On the final night of February in New York, the streets were still lined with snow from two successive storms, but the frigid cold that had gripped our city for much of the month had abated. And inside the Gramercy Theatre, things were truly heating up. A mosh pit surged and ebbed, a sea of bodies and phones bounced virtually non-stop, and voices shouted and sang along with songs new and not-so-new. The 16-and-over crowd ranged from teens to fans well into their 20s – a reflection of the fact that the young headliner on stage was not a newcomer, exactly, but a prodigal hip-hop son who had returned from too long in the wilderness: the COVID-era Atlanta wunderkind of post-Soundcloud rap, the crown prince of Cactus Jack, SoFaygo, was back to a rapturous reception. 

Between the old axioms “Absence makes the heart grow fonder” and “Out of sight, out of mind,” you’d have to say that in young hip-hop, the latter generally wins out. Conventional wisdom in Gen Z rap holds that your time is now, you don’t know how long you have, so you’d better get while the getting is good and drop music early and often. And disappearing for months? Never mind the two and a half years between SoFaygo’s mid-2023 project GO+ and last fall’s release of the 19-track mixtape MANIA? Some might call that suicidal. But Faygo is in the process of proving that thinking wrong. From fans and pundits, MANIA earned some of the most positive responses of his still-young career, and the current tour to support it (New York was the sixth of eight stops) has sold out and set him up for another leg later in the year. 

The artist born Andre Burt started making music in a basement when he was only thigh-high, was posting in his early teens and by 17 had dropped his first two EP’s. While many of the new gen began their careers during COVID’s lockdowns, SoFaygo actually straddled the pandemic. 2019 saw an attention-grabbing release, War, and a collaboration with a simultaneously rising star, Lil Tecca, lead to his viral monster single, “Knock Knock.” He tallied seven-figure streams on more tapes and EP’s, had a preternatural ease with melody and a high-low vocal dynamic, and attracted the attention of, among others. Travis Scott.  In 2021 he signed with the Houstonian’s Cactus Jack label, joining a roster including Scott, Don Toliver and Sheck Wes. It was a headline-grabbing moment that put the then 19-year-old in a new spotlight and only ramped up attention on his debut studio LP, 2022’s Pink Heartz. 

Photography by @shotbycones

That album proved divisive, with some critics and fans finding the relative polish lacking in comparison to Faygo’s, more raw and hype early songs including “Off the Map” and “Everyday.” From that moment, Faygo seemed to retreat. The following summer there was an EP, GO+, with only a handful of shows to promote it. And from late 2023 into 2025, there were more rumours about his next project than actual news. A few singles bore cryptic titles like “Wish I Could Tell You” and “Life So Crazy” and he toured, supporting Nav and Lil Tecca. But as months turned into years with no project in sight, “What Happened to SoFaygo?” became a narrative, and theories about his absence from the scene ran rampant, including that he had left music or that the label was holding him back. He rarely commented publicly on any of it, and when he did, asking a fan, “Don’t y’all think there’s a reason I’m not dropping?” it seemed to only fuel speculation. 

Finally, last spring and summer a new chapter dawned. May saw the release of “Don’t Hold The Fire,” an infectious, wavy single that recalled the best of melodic Faygo, followed by the Cactus Jack compilation Jackboys 2 that featured a Scott-SoFaygo collab, “CONTEST,” and Faygo’s own “MM3,” a jolt of turnt high energy that set the table for what was to come: at long last, the November release of MANIA, whose most crowd-pleasing singles are its wildest: “OUTSIDE,” “EXTREME” and ‘BACK IN THE MIX” – a title that speaks for itself. “I’m back in the mix, how’d we pull off this shit?” Faygo exclaims.

Seeing Faygo live on the MANIA tour is a reminder that he is not often enough given credit for his influence on the wave that came just a few years after him – the rage rap kids, birthed by Playboi Carti’s seminal Whole Lotta Red but who undeniably take a cue from what Faygo brought to the game: an unambiguous, enthusiastic embrace of youth. Being hard, streetwise and lyrically dexterous had long trumped being young and chaotic, but no more, at least not in the underground. SoFaygo was not so much a child of rage as maybe an older cousin – a bridge figure between two eras who landed a cosign by a superstar. And vocally, he helped normalize high-register melodic masculinity before weedy ragers made it explosive. With MANIA – the album and especially the tour – he seems to reclaim some of that lineage. 

