“Chicago is a beautiful city,” says rapper Lil Durk, switching looks like lanes at his exclusive cover shoot in Brooklyn. Cocaine-white Timbs to J’s, indoor to outdoor, street-side to rooftop, the young king has the camera’s attention. He admits to being a bad kid who lacked guidance growing up in a competitive city with few opportunities, and is open and honest in discussion on how to improve relations, initiate change, and promote progress.
At only 22, Durk strategically thinks five moves ahead like a chess player and makes music the streets relate to. The content is based on his real life experiences. Embraced by Hip Hop’s elite, OG’s and upstarts, label execs, and especially his peers, Durk is perhaps the most important young artist in rap today. Why? It’s simple. He is the voice of the youth, with an ear to the streets, and his eyes on the championship ring – and he’ll bring the trophy back to his block: Lil Durk is the Derek Rose of rap. There’s a bull market in Chicago, but a bear market on the Southside. The young cubs in the white sox ain’t on that bullsh!t.
Durk’s mixtape titles read like a ghetto lexicon offered as both explanation and example of his mindset at the moment of their release, and the skillset required to avoid making the Tribune’s front page. There’s “I’m A Hitta” and “I’m Still A Hitta”, “Life Ain’t No Joke”, “Signed To The Streets” and “Signed To The Streets 2”. Somewhere in the midst of the mix are certified inner-city soundtrack mainstays like “L’s Anthem” and “Dis Ain’t What U Want”, a solid partnership with the homie French Montana’s Coke Boys imprint, a huge major label signing to the iconic Def Jam recordings, the growth of his own OTF movement – which appropriately stands for “Only The Family” – and a handful of crossover smashes, most recently “Like Me”, assisted by fellow Chi-City fan favorite Jeremih. In short, Durk has amassed a careers worth of success, and yet, has barely scratched the surface of his own potential. The future is Sirius light bright and Sirius radio rotated.
On March 27th of this year, just weeks prior to this engagement with DOPE, Durk’s close friend and manager Chino (Uchenna Agina) was killed in a Chicago shooting. The young man was only 24-years-old. Incidents such as these hit far too close to home, compelling Durk to wonder what it’s going to take for the streets of Chicago to calm down and refocus on pursuing educations and careers. Puzzling, because today’s Chi-Raq youth continue to silence each other’s cries for help with violence. A gangland’s dreams are deferred, the people’s futures perceived as ill-fated while the art swirling around them continues to imitate their lives, thus perpetuating the problems: Profiteers profiting off the young prophet’s poetics and the project buildings that produce them. Hood politics.
Lil Durk sat down with executive editor ToneSwep to discuss the huge upside to being from the Southside, explain why his debut album “Remember My Name” promises to be a classic, and state why being a 100% changed man is the ultimate goal.
(ToneSwep: TS) Who was Lil Durk before rap? Young Durk Banks coming up in Englewood on Chicago’s Southside.
(Lil Durk: Durk) Bad little boy with no guidance. That’s what he was, really. Looking for a way out; how to get from around all what was going down in the streets I came up on. The only option was to find a way to live. Somehow someway, you know. Because this America, so… no money no future.
(TS) Now, OTF stands for Only-The-Family. That’s your movement. Then you are signed to Coke Boys, French Montana’s movement. And then your label backing is Def Jam. Explain to us how this all works to make your career move up as it has and continues to. Which organization does what?
(Durk) French is my brother. We collaborate. He gave me that push. What you need to go further with things. Then we got the label deal. So we’re really just focused on Def Jam. Its artists from OTF that are gone get they’re own buzz. Try to win out here. It’s on me to give them that push that I need to give them. Then they can go and be successful out here.
(TS) You are known for mixtapes that sound like albums, Hitta, Signed to The Streets. “Remember My Name” is your highly anticipated debut album, drops June 2nd. How does it differ in sound and concept from your mixtapes?
(Durk)With albums I feel like you have to be more careful with what you say. And you have to make sure it’s the art of music. I want people to walk away knowing my point of view. Then I gotta have fun with it; can’t just do anything. A mixtape is a mix of everything. Whatever you’re doing at the time that’s hot for right now. The album stands forever. And every word, all the music on there, is coming straight from me.
(TS) You, Keef, Bibby, Herb, Chop, Vic Mensa, Chance The Rapper, I mean sh!t… Young Chicago artists are all the heat in Hip Hop. Why is so much musical fire coming from the streets of Chicago right now?
(Durk) Man… Chicago. Young boys just hungry. That’s hunger what we have in common. Our styles and the music we make is different, but we all have that hunger. Man… if we knew we would be on the news like this, though man… We didn’t know I don’t think. Maybe some of us did. Who knew we would be big in the city at the same time, feel me?
