It was real fun. Going to the mosque, and just the club, like, them knowing my music. That was crazy.
You didn’t expect them to know your stuff?
Hell no. I thought I had got over on the promoter, but I didn’t. He made a lot of money.
Let Me Fly dropped in May, followed by the deluxe version in July. What’s it like seeing your music take off?
It’s been exciting. I understand now that I got phases. For some reason, I just keep having another one, another one, another one. So, now it’s just like fall back, let the next one come. Don’t rush it. I’m just not rushing my growth.
Have you always thought like that? Or is this something you’ve come to learn?
I thought like that when I first came in, and I set myself up for that. Everybody’s telling me, “You need five, six, seven [hits] to go in at one time.” One time I was trying to do it, but then I was like, Man, it’s a reason why I told myself drop strategically because you will burn yourself out so fast. And you wouldn’t get another chance. I understood that you always get another chance. As long as you don’t do no lame sh*t, you’re always gonna get another chance.
“WTHelly” was everywhere. It became a catchphrase, part of the NBA Finals, and went viral on social media. Talk about the impact of creating this piece of culture.
I knew that’s what I was going for with it. But even when I dropped it, they kind of ruined the song for me. They’re looking at it like it’s a hip-hop song. I didn’t make a hip-hop song. I made a fun song. They ruined it by saying, “You gotta do this on here, you should have did this.” No, I did exactly what was supposed to be done because you know the song. They’re looking for Kendrick Lamar. I can rap; I chose not to rap. I chose to have fun and go in there punching.
Does that change how you approach your future work?
I think about it now because I want to show you I could rap. I wanna show you no one can stand next to me, for real. When it comes to anything like rap, hip-hop from Run-DMC, Rakim, to all of ’em, you can’t stand next to me. But at the same time, I’m in this sh*t to make some money, so I know the difference between songs. When a ni**a pays for me for a feature, I ask him, “Do you want a good song, or do you want a hit? Just so you know, I could do both, but what do you want?”
Do you feel like you’ll have one project where you’ll focus on that other rapper persona?
For sure. I know what I want to do, and I know I got time to do it. I’m about to do a tape going on all Rakim, Run-[DMC] [beats]. For the next year, I’m about to do so much stuff with my content and with what I’m doing. For my career, I’ve been being raunchy a lot, so even doing that, I just want to have a better image of myself.
You’re headlining your own tour this year. Are you ready?
I’m really excited. I’m kind of scared, but if you’re not scared, then you ain’t doing something right. Uncomfortable is the best thing to be. I’m ready to just tackle it and do it for real.
What are you scared of?
I don’t know, man. I never been on tour before and I’m one of the people that never thinks I’m as big as I am.
So, how did you prepare?
I’m going through every show and seeing what they mess with a lot. I’m trying to drop some more music before tour. I don’t wanna do it wrong, you know? So, I’m trying to get it together.
You’re kind of an “It” guy connecting different generations, from the youth to big-name peers to OGs. Are you intentional about being in that middle spot and getting respect from all sides?
I wanted something for myself, and God gave me something that I ain’t even know I needed. Because I wanted to be the [untouchable guy], but when you’re that and you’re not working with the youth and you’re not working with people that’s coming up, and you gotta depend on strictly your own thing, people fall off so fast like that.
I think God just put me in a position to just be moderate, always giving me another chance to go bigger and bigger, over and over again. I think that means more to me than anything—not being able to reach a climax and being able to work with different people. I ain’t never too big to work with somebody.
And then you have this respect and relationship with people from back home—Lil Wayne, Birdman, Curren$y. Did you always see yourself being in lockstep with them and resonating in New Orleans?
I ain’t gon’ lie, I always wanted it until I really got where I needed to be. Then I was kind of OK on it. Maybe I’m wrong for feeling like that, but I feel like I want that, but it’s not for me to do it because I’m young. It’s not my job to, you know? It’s other people’s job. And I feel like they don’t be doing it, so it is what it is. As much as they’re supposed to.
