Lil Texas

Lil Texas is the American face of fast hardcore, a producer who took the genre to 200 BPM and gave the result its own name: texcore. Born Samuel Barry in Dallas and now based in Los Angeles, he has become one of the most recognisable US artists in uptempo hardcore.

From Berklee to 200 BPM

Barry trained at the Berklee College of Music and came up through jazz and classical before the rave pulled him in. Active in the underground since the early 2010s, he made his hard dance festival debut at Basscon: Wasteland in 2018 and built a reputation for a sound faster and louder than almost anything around it. ‘I Am Excited’ became the track that crystallised texcore, his 200 BPM signature.

An all-American hardcore

What sets Lil Texas apart is attitude as much as tempo. He wraps hardcore’s distorted kicks in a punk, Americana-tinged energy that stands out in a scene rooted in Europe. That crossover appeal drew support from names well beyond the hard scene, from Kill The Noise to Pendulum, and led to official remixes of pop giants like Lady Gaga and Elton John.

Uptempo’s US export

On festival stages he shares the fast lane with European uptempo acts like Partyraiser, GPF and Unicorn On Ketamine, representing a growing American hardcore scene. Recent tracks like ‘Like A Boss’ and ‘RECKLESS’ keep his output relentless, and HDRR tracks each new one as it drops.

Every new Lil Texas release lands on the Uptempo Release Radar the day it hits Spotify. The full tracked catalogue is listed above.