A legacy started here. At least that’s how I saw it.
While Run The Jewels were well underway with their first two albums out, something else was brewing in Buffalo, NY. They ran deeper, came harder, and stayed on everyone’s minds as much as they could with (often too) consistent releases between its members. I’m of course talking about the Griselda crew, later to be more officially known as Griselda Records and its roster.
The prime suspects during this humbler beginning were Westside Gunn, Conway the Machine, and Benny the Butcher, a grimy triumvirate that seemed to channel history’s most brutal and savvy rappers like Onyx, Nas, Jay-Z, even Kool G Rap, but different. Different enough that Griselda is practically its own microgenre of gangster and mafioso rap at this point, stacking newer members and associates like Boldy James, Estee Nack, and Stove God Cooks. If you know rap, then you know Griselda, and you know what they mean and stand for.
While Gunn and Conway were already dropping tapes for rap’s underground to feast on, including Gunn’s signature and often misunderstood Hitler Wears Hermes series, 2015’s Griselda Ghost tape was not only their best tape that year, but also the one that really broke through to a bigger audience and showed the world who the hell they really were, and gave a now legendary and respected underground producer his first big gig, Big Ghost Ltd. This is the first tape that grabbed my attention because I was following Big Ghost and his other endeavors as a realness-first writer and comedic observer of rap culture – if you know, you know, and damn it was good to know.
I certainly hope that Broc and Dan didn’t go too deep into the history like I just did otherwise that was probably pretty boring and redundant to read. I’ll talk about where I was at briefly before getting into the music itself.
You have to understand that in 2015 I was fully back in love with hip-hop. There was a time when I was a teen and young adult where I was all about exploring rock and metal with very little deviation. I was also disillusioned with the state of mainstream rap around the late 2000s which gave me a lot of artists that I just couldn’t connect with like Lil Wayne. But all along, there were little scenes building and barring up online, unleashing around the turn of the decade like Odd Future, Greedhead Music, Mishka Records, shit that spoke to my weird, edgy little soul.
And so we get to Griselda Ghost, a short tape (thankfully, most Griselda projects are mercifully short to compensate for their frequent drops) that executes a grand concept in such a way that it started a whole new wave in rap. Vile boom-bap-ass production from Big Ghost Ltd veiled in wily and opulent raps from Conway and Gunn. Just some of the most poetically violent shit you can hear mixed with a level of success and wealth that’s aspirational for some, unattainable for most, and that’s kind of the point. This is very, very clearly an exaggerated, fantastical apex of the dope boy trope and aesthetic, expertly laid down by two of rap’s most compelling lyricists in the underground.
It makes sense that lately Gunn has taken to incorporating showboating elements of professional wrestling in recent work, and if you think kayfabe sounds a lot like the posturing and studio gangsterism that pervades a lot of rap… well, there’s a video for that. But it’s fun! Like, me, Broc, and Dan just yell quotes from them in a group chat in all caps sometimes, or make up our own Griselda-esque lyrics. It’s fun shit, ridiculously so, but it also speaks to both of their very real lives.
My favorite Griselda member is Conway the Machine without a doubt, but Westside Gunn is a pretty close and confident second because of his unique voice, adlibs, and attitude which seems to have only multiplied over the years. Conway is extravagant when he wants to be, but usually he’s grounded and more traditional with his bars. One of my favorite sections is in “Fendi Seats” and how the rhymes come together with some internal play:
‘N****s got all these fantasies about coke sales
Okay my n***a, whatever make ya boat sail
But me, I don’t speak about the shit I don’t sell
I’m a S.E. G, I don’t ride coattails
All it take is a phone call made
Four goons, four Ks, get ya porch sprayed
I’m just tryna see my name on a Forbes page
My new shit sound like something the Lord made’
Production on this thing is wild as hell. Samples are immaculate without being shit you’ve heard a thousand times before. “Empire” utilizes wailing guitars and understated drums for a punchy penultimate track, “Richer Porter” is rick indeed with sultry horns and a hazy mood, and “If I Ruled the World ‘15” is a bold finish with a soulful air completely with impassioned vocals dangling in the background for Gunn and Conway to disrespect you over.
My favorite though? Maybe a surprise, but it’s “Dutch Masters”, the interlude track that samples The Wire and two Prodigy bars from “Shook Ones Pt. II” pitched down over pensive and beautiful piano and woodwinds, and harmonized vocals from a Lou Bond song, the same sampled on Lil B’s “Whats 100 Dollars” (from his Evil Red Flame tape – another 2010s staple). It’s gentle, but given a new toughened life with the words and context of being on a Griselda tape.
That’s honestly about all of my sale of the tape. I don’t have an overly personal attachment to Griselda Ghost, but I appreciate it so much for being a part of my reintroduction to and true unlocking of my love for hip-hop that’s persevered ever since. There’s only so many times I can listen to Illmatic or Straight Outta Compton after all. This shit’s tough as hell, not to be trifled with, and certainly not for everyone, but the last ten years has been proof positive that when people fuck with Griselda, they really fuck with them. They’ve earned the rep.
