I have never once heard G Herbo half-ass anything. A technically gifted rapper and a brilliant, conversational writer, any & all arguments that G Herbo is slept on are inherently valid. Except the one about how “If He Was From New York…” because that’s just not plausible anymore. Gotham used to crown kings, but the only clear winner NYC has produced in the past decade was Donald Trump.
Lil’ Herb is about Chicago as much as it is about G Herbo. This is both a victory lap and an album shaped by trauma, full of reflections on turning 30 from a man who never expected to make it there. The reformed gangster is the old face of an ancient archetype, though. Herbo may devote several tracks and a lot of bars to re-stating the fact that he is the original template, but that’s ultimately wasted effort. He is the genuine article, verily, but authenticity alone isn’t the point & it isn’t enough. If that was all it took, Just-Ice would be remembered as the greatest emcee of his era and Baby Keem would be bigger than Kendrick.
What really sets G Herbo apart has always been the vivid details of his storytelling. Which is not to diminish everything else: the pure fire of his performances in the booth & onstage, his effortless full-auto flow, or the total clarity of his pen game. All of that makes him a legend, but this genre has always been about storytelling. It’s just that the only story most rappers can tell is their own.
G Herbo rides for his whole city on this album, but especially his Eastside roots. There are some wild left turns, like when Wyclef Jean comes yodeling in with a hook in the second act, but this is mostly rock-solid drill throwbacks. Chicago has always had a thousand styles, though. From Rubberroom to Tommorrow Kings, from Mass Hysteria to Typical Cats, from King Louie to King Von, from Juice to Rhymefest to Lupe to Saba, The Windy City has always over-delivered. Hell, I would even allow that Common is hella decent on the mic. At times.
It’s a big spectrum, but G Herbo is unambiguously street, a strong contrast with the upbeat, Church-music trunk-shakers he’s built his catalog with. The flavor, range & gospel-tinged sound here is pure American Midwest Soul, always a little over-wrought, but always an amazing arrangement; tight work. Even the dumbest club bangers here are stacked compositions with a lot of subtle layers, most of them melodic.
Herbo makes the absolute most of this opportunity, airing out beef in hilariously venomous detail, paying tribute to hundreds of names & neighborhoods, shouting out a galaxy of influences & opps, and even cutting a couple label-approved crossover singles with Jeremih & ‘Clef. Not taking success for granted, he is hungry as hell on this LP and that’s what really sells it.
Lil’ Herb is an urgent, triumphant win, and a standout project for a grim, shitty year where even major label rollouts amount to little more than background noise. That hype machine may be badly broken, but Herbo has enough authentic reach for this to be remembered as a classic, long after our blip of a hype cycle is gone. Me, I enjoyed this for several spins and will likely never bump it again. But for G Herbo, this is a clear career high, his Tupac moment. Five Dickies.