On a different note, Sexyy Red, another one of your friends and successful peers, shared a picture of her toes painted to say “I <3 Rob” earlier this year. What was your reaction to the pedicure?
I didn’t even know she did that. She funny as hell. That’s my dawg, though.
Under The Shade Room’s post, she clarified that you’re her bestie and that you have music coming out together. Could you talk about what you’re working on?
We got a lot of songs. It just be banger after banger after banger. We did three songs the other night, and they were just going. She called me the other day like, “You wanna do a tape? Let’s do a tape.” And I know the tape gonna be viral.
So, I don’t know, hopefully. Right now, I’m just working on mine because when you slow your sh*t up to do something else, you never know. If anything comes in between us, we can still do it. But other than that, like, I ain’t stopping what I got going on.
You’ve mentioned listening to The Notorious B.I.G., Slick Rick, Doug E. Fresh and you’ve even said Ready to Die is the best rap album. What is it about the New York sound or its artists that stands out to you?
I ain’t even like a big fan of New York, but I’m a big fan of what they produce. As far as the music and the culture, I love it. I was a big fan of Slick Rick, Rakim, Biggie, all them before I knew about New York, for real. So, they have no connection with me with New York. I just like that they styled what they was on. It was just gas before I knew what gas was. It’s not where they’re from, it is what they’re saying.
Does how they approached their craft play a part in how you do what you do?
Biggie [is] a big influence on my music and Rakim. I got this thing I wanna do with Rakim that’s gonna be gas. I might just start getting on they beats but talking like how I talk. They’d be like, “No way he did that.” I’ma pop it. Imagine me getting on the “Paid in Full” beat. Think you’re really popping it like a young ni**a, but you making that sh*t make sense.
What do you feel like you represent in hip-hop right now?
I think just the young Rick James vibe, but a cleaner one. Just player, like how a player is supposed to be a player. Like a stand-up person. That’s what I’m trying to be on, even if people don’t [see it]. That’s what I’m going for.
What do you think that hip-hop is missing or needs more of in your opinion?
I wanna see more of the dons of this sh*t coming to get some of us young ones and making us the new dons to pick the dons after us. Because our music’s going, [but] people don’t respect the music. Music is all about respect. It don’t matter what Young Thug say on the song, as long as you respect what he said, it could be good.
I think they gotta help us build that level of respect with the world. And now you get to pick the next ones. That’s what didn’t happen for this generation of rappers right now. It stopped at Lil Baby. Muthaf**kas was bigging Lil Baby up, but it stopped there. We ain’t had nobody to do that for us, and a lot of muthaf**kas did it for him. A lot of them did it for Gunna.
What is motivating you now? How are you trying to elevate from here?
Going from raunchy to the riches. That’s motivating me right now because I know what I want
for myself.
Beyond the tour, what else do you have planned for the rest of the year?
I’m working on an album called Life of the Party. I’m pushing that narrative. Like, you gotta hear this in the club. You can’t go without playing Rob.
And lastly, on your song “Get the Picture” this year, you rapped: “I been on pills for four months straight, I’m tryna kick it, kick it, kick it.” Are you in a better place since then? How did you manage to kick it?
I am. I really am. I just stopped. If I say I’m gonna do something and I don’t do it, I feel like a crackhead. So, I just stopped cold turkey. That’s it. I’ve been feeling good. I’d probably do an upper one day, but I ain’t doing no downers at all.
Listen to Rob49’s Let Me Fly Deluxe Album
The fall 2025 issue of XXL magazine featuring Rob49’s interview is available to purchase here. The issue also includes Joey Bada$$ and J.I.D’s cover story interviews, conversations with Chance The Rapper, Curren$y, Hit-Boy, KenTheMan, Wallo267, Bay Swag, Hanumankind, Babyfxce E, Ghostface Killah, Hurricane Wisdom, Conway The Machine, Pluto, TiaCorine, Isaiah Falls, comedian Josh Joshson, Vice President of Music at SiriusXM and Pandora Joshua “J1” Raiford, a look at the change in album rollouts over the years highlighted by Clipse’s Let God Sort Em Out album and more.
