“I’m not a sad boy!” says Thai rapper Maximus!, jumping up in his gaming chair a bit. “I’m not depressed, I’m doing good in life. I’m happy. I just like to connect with people who’ve been in a tough spot because I’ve been there before. Everybody has feelings, I just choose to talk it out.” The statement follows a trait in his lyrics, which are often very straightforward, dealing with things head-on instead of trying to guess what someone else is thinking.

In one song, Maximus! raps about treating other people right and wondering whether or not they’ll return the favor. “If I loved them, will they love me? / If I never ever tried to hurt them, will they ever ever try to hurt me?” he asks on “back for me” over a dnb-lite beat. Has he learned the answer to his own question? “People will do what they want either way. But I love spreading positivity, even if it doesn’t come back to me. It makes me feel better about myself.” That’s a pretty clear, grounded outlook for a 19-year-old uni student.

Maximus! has been listening to rap since he was in middle school, inspired mainly by Rap Is Now. But it wasn’t until a trip to LA as an exchange student around 15 that he decided he wanted to be a rapper too. When he came back to Thailand, he started freestyling for fun with his friends and recording songs on gaming headphones. “It was trash but I had a lot of fun,” he laughs. “I was zoned in.” He still prefers to record at home, usually alone, where he can take his time without any distractions. “I just sit and look at my window and think about life and what other people are going through. What I’m going through. Pick something and dive into it.” But he also feeds off the energy of the room when he does get in the studio, preferring to record more upbeat, rage-type music in those settings.

Maximus! has been more likely to cross over into alternative rock than anything, but he also jumps on electronic beats like dnb, Jersey club, and hardstyle occasionally. He’s even got an indy afrobeats track. Dnb was a natural choice as a sound he’s always remembered from the racing games he played as a kid. At first, he didn’t know what it was called, but he still wanted to rap over it. And when he couldn’t find anyone to produce it for him in Thailand, he found some beats online. These days it’s much easier to find local producers working in the style.

From the start, Maximus! had a different idea of what rap could be compared to what he was hearing locally at the time. “I wanted to let people know there was different types of rap. I wanted to be different.” But he also knew it had to mean something. “I want to leave a message to the world before I go. I’ve always been a caring person, even to someone I don’t know. I know people’s emotions can be fragile sometimes, they can be sensitive. And I understand them.” Everyone’s got emotions, and he wants listeners to know that it’s okay to feel a way sometimes. But he doesn’t want emotions to control his life. “I still want to live life, still have sex, still party. But I still have feelings, too.”