BigXThaPlug's I Hope You're Happy Has Arrived: Stream It Now

BigXThaPlug’s third studio album, I Hope You’re Happy, was released on Friday, Aug. 22, and is available on streaming services.

The album, whose emotional themes stem from a breakup, is the Dallas rapper’s foray into country. Acting as a bridge between hip-hop and country with a bit of soul, the 11-track album is a cross-collaboration of Nashville’s biggest stars, featuring Darius Rucker, Jelly Roll, Bailey Zimmerman, Ella Langley, Luke Combs, Shaboozey, Ink, Tucker Wetmore and Thomas Rhett. 
The album’s trailer, directed by Jerry Morka, opens with a sequence of a woman holding a Texas bluebonnet. She looks weighed down by heartbreak before changing her expression to a devious one. As the camera zooms out, she’s smiling, and behind her, a house is on fire—the same one from Bailey Zimmerman’s “All the Way.” It illustrates the highs and lows fans will experience when listening to the album.

Earlier this summer, BigXThaPlug and Shaboozey shut down the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge during rush hour traffic to shoot the video for “Home.” It was the lead single off the album and the second time BigXThaPlug collaborated with Shaboozey after appearing on Where I've Been, Isn't Where I'm Going.

Before the album’s release, BigXThaPlug did several interviews with national outlets, sharing insight into the creation of I Hope You’re Happy.

“I really wanted to go a different lane with it at first. I wanted to just show I was an artist,” he told the Popcast. “The name of the project at first was Not Just Country. There are two songs in the project that you’ll hear and it kind of sound different from the original songs. That’s ‘Pray Hard’ and ‘Long Nights.’ I was just telling my story, but I was in a relationship. The one I loved folded on me and it was a bad breakup. From that point on, the first song I made after that happened was ‘I Hope You’re Happy.’ It was basically me writing a letter to her.”

“It just so happened I went through every step of a breakup,” he further explained of the album’s direction. “When you break up, you don’t just break up, especially when you really love that person. You break up. You don’t talk to them for a little bit. Then you see 'em, ‘how you doing?’ You link up for a little bit. I went through every step of that all while I was making this project.”

You can stream it below.