On his previous album, 2025’s I Hope You’re Happy, the irrepressible Dallas rapper BigXthaPlug took a break from being the torchbearer for Texas storytelling rap and reinvented himself as a brokenhearted country crooner. That record was BigX’s highest-charting album to date, but his fourth album, BETTER OVER TIME, marks a welcome return to his Southern rap roots, grounding his naturally chopped and screwed drawl in luxurious-sounding soul samples and tight-knit rhyme schemes. BigX surveys the scene from the top, marveling at how far he’s come (“It feels good to be stable, took some time/Just bought my pops a house and gave like 50 to my mom,” he brags on “NO LIMIT,” with a Biggie-referencing hook from Leon Thomas) while also noticing how every win comes at a cost—be it fake friends on the GloRilla duet “FAF,” or locals who say they don’t see him around Dallas anymore. Still, the hustle continues to feed his family, keep his mind right, and continue getting better: “I done already made me a name of being the largest, but I could be bigger,” X promises on “LITE.”