Born in Bay City, Texas, Virgil René Gazca learned quickly that he would have to make something of himself to get through his difficult upbringing. Gazca was always drawn to music, listening to a mix of the in-your-face classic rock of AC/DC, the pulsating nu-metal of Slipknot, and the vivacious southern parking lot pimping music of Slim Thug, Lil Keke, Sauce Walka, and the rappers who ushered in the mid-00s Southern rap takeover. He always gravitated towards music, but after losing his mother early in life, and dealing with his dad being in and out of jail, Gazca faced a crossroads in seventh grade as he pondered how to change his circumstances. “Being a rapper is damn near impossible,” Gazca says. “With the luck that I got, I know I’m not making. What am I going to do in life? I couldn’t see myself doing anything else, so it just had to happen.” With that realization, Gazca got to work, spending as much time in his uncle’s makeshift studio as possible and entering into rap battles around the city. But issues with self-esteem pushed him off the path in a bad way. Scared of repeating the mistakes of his other family members, Gazca re-dedicated himself to his craft around junior year of high school, continuing to hone his rapping with his uncle and his cousins. After locking in and releasing his first project, Southern Texas Project, in 2020, Gazca got the attention of Greg Gates, who offered to manage him. Gates changed Gazca’s life, pushing him to learn to make songs, rather than focus purely on rapping. “La Muerte” was the lightbulb moment for Gazca, a rapid tempo, Mexican guitar-influenced banger that acted as a template to the charismatic trunk rattlers Gazca would go on to make. From there, Gazca stayed in the studio, dropping projects and songs at a furious pace such as 2021’s 1 Double O and 2022’s Nonsense and Mexican Shit. But 2023 would be the year everything fell into place, starting with his breakout track “Johnny Dang,” which saw the Tejano rapper link up with Texas staple Drodi and the “Sittin Sidewayz” legend Paul Wall for a melding of Texas’ storied past and bright future. The track served as a perfect primer to his album, Lonestar Luchador, which meshed his love of wrestling, comedy and hard-hitting bars into a raucous album that showcases his limitless ambition and knack for worldbuilding. In 2024, he continued that momentum, being named to the newest XXL Freshman class and finding success with his follow up project, Texas Technician. The new project forgoes the conceptual approach of Lonestar Luchador in favor of paying homage to the state and sound that made him. Linking with fellow Texas titans such as Z-Ro, Paul Wall, Slim Thug and Le$, while also finding contemporaries to match his energy such as DaBaby, Fredo Bang and MoneyBagg Yo, Texas Technician is a coming-of-age story best heard on the biggest subwoofers in the parking lot. “I like when people hand out CDs in the back of the slab,” Gazca says. “You see that trunk and it’s glowing with the lights and the speakers, and bumping their music. That’s the feeling I wanted to bring to this tape, it just falls back to me loving the hustle and the grind of being a Texas Technician.” Tracks such as the eerie, Screw-influenced flex fest with MoneyBagg Yo “Twisting Fingers,” show off That Mexican OT’s natural ability to bring his features into his world, sounding like a late night, dirt road rager in Texas. While more introspective tracks such as the heartfelt “Muchos Gracias” reveals his somber side, remembering everyone who helped him get to this point. Texas Technician shows all sides of Virgil Rene Gazca, the man inside, and the outlaw, slick-tongued persona of That Mexican OT. With his Texas Technician tour in full swing, new singles like the Denzel Curry vivacious team up “Black Flag Freestyle,” and a new project he says has some of his most eclectic music to date, That Mexican OT has all the support and momentum to ascend to Southern rap royalty, and position himself as a new leader for Texas rap, and beyond.