Brandon Navin
Audio By Carbonatix
Gavin Copeland’s voice is deeper than the ocean. The velvety bass that escapes the man with tattoos above both eyebrows is almost so low it gives his speech the cadence of rolling thunder. That’s why every time he speaks online, it goes viral. His voice started deepening at 18; now, at 26, he’s got the deepest voice in Texas, according to commenters. But Copeland’s significant following isn’t for his one-of-a-kind speaking voice; it’s for his impassioned vibrato that has won the praises of top-billed musicians and the labels that represent them, and he’s only been singing for a year.
Copeland, who grew up in a tiny rural town in Louisiana, relocated to Arlington about 12 years ago. All the while, inspired by Lil Wayne, another artist who made it out of The Boot, Copeland wrote rhymes and dreamed of a rap career. Singing opera was a party trick, casually throwing out the lowest octaves for fun without any formal training. But then he was encouraged to post a video of himself singing, and one melodic freestyle titled “Make a Million” later, his life as he knew it changed.
“I wanted to make it big,” he tells the Observer. “That was always my dream, even since I was a kid, to be famous and to be somebody that mattered. But I feel like I had no idea how this was going to pan out. As soon as [the freestyle] went viral, people started reaching out to me. My life changed after that, and I didn’t even expect it.”
BigXThaPlug is the biggest (or dare we say, largest) name Copeland can drop now, as he calls the breakout “Hell at Night” artist a respected peer. But it wasn’t just Dallas’ rap royalty who noticed the TikTok sensation. Major labels (emphasis on plural) started offering deals. After rounds of heavy competition, Copeland is expected to announce an official signing with an industry leader within the next few weeks.
“I was being told that [labels] were saying that I have some superstar potential,” he says. “I knew I could do this type of music, but I never really thought that I would because I wanted to be on the rap side of it. But I realize this is the way I needed to go.”
His unique voice is often compared to the likes of Teddy Swims. Copeland leans on his Deep South background, raised on Otis Redding and Louis Armstrong, and he pays homage to the blues with every syllable.
“When you got a soul, you just got a soul,” he says. “It can’t be taken. It can’t really be given to you. You just have it. I found that I had the soul in me.”
His voice echoes with the pain and experiences of generations of hard workers doing their best to make ends meet. Now, Copeland hopes he can bottle the experiences of the Southern streets and create generational wealth for his family.
“I really sing with a lot of emotion because it’s like therapy for me to be able to get all this stuff off my chest,” Copeland says.
The soaring musician says he is now recognized everywhere he goes, nearly every day. It’s been quite an adjustment for a small-town guy. From flying to meet with labels to performing at shows to working around the clock, Copeland is making many sacrifices, hoping his dreams step closer to reality along the way. Copeland boasts nearly 100,000 monthly listeners on Spotify and a little over half a million followers across social media channels.
“It’s overwhelming at times, but it was a blessing. I thank God every day for it,” he says.
Dallas Is Already on the Map
Naysayers will try to tell you the Dallas music scene is dead on arrival, but Copeland and his team would fervently disagree. In fact, they argue it’s recently gotten a facelift. While he’s hoping to be our city’s next greatest contribution to music, his lifelong friend-turned-manager, Trey Webb, says he’s just the first of many.
“[Labels] are trying to find the next city,” Webb said. “Almost half the labels I’ve talked to have said ‘Dallas is definitely the place we’re looking.’ In the next five years, Dallas is going to be the place where all the big artists are coming out.”
By then, Copeland hopes to have a Grammy. In fact, he’s got his eyes on 2027’s Best New Artist award. Either way, Webb says whoever wins likely won’t be from the big three cities of our music moment: Nashville, Atlanta or Los Angeles. Labels are looking for new cities with underground artists bringing something completely new to the game. Everyone’s putting their money on Copeland, including himself.
“My sound is super unique to anybody else, so I’m trying to take it all the way to the moon, and just keep being different,” he says.
While Copeland says Dallas is the city to keep an eye on, it’s just as much the city to actually be in, too.
“Louisana is one of them places that’s very hard to make it out, especially if you do music or you’re an athlete,” he said. “There are a lot of people who don’t want you to succeed, and they don’t want to help push you forward. Texas is full of opportunity.”
So earmark Gavin Copeland as the next artist you can say you knew before everyone else. And keep an ear on the streets for the next person joining his meteoric rise.
