Griselda Records titan Conway The Machine has released his new album King To A GOD. As the Griselda crew has grown in stature from their hometown of Buffalo to the rap underground then the wider hip-hop community, so have the individual members. After Westside Gunn dropped his album Pray For Paris earlier this year, Conway The Machine comes with his own record that is his most expansive to date. He tabs some big names like Freddie Gibbs, Method Man, who proclaims this is the prequel to the "old" him, Lloyd Banks, Dej Loaf, his Griselda label mates and others for features.
“Typically, when I create an album, I tend to focus on being the best rapper and having the best bars. With From King To A GOD, I wanted to show growth; how much I've grown as an artist and how much I've grown as a man. I wanted to showcase versatility and show people that I'm not a one trick pony,” he says in a statement.
There is plenty about the brutal life in poverty on the streets trying to survive and the benefits of new money with cars, women and monetary possessions, but there is more to this record. He tackles police brutality head on with “Front Lines,” where he raps about the system designed to protect cops at the expense of black lives.
“Cops killing' black people on camera and don't get charged,” he raps telling a familiar story of racial profiling that ends with black men dead no matter what the circumstances.
“Just because he from the ghetto, that don't mean he selling' crack, He driving home from work, you pull him over 'cause he black, Think he gangbangin' 'cause he got dreads and a few tats, He reach for his ID, you think he reaching for a strap, He get out, put his hands up, and he still getting' clapped, But if he try to run, you just gon' shoot him in his back, What if it was my son? I wonder how I'm gon' react?”
“Forever Droppin Tears” laments the loss of friends and the trauma that comes with seeing friends die young. This is a long and emotion track that needs to be listened to all the way through. It is open and vulnerable.
The beats on this record allow Conway to shine with people like Alchemist, Murda Beatz and DJ Premier at the controls.
Listen to the full record now and get your copy here. As the late DJ Shay says in the interludes, this is for those that love real hip-hop.
Griselda Records
