The flow was all high energy, charisma and confidence with straight shots of glorifying the grind garnished by doses of remorse. Chinx was determined to redeem himself and it showed in his work: a street preacher whose inner-city sermons illustrated the Far Rockaway Queens neighborhood that raised him.
He pulled no punches with his lyrical content. You got Chinx’s truth from his point of view, saw the street scene through his eyes. His get-money perspective and remain-loyal-to-the-family feelings were sentiments sewn into songs like “Feelings”, “Dope House”, “Couple Ni99az”, “Bodies”, and “DOPE Game: Woulda Been Here Sooner”. Listeners liked the music and respected the man making it. They also admired his resolve. After serving a 4-year prison bid, Chinx, whose name is a clever acronym meaning Coward-Hearted-Individuals-Never-eXist, then turned his life around for the better. Impressively, he enjoyed more success independently than many of his marketed, packaged, and positioned contemporaries who were backed by major record labels.
Chinx willed his way into the entertainment industry with a street-code style, hustler’s work ethic, and high quality music. He consistently rained mixtapes on the rap game then stormed through the nation to sell out shows. A whirlwind across international waters as well, Chinx performed his hits worldwide. From “Hurry Up & Die Vol. 1: Get Ya Casket On” back in ’09 to his “Cocaine Riot” series, Chinx growth as an artist was undeniable. His fan-base, initially exclusive to the five boroughs, spread to the national underground and since 2012 consistently achieved viral success. Radio was next. Fame was close. His debut album “Welcome to JFK” remains one of the year’s most anticipated new projects, though specifics regarding its exact release date are not yet confirmed.
written by ToneSwep
Images by: Kent Miller Studios
His ability to melodically bounce within a track, tweaking his delivery ever so subtly to match the music, was a skill few rappers grasped. Chinx mastered the technique and quickly became known for delivering anthems that felt like the soundtrack to a listener’s life. Homie got inside the music like it was parked in his driveway - drove the drums, honked the horns, and moved the keys. Add in a street cred birthed in New York City and business affiliations with all things Coke Boys and it was clear Chinx career was a private jet running on raps runway cleared for career takeoff. As a pilot with his own platform in NuSense Music Group, only Chinx could determine the heights of his final destination. But he was a jetsetter, so we all knew the sky was the limit. No air traffic could control this kid. The entire industry loved him. Chinx was on fire forever.
Sadly, young Black men who reach success are surrounded by jealousy and hated for our hard work. Whether it be in the form of law enforcement, envious killers, or cutthroat competitors, someone from our own community is eager to gun down our come up. So we move with caution, think defensively, maximize the moments, spend the money fast, not in a race to go broke before the money runs out, but with the reasoning that we may run out of time beforehand; try to experience a lifetime worth of memories in a few minutes. Even a lion lives with the knowledge it is being hunted in a jungle it was already crowned king of, but humanities is a subject taught in college not a prerequisite for living in the projects.
Young Black males aren’t often granted the opportunity to become products of our environment, as some may surmise, because those slots are already taken: drugs, guns, and gangs are the goods given the ghetto. We are most often offered the opportunity to either sell or use, bang or get banged on, to get shot or be the shooter. In essence, to either move the product or be moved by it. A seller or consumer – villain or victim. Once you cease activity on either side of the syndrome and embark on a legitimate means to an ends, as Chinx did, you are suddenly seen as an outsider. In the hood but no longer of it. Getting rich off the marketability of being from there, while failing to give back to those who remain stuck there. Still technically from the hood, but so far from it your return to it is far-fetched. Some don’t want you to leave, some don’t want you to return, some wish you the best, and some want you dead. Ghetto politics are complex, so the residents live in a complex, and most share the same complexion while battling life’s complexities.
The criminal element recruits you during your youth, when hopscotch and tetherball are replaced by steering charges and task force harassment. As police prey on you, your parents pray for you, and you try to praise God while making a way to pay your bills when few places are hiring. And even in the remote event that they are hiring, it doesn’t mean the organization is sworn to fair hiring practices, or business ethics, or diversity, so a young Black male undereducated at an inner-city school and, thus, armed with marginal technical or administrative abilities to offer major corporations in today’s App/Software/Soft-Skill driven business climate, is generally a hiring manager’s last choice after White males, White females, and either gender from any other ethnic group. You find yourself standing at the end of a long line all day waiting for good news that may never arrive. In the meantime the bills don’t suddenly detour to a different address. Nah, they still come to you.
So late nights, we turn to the streets. Later, those streets turn on us. Chinx, born Lionel Pickens, was killed in Queens, New York, in a drive-by shooting at age 31. Cars turn Coffins. Success breeds hatred. Rest in Peace to a young man who rose to prominence then fell victim to a vicious cycle of environmental violence, a murder pathology our cities incubate and, to some, our own art and culture perpetuates… but G was nice. Gone too soon, Chinx was nice.