#9 - You know the drill 🌞

In today’s edition, we’re getting into some of the grim realities of hip-hop. Here's what we have queued up this week:

1. 🎹 Song recs from the drill genre.

2. 🎙️ Lil Durk is our artist of the week.

3. 📈 Data on “death industry.”

4. 💿 Industry updates, we have a lot of 'em.

5. 🎡 Festivals coming up next week and more tour announcements.

Drill songs we're currently listening to 🎹 

From the Vault 🔙

Donya's Pick

Chris's Pick

Artist of the Week: Lil Durk 🎙️

What’s Chicago “Drill”?

In the early 2010s, hip-hop artists, initially from Chicago, began to combine the production popularity of “trap music” with the lyrical content of “gangster rap,” forming the precursor of what we know today as “drill,” a gritty subgenre of hip-hop. To give you a better idea of what this fusion is like, take the production elements from rap songs typically associated with drugs like “biebs in the trap”, and mix them with the vivid lyrics of gang life in a song like “m.A.A.d city,” and what you end up with is something similar to Nardo Wick’s “Who Want Smoke??”. The subgenre of “drill” is purposefully intense and nihilistic, and it usually reflects a regional sound tied to a variety of factors that impact the rapper, particularly related to struggles with coming-of-age experiences or social and cultural influences that are subject to the rapper’s direct surroundings. Now, if you apply this paradigm to the hip-hop coming out of South Side Chicago, what you get is hard, gritty details of gang life from the likes of Chief Keef and most recently, Lil Durk and his late “Only the Family” (OTF) labelmate and close friend, King Von.

Opposing Gangs

Chicago has a long and unfortunate history of gang violence stemming from the rise of many gangs and multi-street gang alliances. However, one Chicago gang stands out more notably than others–the Gangster Disciples. If you’re familiar with the name Larry Hoover (you’ve likely heard his name from songs like “B.M.F.,” or more recently through Kanye West and Drake’s Free Larry Hoover Benefit Concert), he originally founded and led the Gangster Disciples, which later merged with the Black Disciples led by King David Barksdale, to form the Black Gangster Disciples Nation. Under Hoover’s sole authority (after David Barksdale’s death), the joint gang controlled the majority of the drug trade until ideological differences caused a splintering effect on the gang, resulting in two primary factions, the Gangster Disciples and the Black Disciples. These two factions ultimately became rivals, and within the recent decade, the two groups have escalated their gang war, particularly in what is now considered the most dangerous block in America – O’Block.

Welcome to O’Block

Hailing from O’Block, Durk Banks, better known as Lil Durk, grew up in an understandably difficult environment. He and his three sisters were raised by their mother, who was a single parent (his father was incarcerated for crack-cocaine distribution right after Durk was born). In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, Lil Durk recalls many instances where he didn’t have enough food and felt no guidance in his life, ultimately leading him to join the Black Disciples gang. During his time as an active member, he experienced numerous run-ins with the law, particularly as the turf war between the Black Disciples and Gangster Disciples escalated during the 2010s. To paint a more vivid picture, Lil Durk grew up in the Parkway Gardens complex of O’Block, where the Black Disciples and Gangster Disciples were only separated by one block, resulting in attrition-style, resource-focused warfare.

The Radio Turf War

In 2011, a new method of warfare emerged between the two gangs – control over the radio waves through the popularization of “drill”. Originally pioneered by Chief Keef, the Black Disciples quickly gained notoriety and prominence within the hip-hop industry through their style of portraying the harsh realities of gang life. Chief Keef experienced early success with his release of “I Don’t Like”, and the Black Disciples have since maintained an iron grip over the music industry proxy war. Around the same time Chief Keef grew out of obscurity, Lil Durk began focusing on his hip-hop career more seriously after having his first child and began seeing initial success within the inner city with the release of “L’s Anthem” in 2012. In 2013, Lil Durk signed with Def Jam Records and was added to XXL’s 2014 Freshman Class. For Lil Durk, mainstream success was still a long shot, but this would gradually change as Durk continued to support the growing popularity of “drill,” particularly by bringing his close friend and frequent music collaborator, King Von under his wing.

NBA Rivalry & What’s Next?

Before 2018, Lil Durk released several mixtapes (including one with Tee Grizzley) along with two studio albums under Def Jam Records. However, in 2018, Lil Durk decided to move from Def Jam Records to Alamo Records, which became an impetus that accelerated his career, namely through his collaboration with Drake’s “Laugh Now Cry Later” and most recently, through his seventh studio album, 7220.

However, Lil Durk’s success came at a cost as the intensifying rivalry between Lil Durk’s OTF label and NBA YoungBoy’s Never Broke Again (NBA) label generated a significant fissure in the hip-hop industry. Originally, the two crews had a mutual admiration for one another, until disagreements over siding with particular artists in the industry generated heightening resentment towards one another. This resentment reached its pinnacle when Quando Rondo (signed to NBA) and his affiliate, Lul Timm, were involved in an altercation with King Von, in which Lul Timm ultimately shot and killed King Von. The murder of King Von caused an interesting dichotomy within the hip-hop community, in which artists like 21 Savage have acknowledged that rappers may have to choose a side, inevitably impacting both their own career and Lil Durk and NBA Youngboy’s long-term careers as both artists have gained strong traction within the music industry in recent years. If we were betting on it, our bets would be with Durk.