On stage at the Gramercy, he was joined by North Carolina rapper sosocamo  for their collaborative track “me & you,” which had only dropped a day before and on which SoFaygo calls out unnamed others for “jacking my swag.” And it did not go unnoticed that only hours after the U.S. and Israel had launched a war of choice against Iran, the young artist not normally given to political statements sported a one-of-a-kind t-shirt by Better With Age that sported the word “PROTEST” across the chest.

Two hours before showtime, VMAN sat down in a quiet green room with SoFaygo. Warm, open and refreshingly grateful for all that has come his way, he seems newly determined for a second chapter of what has already been an impressive career. He doesn’t appear to be on anyone’s clock but his own, understanding – perhaps by dint of being around Cactus Jack’s more seasoned pros – that the long game can be the more rewarding one, even if it means taking a break occasionally, for a reset. 

VMAN: Faygo it’s great to finally meet you! Congratulations on everything that’s been going on with MANIA and the tour. 

SoFaygo:  Thank you! I appreciate it. 

VMAN: Obviously we want to talk about all that but first – the most recent thing is this track and video “me & you” with sosocamo, on his album which just dropped yesterday. People are loving your verse on it, and there’s a line in it: “I’m trying to find a new balance to the madness.”

SoFaygo: Yep

VMAN: And I wondered whether that speaks to this time you’re in. During that period where you weren’t dropping as much music, there was obviously a lot of speculation about what was going on with you. And do you think you’re now in a sense feeling more “balanced”? 

SoFaygo: Yeah, I would say that mentally, I feel more locked in than I’ve ever been in my career thus far. 

VMAN: As a result of this record, MANIA? Or the tour? 

SoFaygo: You could say that, and a lot of other personal things go into it. But I would say that MANIA really put me in that mode. I feel like MANIA was good for me cause it’s a project that can showcase what I can do, as well as having both the youth, and having that support system of the OG fans, who know me for my original sound. And I just feel like it’s put me in a good space, bro. 

VMAN: We’re now on the sixth night of the tour. And you had not toured since going out with Lil Tecca [his HVN ON EARTH tour] in 2024? 

SoFaygo: Yes. 

VMAN: So that’s two years. Is it like riding a bike? When you did your first show of the tour in L.A. did you get up there and were like “I feel like I did this yesterday?” Or were there some nerves? 

SoFaygo: No, it was like I did it yesterday. What really got me back in that mode was I had a show in London [Counterfeit Festival, August 2025] and that was probably my first show, really, back outside, on the road, since Tecca’s tour. And that show was everything, it was just so crazy. Also I feel like “MM3” [from last summer’s JACKBOYS 2] I feel like that really brought an energy to my shows. And working on MANIA, and smacking everybody with it, I feel like really brought people into that world, that I was trying to build out with my music. 

VMAN: So has anything surprised you yet about the tour? Or how people have responded to the music. 

SoFaygo: This is my first tour, bro! My first own tour. 

VMAN: Yeah, which is crazy to think about, Lamaar [Faygo’s manager] mentioned that to me and I was like, “Wow, is that right?” 

SoFaygo: [laughs]

VMAN: I knew you had been out with Lil Tecca and others, but I didn’t realize you had not headlined a tour of your own. 

SoFaygo: Yeah I’ve always just been opening for other people. I’ve opened for Nav, Trippie Redd, Tecca, you know what I mean. I did my own Europe tour. That definitely was a different type of experience. But this tour, for sure – what’s probably surprised me the most is how many lyrics people know, like already, off the bat. 

VMAN: Well I mean, they have the record for three months now. 

SoFaygo: Yeah but it’s crazy because I always, when I am on tour, I watch the headliners. I watch Nav, I watch Tecca, I watch Don [Toliver].I watch Trippie – all these guys. And seeing how their fans react to their music it’s like – now I get that same feeling.

VMAN: And it must be, I’m sure you got a great reception from the fans of those artists as well, but to know this house is all here for you? That’s a different thing. 

