“Big Persona” [ft. Tyler, the Creator]

Maxo Kream once suggested that he’d have a simpler life by age 30. The goal was to chill out, “coach a high school and be boring.” Now 31, the Houston rapper hasn’t exactly pumped the brakes, but his verses are more rooted in the spoils of success than his turbulent upbringing. On “Big Persona,” his new single with Tyler, the Creator, Maxo extols the virtues of self-made security, taunting scrub MCs with his flashy new zip code.

Tyler plays the consummate hype man, rapping over a horn sample that nods to his Call Me If You Get Lost cut “Lemonhead.” Cocky yet unruffled, he rattles off a litany of assets: Summer home? Check. Diamonds? Check. Grammy? Check. His flow falls slightly behind the beat, crawling over slasher-flick synths and creeping keys. The song hits hardest when he spits each harsh “B” in the chorus: “Big money, big cars, big jewels.” He pounces on the consonants, fortified by the swarm of voices egging him on.

If Tyler is the king of cadence, Maxo supplies “Big Persona” with its reigning one-liners. “I’m the trap Barack Obama,” he says with the nonchalance of someone ordering a sandwich. But more than inflating his own ego, Maxo counts the ways he’s leveled up to care for his family. “Eight figure n---a, no more Section 8/Moved mama out the hood,” he raps, polishing off the verse with a few key details: “Big ass mansion, new estate/Friendly neighbors, pearly gates/Sippin’ Arnold Palmers with my momma chillin’ by the lake.” Maxo’s previous records often chronicled his past in grueling detail, but on “Big Persona,” he stands boldly in the present.