Here are a couple of quintessential “drill” tracks from Smurkio:

Data 📈

“Death Industry”: Referenced from the life expectancy data aggregated by The Conversation in 2015, the table and chart below show both the respective causes and average ages of death for musicians by music genre.

Although this data was first published about 7 years ago, the numbers are still *speculatively* relevant today, particularly the data associated with the hip-hop and rap music genres.

Based on the 2015 data, the most prevalent cause of death for hip-hop and rap artists, which makes up ~51% of all causes, is homicide. Additionally, the average age of death for both male and female hip-hop artists ranges between 27-33.

Here’s a list of variables for you to also consider when evaluating the relevancy of the data:

• The late 2010s/early 2020s showed a rise in women hip-hop artists

• Hip-hop has been a benefactor of quickly changing social, cultural, and technological trends (such as streaming and social media usage)

• The impacts of political unrest and social movements on hip-hop

Industry Updates 💿

• Beat the Case: At the end of last month, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a new bill into law banning the use of rap lyrics as possible evidence or incrimination of rappers.

• Pa’un VIP: With Un Verano Sin Ti at #1 on the Billboard 200 for the past 13 weeks (and on the charts for 22 total weeks), Bad Bunny leads U.S. Latin music to an all-time high of 6.6% of total 2022 music industry revenue.

• Swift Eyes Thursday Night Football: Tune into the Saints vs. Cardinals game on 10/20 to see an exclusive look into Taylor Swift’s new album Midnights, which drops hours later, at midnight Eastern Time.

• New Features for Artists on Apple Music: Apple has released new features for artists, allowing them to better manage their music content. This includes enhanced artist profile personalization, faster methods to upload lyrics, and a revamped, interactive site that provides consolidated analytics.

• A Breakout Country Artist: Lainey Wilson was recently honored as CMT’s Breakout Artist of the Year. We’ll have more on this rising artist in next week’s edition of Sunlighter.

• Riding the Wave of Catalog Acquisitions: Last Thursday, Brookfield Asset Management, one of the largest alternative investment management companies in the world with over $725 assets under management, acquired a minority stake in Primary Wave Music and committed $1.7 billion to acquire musician’s catalogs and music rights.

• Another Web3 Record Label? Probably nothing: Warner Records partners with Probably Nothing to launch Probably A Label, marking the first of the big 3 record labels to bring meaningful change to the future of music ownership.

• Onesheet Buyout: US-based music analytics firm, Chartmetric, acquired music tech startup Onesheet in order to synergistically expand their music data analytics experience.

• Believe the HYBE: HYBE acquires Supertone, a singing voice synthesis (SVS) company for $32 million. The company is keen on opportunities where artists can use audio recordings of their voices for a variety of projects without the need to be in person.

• BMI for Profit: After operating for over 84 years as a non-profit organization, BMI looks for growth opportunities, announcing they intend to go public.

• Beats by Collaboration: BeatConnect, a Montreal-based music company that allows music creators to collaborate remotely, announced a massive round of funding valued at $2.2 million USD ($3 million CAD), helping support what their co-founder believes will be a musical revolution centered around collaboration. Sam Smith, ODESZA, Kodak Black, Dixie D’Amelio, and The Black Keys are notable customers of the platform.

• Exceed Artist Expectations: Exceed is a platform that allows artists to maintain control over their careers while allowing their fans to share a piece of the pie–like Robinhood for the music industry. Sounds like a path from Web2 to Web3 👀

Festivals & Tour Announcements 🎡

A couple of festivals happening next week:

III Points - October 21-22nd in Miami, FL

With 5 stages, 4 days of kickoff parties, after parties, and closing parties, III Points is back at Mana Wynwood celebrating Miami’s burgeoning music, art, and technology scene.

Also, check out this cool Music Map of the festival provided by III Points:

When We Were Young - October 22nd, 23rd, and 29th in Las Vegas, NV

Initially, the inaugural When We Were Young festival was set to be a one-day music festival celebrating the nostalgia of millennial youth, angst, and love for pop rock and punk rock. However, the festival sold out so quickly that two additional days were added, AND they already announced next year’s lineup (tickets for that are sold out, too). Expect Vans Warped Tour on steroids.

Tour Announcements 🤘

• Blink-182 brought all the hype last week when they announced a new single, a new album, and a new tour. Their latest single “Edging” dropped Friday, and their tour kicks off in Mexico in March 2023. It’s the first time Mark, Travis, and Tom reunited in 10 years.

• Beyoncé, Rihanna, and Taylor Swift are allegedly all set to go on tour next year. Start saving up now.

• The Beach Boys announced the Tis the Season tour, which kicks off right after Thanksgiving.

• DaBaby is back on tour with Baby On Baby 2 later this year.

• Animal Collective canceled their UK/Europe tour stating that the economics of music touring is unsustainable.

• Rage Against the Machine had to cancel their 2023 reunion tour due to lead singer Zach de la Rocha sustaining a severe left Achilles tendon injury.

• JID and Smino are co-headlining the Luv is 4Ever Tour which kicks off January 2023.

• Tove Lo heads for the United States in early February for her Dirt Femme tour.

• Muse is kicking off 2023 with the Will of the People tour. Click the tour link for a “much wow” experience.

Wrap Up 👏

We're closing the newsletter this week with an old, yet always relevant line reminding everyone to stick with their day ones.

Lyrical Genius ✍️

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See ya next Sunday 😎

Chris and Donya