Donovan Johnson(born July 9, 1985) better known by his stage name XV is an American rapper, singer and songwriter from Wichita, Kansas.
He first gained major attention after the release of his twelfth mixtape Everybody's Nobody. In which he received two awards from DJBooth.net.
His name, XV, refers to the age (15) at which he began to create music. On Monday July 26, 2010, XV announced that he had signed a recording contract with Warner Bros.
The Square in the Circle On July 8, 2008, XV released the mixtape Planet Squaria: The Square in the Circle as a free download. Most of the mixtape was produced by Summers, accompanied by samples of electronica bands Chromeo and Freezepop, and rock band Smashing Pumpkins. The mixtape also featured Lil Wayne.
40 Days & 40 Nights XV released a new song every morning and night for 40 days (80 tracks total) as a project for his blog. Afterwards he compiled the series into a mixtape available as a free download which featured both the morning and night songs in chronological order of their release dates.
The mixtape included artists such as Usher, The Killers, Mickey Factz, Cory Gunz, Tyga, Wiz Khalifa, Kanye West, 88 Keys, and Flobots amongst others. There were 15 original tracks mixed in with the remixes and freestyles recorded over already-made beats.