(TS) Could Hip Hop, the streets, the clubs, and the radio even hold this collabo right here: You, Lil Herb, and Lil Bibby produced by Young Chop? That sh!t would be too heavy to hold, Durk man.
(Durk) It would go big. It would go real big. Everybody you just mentioned can go. And it would show that the city is together. It would go big and also show unity. Whenever you put a couple rappers from the same city on one big song it shows unity. That one would be big for Chicago.
Image: Alejandro Garcia
(TS) You are the headlining artist of the Drill sound. You’re carrying the flag for that genre, for that camp. Do you feel like it contributes to America’s climate of violence?
(Durk) I would say it’s 50/50. I switch up on some songs. “Like Me” is one. It was never no such thing as Drill in the beginning, not at first, so you can’t claim something you ain’t even know about. I can’t take credit for Drill, because that’s just what people started calling the music coming out the streets of Chicago. Sometimes it may influence something in the streets, so I say 50/50. Because then sometimes it keep people from getting involved in the streets, you know, once they hear about it and see how real it is.
(TS) “Like Me” is a big single, fam. You and Jeremih hit that one out of Cellular Field. How did that song come together?
(Durk) We were in the studio going back and forth. Two Chicago artists making some good music. My management put it together. We did like three or four songs, then we picked the best one. This one is huge. It’s gone be turn’t when I’m touring off it.
(TS) What’s going on in Englewood these days? Your hood on Chi-Town’s Southside. How has it changed, good or bad, from when you were a kid coming up?
(Durk) It’s just more strict, more divided. You can’t really do nothing because the law is out everywhere. You can’t be out running around like we did. It’s more dangerous, more people are against each other, then the police are out and most of them are against you, too.
(TS) In industry circles, you are known to be an intelligent young dude. You’ve made some impressive moves with your career. Do you feel like you get credit for being intelligent?
(Durk) Yeah, because when people speak to me they speak up to me. They give me credit. They see me as outspoken and someone who is gifted, a young artist getting it.
(TS) You strike me as a cat with vision. Did you see all this coming back when “L’s” dropped?
(Durk)Nah, I didn’t. Just something strictly for the city. The main thing was representation. Got that you can win. People may think otherwise, but if the music is good or even when it’s great music, the artist needs to be represented right so you can make the moves you need to. I make good music and then my team is strong and my city is strong. You need all of that. I’m fortunate that everything was in place for me when it needed to be.
(TS) Ok’s here the matchup. Durk with the long locks vs. Durk with the waves brushed in. Who wins in a rap battle? Who gets more girls? Who does more business?
(Durk)(Laughs!) Haircut! Haircut! Haircut wins in all three (Laughs!). Man, you get smarter and you get wiser. I’m staying out of jail, avoiding trouble so I can see what’s going on right now. I’m more attractive with the haircut. Getting a lot more done, but that boy with the long hair out Chicago was a problem too (Laughs!). He wasn’t playing.
(TS) Thots is a term that originated in Chicago. Now everybody is saying thots in every city. Coming from a dude who tours around the country. Which city has the most Thots?
(Durk)(Laughs!) Ain’t no such thing as that. Every city. Nothing different. Every city it’s the same, man. (Laughs!) They’re everywhere.
(TS) Let’s close with a conversation about the streets, where your movement originated. Recently a young Black male died, Freddie Gray, allegedly from injuries sustained while in police custody. What’s your take on the resulting riots in Baltimore?
(Durk) I really just think that’s where everything starts. When people say protest, they think it’s a violent crowd. It’s not at first but… if the police would stop making mistakes like they do a lot of things that happen would stop happening. It’s a racist thing. And there’s a lot of hatred they have toward people in the streets they need to start being honest about. And that’s mostly what it is, you know. The police won’t be honest about a lot of things and until that happens things won’t change. They need to but they won’t until they’ll be honest.
(TS) Heaven forbid, what do you feel would be the public outcry and uproar had a tragedy such as this transpired in Chicago?
(Durk) Chicago is a beautiful city. Chicago is a nice city. I can’t speak on the future. And we’re not going to put that out there. We’re not going to speak that into existence. I hope nothing like that happens ever again in any city anywhere. Let’s hope it don’t, you know.
(TS) Ten years from now in 2025 when you are still a young but even wiser 32-year-old, where will you be in life and career?
(Durk) I want to be comfortable. Topping the charts. A touring artist, touring across the world. Teaching my kids a better way. They won’t have it how I did. I will be a 100% changed man as both an artist and as a person.
“Chicago is a beautiful city,” says rapper Lil Durk, switching looks like lanes at his exclusive cover shoot in Brooklyn. Cocaine-white Timbs to J’s, indoor to outdoor, street-side to rooftop, the young king has the camera’s attention. He admits to being a bad kid who lacked guidance growing up in a competitive city with few opportunities, and is open and honest in discussion on how to improve relations, initiate change, and promote progress.