SoFaygo: Right. It’s a whole different feeling – and it feels good! [laughs] 

VMAN: How do you think you’ve changed as a live performer, since early days? 

SoFaygo: So me and my girl, we’ve talked about this before too – I’ve seen a lot of growth in me, performance-wise, from like the first, SoundCloud days, the Atlanta shows to now. I definitely feel like I am way  more confident on stage, in front of the crowd. And I also feel like I use my voice a lot more. I feel like I sing a lot more, instead of just like, yelling. You could probably even look at footage from my first Rolling Loud [2021] that I did in Miami, like I was just up onstage yelling, like “Aaargh…”! You know what I mean? I wasn’t really singing, I wasn’t really rapping, any of that. And I feel like now I’ve kind of found that balance of how to use my melodies, and still rap and still have the crowd turnt, jump around and have that energy. 

VMAN: I guess “Hits on Hits” is probably the oldest one you’re doing? 

SoFaygo: Yeah. Mm hmm. 

VMAN:  Yeah I would guess many fans know everything from that one all the way through the MANIA songs. But if these are 16 and over shows, there might be some young ones out there that might not even know as much of the older stuff. 

SoFaygo: Exactly, and that’s the thing too it’s like I want to make sure like, even the new fans have that moment, can share those moments of me playing their favorite songs, you know what I mean? I don’t want to just cater to super, super OG fans all the time. Even though like, I throw a couple of those older jawns in there, like the ones that a lot of people know, but the experience is definitely more for the newer audience too. 

VMAN: So now to the part of the interview we can file under “Why did Faygo disappear?”

SoFaygo: [laughs] Okay!

VMAN: And I know you didn’t totally disappear – there were singles in that period, and you had the Pressure EP [a Soundcloud-only release] and you were touring. But still, two and a half years between GO+ and MANIA – I don’t have to tell you, in your world, some people consider that an eternity. Cause young hip-hop fans are impatient. And some guys will be dropping two full projects in a calendar year! Not that more is always better. But before I hit you with some “theories” that were out there, let me ask you – in the broadest sense, why would you say it was such a long time?

SoFaygo: Um…because I wasn’t ready yet! That’s it. 

VMAN: Musically? Or…mentally? 

SoFaygo: Mentally, I wasn’t ready yet, and musically, I feel like MANIA was just that project that I could take on the road. 

VMAN:  So you needed a project that you felt would translate live? Like, what’s the point of doing something if it’s not gonna turn into a high-energy show…

SoFaygo: Exactly. Even just learning from Trav, like I just wanted to have that project that I made an experience. You know, and not just a collection of songs. 

VMAN: Well you know the internet hates to not have information, so they tend to make up their own stories. But people would come up with their own explanations, or look for signs, and for instance look at a song like “Wish I Could Tell You,” which says in it, “I’m taking shit slow,” and there’s a line I believe about “I bought a new home…” 

SoFaygo: Yeah 

VMAN: And so people would conclude, like, “Oh so he’s just handling life business.” And is that kind of what was going on? 

SoFaygo: Yeah I was just handling life business. And you know what I’m saying, I was just a young kid, bro. I was a kid, and I blew up on the internet, and you know, got a lot of money, and you know what I’m saying, had hella eyes on me,  a  lot of people looking at me, and I was trying to, you know, grow up, and figure out what the world is. Figure out, what I’m doing! [laughs] You know? So, that’s really it man. Just trying to figure it out. 

VMAN: So I’m sure you were aware that there were people saying “He’s lost interest…” 

SoFaygo: Yeah, hell no! 

VMAN: “…he doesn’t want to make music anymore…” type of thing?

SoFaygo: Never, ever in my life will I lose interest in music. This is all I do! Like you can ask my mama! I been making music since I was a little boy. I been making music since I was this tall! [holds his hand four feet high]

VMAN: Yeah I know that. 

SoFaygo: So [laughs] you know what I’m saying? It’s all I know, I don’t know nothing else! 

VMAN: And then other people would theorize that the label was holding you back from dropping? 

SoFaygo: Nah 

VMAN: No? That was not happening? 

SoFaygo: Mm mm. Not Trav – nobody from Cactus has ever held me back from doing anything at all. 

