For Powell local Kain Baxter, son of Meredith and Josh Baxter, some might say that “if airplanes in the night sky were shooting stars,” he wished right.

But Baxter, who recently opened for rapper B.o.B. in Billings with friend and collaborator Amya Rodriguez, would say it comes down to hard work, not wishing on airplanes as B.o.B.’s classic song goes.

“You just grind, it’s not just putting a song out on Apple Music or Spotify,” Baxter said. “It’s taken years and I have an extremely small audience.” 

Rap and hip hop may be an odd musical choice for a Wyoming local but for Baxter the genres have always been around. His friends and brother would freestyle and the first songs he listened to were on his sister’s iPod. They included Kanye West, Eminem and Kid Cudi. His dad introduced him to “old school” rap like Run DMC and Flava Flav. All these years later Kanye West is still his favorite.

“I don’t think he’s a rapper,” Baxter said. “I think he’s a composer.”

Like any good composer Baxter also isn’t afraid to take his time. He recorded his first song when he was 14-years-old and decided he wanted to pursue a music career at 19 but knew he wasn’t ready yet, so he waited. 

Baxter has worked on producing and recording his music with fellow local artist Noah Faxon, who goes by the stage name Big Fax and Montana artist Prince Lockett.

Baxter said that confidence was an issue but “honestly you just gotta do it.” He compared it to working up the nerves for a cliff jump.

After making the jump Baxter opened for Wifisfuneral, an artist with over 1.2 million monthly listeners on Spotify, with him came Amya Rodriguez, who Baxter found on Snapchat and brought into the recording studio. The two have been close friends and recorded several songs together since then. 

When news came that B.o.B. would be performing at the Pub Station in Billings, Baxter reached out to his former roommate who is a promoter at the venue. Several artists would open for B.o.B. but whoever sold the most tickets would be the last opening act before the main show. Baxter and Rodriguez won the spot and came on stage to a crowd of hundreds, some of them singing along to his songs.

Baxter was focused before the concert. He arrived three hours early to the venue and sat for a total of 10 minutes. He didn’t even think of talking to B.o.B. It just was “not what I was thinking about,” he said. 

Baxter’s next album, “Killed K9” will come out at the end of the month once his stage name is officially changed to Kain Baxter on streaming services.