24 Hours in NYC with PlaqueBoyMax, Your Favorite Streamer-Turned-Grammy Nominee

There’s a lot you can learn about someone over lunch — especially an intimate one in Manhattan’s Chinatown neighborhood on a rainy Friday afternoon.

This is where we meet up with PlaqueBoyMax, for his last day in New York City prior to heading out to Orlando for his Rolling Loud debut. On the Friday before his flight to Florida, the streamer-turned-rapper-turned-Grammy-nominated producer spent a couple of hours with Hypebeast, bringing us along for his penultimate round of essential errands and tourist outings before he travels South.

Beginning at Dim Sum Palace, we broke bread – aka bao buns, General Tso’s Chicken, and steamed dumplings – with Max and his crew, before heading out to roam the streets of the Lower East Side until popping into a local nail salon for a long-overdue manicure.

In between animated spins of Dim Sum Palace’s Lazy Susan, mid-Orchard Street fan encounters, and eleventh-hour nail art decisions, we learned a lot about the 23-year-old.

Growing up, he was a Pokémon super fan.
Cards, Game Boy, DS – you name it, he played it. Generation V was Max’s childhood favorite game, but he never actually beat it. Pokémon Diamond was the first one he beat.

When he was a kid, he travelled to Hawaii for a Pokémon tournament.
When he was in elementary school, he actually even qualified for a national Pokémon tournament, travelling out to Hawaii to compete. “My parents were so proud. That stuff requires critical thinking,” he recalls. “I got cooked.”

Admittedly, he’s a bandwagon basketball fan.
He doesn’t have a favorite basketball team. When asked him where he likes to watch the New York Knicks games, and he’s quick to tell me that he’s not really a true-to-his-core Knicks fan. Before the Knicks got good, he was (and still is) a Golden State Warriors fan. And before that, he was a Miami Heat fan back when Lebron James was on the team. “I like to win,” he explains. “I can’t support a losing franchise.”

However, he says his football team is the Chiefs, and he’ll always support the Yankees.
“For now,” he jokes about the Kansas City football team, though he stands on his commitment to the New York Yankees when it comes to baseball. After all, it’s his dad’s team, and he grew up coming into the city to watch the Yankees play.

Empanadas are his favorite food.
At least currently, that is.

He plays basketball every day.
And he insists he’s better than ApolloRed. He just f*cked up his knee that day. Max has been playing basketball since he was young, and if he weren’t streaming or rapping, he’d probably be playing basketball.

His top three basketball shoes are the Under Armour Curry 1s, the Nike Lebron 12s, and the Nike Kyrie 2s.
Each of the three models is nostalgic to him, sneakers he associates with his adolescence. All three were part of his daily sneaker rotation, with the Kyrie 2 holding particular weight for him as his eighth-grade basketball sneaker.

Speaking of, Stephen Curry is his favorite basketball player.
Hence, his NBA loyalty will always lie most solidly with the Warriors.

It’s Nettspend’s “you ready?” that’s currently stuck in his head.
The “Polka dot my shirt, polka dot her face,” count of the day was high. Max was also bummed he wouldn’t be at Rolling Loud in time for Nettspend’s set.

He’s big into self-care. 

Manicures are part of his regular upkeep. 

He’s filming for a documentary to be released in five to 10 years. 

When Max rolled up to the Hypebeast office, he, of course, pulled up with his videographer, Luca. He wasn’t streaming, so we just assumed he was collecting footage for a standard YouTube vlog, but he soon clarified that, yes, it’ll get published in a more immediate sense, but, more importantly, it’s for a longer-form documentary. “We’ve just been filming everything,” he adds, having documented as much as possible from the past few years. 

He got his first tattoo when he was 21. 

Nearly his entire body – aside from his stomach – is covered in tattoos. He got his first ink when he was 21 years old back in 2024, and has since covered a majority of his back and arms. Admittedly, there are a few he regrets and has gotten removed, but for the most part, he’s pretty content with his bodacious body art.

He prefers to listen to his music library on shuffle.
When asked what he’s listening to right now, Max utters the classic “a little bit of everything” response. But once he explains his music-streaming habits, it makes a bit more sense. “I listen to music to learn, not to listen,” he explains, preferring to open his library of liked songs and hit shuffle, rather than selecting certain songs manually. “The only time I really lock in and listen to one artist specifically is if I’m listening to a whole album. I’ll always listen to an album in order.”

The most he’s spent on one piece of clothing is $13,000 USD.
While his first big purchase was his car, Max points out his most expensive fashion item as another notable one. The most he’s dropped on one single item? 13 bands on a cheetah print CELINE jacket. “I like cheetah print.”

Pink has been his favorite color for eight years.
“That’s one thing I’ve been consistent with.”

He’s an Aries.
But he doesn’t know too much about it. He doesn’t know his big three.

He’s not “the biggest dumpling guy.”
Somewhat fresh of a visit to China, Max has surely indulged in his fair share of global cuisine. A big fan of the shrimp rice rolls, scallion pancake, and General Tso’s Chicken, he says he isn’t the biggest fan of a dumpling, per se. “It’s a texture thing.”

And prefer waffles over pancakes because of it.
“Waffles just have that different kind of crunch.”

He sleeps on flights.
“That’s usually when I can actually get some sleep in,” he shares, reflecting on his recent lengthy trip from LAX into New York City.

He will always stop for a photo.
Even when the cameras are (rarely) off, Max’s genuineness toward his supporters is clearly more than just a facade for filming. Mid-shooting or not, he will always pause for a picture, be it with an NYPD officer or a wired-headphone-wearing fan. We witnessed both.

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