Meet Xavier Goodman, a north Minneapolis rapper with 800K TikTok followers

He's yet to perform a live gig. He only started posting songs online a few months before the pandemic hit. Two years later, his only real piece of music equipment is still just a $100 microphone.

Despite all that — and maybe thanks in part to some of it — Xavier Goodman is coming out of quarantine with 830,000 followers on TikTok, a top 10 album debut on Spotify and a lot of other impressive online numbers.

Now if he can just finally get that live gig. An acting part in a major motion picture or Broadway theatrical production would be nice, too.

"I'm ready for all of it," said the distinctly confident but un-cocky actor-turned-rapper from north Minneapolis, who turned 21 during lockdown.

Proud to call himself "a theater kid," Goodman racked up roles in "Beauty & the Beast," "Annie" and other productions via Project Success while at Patrick Henry High School. He also studied at the Guthrie and even took classes one summer at the Globe Theater in London.

Acting on stage, he said, gave him the "skills to be animated, theatrical, vibe-y" as well as being "not at all nervous" to become a rapper, too.

"Starting out, I would just improvise and freestyle over a beat, which came pretty naturally to me coming from theater," he said. "I mostly did it for fun."

"I told myself, 'I'm going to make something out of this no matter what,' " he recalled.

When you listen to the resulting songs, though, you'll know Goodman didn't take his music too seriously. Which is a big part of its appeal.

His debut album, "From My Drafts" — which made Spotify's top 10 debuts chart in early April but still hasn't seen a physical release — is loaded with fun, lighthearted, sometimes smart-alecky and occasionally sweet songs.

Musically, Goodman echoes Chance the Rapper's conversational but melodic style along with a proudly nerdy, nasal-y rapper bravado á la Prof or MC Lars. Lyrically, he's playful and sometimes catty, as evidenced in the lead single "I'm Loving Your Vibe," which sounds like a love song to somebody who's not all that great:

I don't think that I like you

Okay, you're not very special to me

But I think I'm loving your vibe

Other standout tracks include the wiry, high-energy opening song "Bumblebees" (which rightfully predicts he'll garner a buzz) and the would-be anthem "I'm Not a Rapper" (where he asks that you just call him an "artist").

Not surprisingly, Goodman described his lyric-writing process as "just whatever comes out and feels good."

That good feeling did not diminish over the tumultuous past year. First came the police killing of George Floyd, then Daunte Wright — the latter a kid his age, who was killed not far from where Goodman lives with his mom in Brooklyn Center. Police headquarters, in fact, is just a block from their house.

"I want my songs to be something that will take people's minds off all the bad stuff and make them think of better things, make them reach for their potential. Kind of like a good movie."

TV and movies became his escape and eventually his passion growing up, after he and his family moved to north Minneapolis from Baltimore and "spent a few years sleeping on couches."

Before the pandemic, he acted on screen in several short, independently made films issued online. He also got in early on TikTok, starting out five years ago posting funny little skits and videos with him freestyling over other songs.

Eventually, his own songs made their way into his TikTok videos, which — a few hundred thousand followers and 15 million likes later — became great promotion for those songs on other platforms such as Spotify and YouTube.

Currently, Goodman is writing and planning to direct and star in his own film. As for his music, he said he hasn't "gotten offers from every record company, but most of them."

"I think the main thing that's gotten me this far is that I always believed I had it in me to get to the next level, and the next level after that," he said. "That never went away, even when [the pandemic] shut down a lot of other people's careers and dreams."

Chris Riemenschneider • 612-673-4658