VMAN: I think I saw the other day that this month is exactly five years since you signed with Cactus Jack? 

SoFaygo: Yep, uh huh. 

VMAN:  And it’s all still good? They’re still supportive, still family? 

SoFaygo: Yes. I learned a lot from them bros, man. They have taught me so much, and being around them has honestly grown me  a lot more as an artist, and also just learning the game and shit, man. 

VMAN:  Last year you would occasionally respond to people online who were speculating about a lot of things that they thought might be going on with you, You would say, “Don’t y’all think I wanna drop?” or “Don’t y’all think there’s a reason I’m not dropping?” 

SoFaygo: Yes

VMAN: And that was kind of an answer, but not really, I think for some people it was like, “Well he can’t say what the reason was…” 

SoFaygo: See that’s cause, you know [laughs] I wasn’t PR-trained! So I was just saying shit, but I didn’t mean that…

VMAN: Like you were being gagged and couldn’t say…

SoFaygo: Exactly, exactly. It was nothing like that, bro. It was just, I wasn’t ready. With my music, I just want to give y’all something special. I want it to be a special project, and I just wanna really put my heart into it, and give y’all something that production-wise, lit-wise is crazy, melodic-wise is crazy – and until I figure out that formula and until I put all those ingredients in the pot, then I’m not gonna give y’all too much, if you know what I mean. 

VMAN: And so you would say that people were  making more drama about what was going on and why you hadn’t dropped than what was really going on? 

SoFaygo: Yeah, a thousand per cent. A hundred thousand! I’m just like [laughs] – me, bruh, I’m such a troll myself. That’s why my fans are so like – they tweaked out, cause I’m a troll myself. 

VMAN: After GO+ at first the rumors were your next project would be Never Apologize, and then supposedly the title was War 2, and then early 2024 a lot of music got leaked. 

So was that part of what set things back? 

SoFaygo: Yes, a huge reason that stuff got pushed back. Once shit gets leaked I’m getting phone calls, like “Hey, they got the project bruh! What are we gon’ do?” And I was like, “Wait, what…?” [laughs] And so the leaking really did fuck some things up. But not all the way, cause I feel like there is always a light at the end of the dark tunnel. And I know that some of those songs that we recorded for War 2 and Never Apologize, projects that were supposed to be – they ended up being on MANIA. Like “SEE ME SHINE” was one of them, “SAFE,” “WASTED.” 

VMAN: There’s a line at the end of your verse in “me & you” with sosocamo where you talk about certain other people “jackin’ my swag.” 

SoFaygo: Yeah [laughs] 

VMAN: [laughs} So, now – in that two-year period or so when you weren’t dropping,  “rage’ or maybe “post-rage” really became sort of the predominant sound of the underground. And I know you’re only a few years older than some of those guys, but do you feel like you were kind of a pioneer of what is happening now, and that people were or are sort of jacking what you did? 

SoFaygo: Okay so – I’m gonna answer the first part. I do feel like I am a pioneer for the rage sound, of course. But I also feel like, if you poppin, and you got a movement going on, and you have a swag, you’re gonna have people that are jacking your swag. 

VMAN: It’s inevitable, cause they see it’s working. 

SoFaygo: Exactly. So that’s just what that was. But I do feel like a pioneer of the rage sound. Like, “Off the Map” [2020] – even songs that came after “Off the Map”. Although I definitely feel like I put my own spin on it. 

VMAN: Are you a competitive person when it comes to music? 

SoFaygo: No. Cause at the end of the day, I just like making music, bro, and I just like looking at my own shit. I want to see progression in my own shit, you know? I don’t really pay too much attention, I’m just kind of in my own world. It’s like, Faygo gotta do what Faygo gotta do, man! [laughs] 

VMAN: It’s funny, I think too many people think a career is just a steadily upward trajectory or you fall off, and I don’t think it’s always a straight line. 

SoFaygo: The way I look at it is, like, I’m 24 years old, right?  And I blew up when I was probably 18, 19? I’m 24 and just now really getting outside, meeting people that do this shit for real, professionally, different types of people in the industry. Shit like that. Future is 40-something. Travis is 30-something. Don is 30. You know what I mean? So, the way I look at it? I feel like I have time to figure out what the fuck I’m doing. And I feel like a lot of people don’t see it like that, but only time will tell. Because like, look at my fans, bro! Look at how they’re still going crazy, even those ones that were fans of me years ago when I was 18, and they’re still coming to shows. It’s about connections, and building that out. 

