Music
G Herbo Is Focused on Leaving a Landmark
Rising rapper G Herbo plots a debut album that will surpass his highly acclaimed mixtapes.
G Herbo
© Catie Laffoon/Red Bull Content Pool
The best writers are the most taciturn. They observe, listen and assess in near silence. Most, if not all stories and opinions are saved for their art. G Herbo (aka Lil Herb) might be the finest writer to emerge from Chicago’s still flourishing rap renaissance.
Though he recently moved to Los Angeles, Herbo is in Chicago visiting with family and friends when we speak over the phone. He’s articulate and polite, but far from loquacious. “I grew up liking real rap music, real lyrics,” he says when discussing his penchant for words. “I was always mature for my age, so I understood lyrics and what people were saying.”
Joey Bada$$ and G Herbo in Red Bull Studios LA
© Jeremy Deputat/Red Bull Content Pool
Of late, his proclivity for powerful lyrics has been tempered by a virtually gravity-immune rise in popularity. After collaborating with rappers like Common and Nicki Minaj, his 2014 mixtape, “Welcome to Fazoland,” received widespread critical acclaim. September’s “Ballin’ Like I’m Kobe” reaffirmed the promise displayed on the aforementioned project and arguably improved upon it.
This month he performed at the legendary Belasco Theatre in LA and released new songs with Joey Bada$$, Lil Bibby and renowned Atlanta producer Metro Boomin, via Red Bull Sound Select. (Earlier this year, Herbo signed with Cinematic Music Group, the independent label whose roster includes Bada$$.)
What makes Herbo so unique is that his music doesn't operate at a noticeable remove from his city’s unrelenting turmoil. Instead, he offers a hardened and wizened first person perspective. He chronicles the violence and curbside vigils with unmatched vividness and conviction; his lyrics are pointed and his graveled rasp poignant even at its most chilling.
Though often lumped in with drill artists like Chief Keef, Herbo offsets the sub-genre’s unflagging nihilism with an arresting and affecting depth of emotion.
G Herbo (aka Lil Herb) at 30 Days in LA
© Carlo Cruz/Red Bull Content Pool
“I don’t consider myself a drill artist,” he says. “You can compare my music to early Hov and Nas and those types of people. I’m telling real stories about my struggle, my life, and my pain and how I’m trying to come up from under it and change people’s lives.”
Raised in one of the most violent sections of Chicago’s east side, the rapper born Herbert Wright initially wanted to play basketball for living. Though an intelligent student, the block supplanted books and time in the gym throughout his teens. For evidence what happened on the corners in his neighborhood, you need only see the titles of his mixtapes. Each is named after a compatriot lost in the crossfire.
Introduced to local rappers like Twista and Do or Die via his late uncle, Kay-Tone (one half of the Chicago hip-hop duo D 2 Tha S), Herbo eventually turned to music as a means of salvation. Though he continually faced grim and potentially fatal adversity elsewhere, he never considered quitting.
“I knew I wanted to be something, but I never wanted to work a job. Anything I do with my life and my career, I want to love it. I always loved basketball. I love music. I love what I do. I’ve grown to love it even more than I did before.”
For now, Herbo is focusing his intensified passion on recording his still untitled debut album. Though he will break from recording to headline his first solo tour this December, he knows that he wants the material to differ from that of his mixtapes.
G Herbo in Red Bull Studios LA
© Jeremy Deputat/Red Bull Content Pool
“I feel like album material has to be meaningful, [it] has to tell a story. Mixtape material is just something you can just vibe to, something for the moment,” he says. “Album material leaves a landmark.”
When I argue that many of the songs on his mixtape accomplish all he outlines, he’s quick to rebut. The words pour out of him.
“They do, but I feel like I can hit them harder,” he says. “I always try to make myself better. So if it’s album material, I’m going to challenge myself. Maybe my album material will outdo my mixtape material by a long shot.”