VMAN: On the style front, I guess your hair is probably the thing people visually most associate with you, the long locs that have gone through a few colors. But lately, and definitely on the tour, you’re wearing it pulled back. 

SoFaygo: Braided. 

VMAN: Yeah braided. So do you prefer that to having locs hanging? 

SoFaygo: I feel like the braid back is just clean? [laughs] And my girl, she does my hair too, so I be always telling her, “I fuck with the braid back, I want that again!” [laughs] And it’s easier not having long hair like slapping me in the eye when I’m jumping around and shit. Also, I feel like to me, now I’m making it more about the music and the actual experience and my presence instead of my appearance. You know what I’m saying? But at the same time it’s not like I’m straying away from that. You know I still like to dye my hair, I still like to do shit like that. It’s just depending on what I’m feeling. 

VMAN: And clothes-wise – I see you’re all in black today. Is black still pretty much your go-to color? Or do you fuck around with colors? 

SoFaygo: I fuck around with colors, I’ve always fucked around with colors. I mean I like to wear all black, but majority of the time, like you can look at my archive, or old pictures on my Instagram, bro, I’m dripped in all type of different colors. That’s always been me though.

VMAN: The color scheme for the MANIA project is mainly red and black? 

SoFaygo: Yeah but as far as clothes? I don’t really have a specific way I am dressing for this tour. Eventually I will get to that, you know what I’m saying? But I felt like for this tour I wanted to really just pull up as myself and give my fans that raw energy, as just me. Just how I regularly dress. Everything I do is just based off of personal interest.  That’s it! [laugh] I mean people done stopped wearing the skinny jeans [he is wearing skinny black jeans], it’s baggies and…

VMAN: Yeah I saw a thing the other day with Xaviersobased, the Pitchfork Overrated/Underrated thing, and Xavier said he felt like “now because everyone is wearing baggy, that skinny jeans are underrated.” He was like, “There’s nothing wrong with skinny jeans, if that’s your thing.” 

SoFaygo: That’s it! If you can rock them, and you like em, shit then do it. And that’s what I do! I rock what I like to rock, I don’t really go by people’s opinions. 

VMAN: With this, let’s say “return” you’re in, I don’t think to most of these fans, especially the day ones, that you have to prove anything to anybody. But is there a part of you that feels like, “I need to remind these people” or maybe “reclaim my audience?”

SoFaygo: No, not really. You know, if you left well, you did what you gotta do! And if you’re still here, well you’re a real one, I ain’t gonna lie. And I only feel like I’ve got something to prove to these fans, who are pulling up to these shows and buying these tickets. I feel like I owe them something. Those are the only people I feel like I owe anything to. I feel like I owe something to my family, to myself, and to God. And these people out here, that’s really it. 

VMAN: You seem happy! Would you say you’re in a better place this time than, say, a year ago? 

SoFaygo: Completely. I feel like I am a thousand times more motivated and I truly feel the support from my true fans and my family. I just feel that fire, man. And that’s another thing, like, going back to the song “Don’t Hold the Fire” – I feel like when I dropped that song, specifically at that time [May 2025] that set a whole different thing off for me. It put a whole different type of battery in my back.

VMAN: You think we’ll see another project from you before the end of the year? Have you already recorded new music? 

SoFaygo: Yes. One hundred per cent. I am still actively recording. In the past like three days, I recorded like four songs already on this tour. So I’m still working, I’m still in that mode. When I get time in these different cities? I’m hitting the studio. I’m hitting a studio tomorrow! [laughs] You know what I mean? So…yeah man I just feel with me right now it’s just all about consistency, and just staying like on top of it. Because I feel like that’s the one thing that my fans talk about the most? Is just me staying consistent. Because they already believe in me, you know what I mean? They know I got it, they just want to see me stay consistent. And I know I got it. As long as I stay consistent, and keep dropping that fire shit, man, it’s inevitable.