Rapper G Herbo, born Herbert Randall Wright III in 1995, spits dense rhymes packed with gritty observations about the violence of his native Chicago. His vivid, gruff-voiced rhyming is unusually empathetic—simultaneously angry, dexterous, and conversational, as heard on the blistering “Bi Polar” from 2017’s Humble Beast—and sets him apart from the dead-eyed, nihilistic tone common among the rappers from the city’s early-2010s drill scene. While his songs drop the listener into tensely cinematic scenes where guns and drugs are a constant, tracks like “Fight or Flight,” recorded when he was still known as Lil Herb, show him digging into the motivations of those around him and always searching for answers. His biggest commercial success came with 2020’s “PTSD,” which describes the effects of this childhood trauma, while the haunting “Glass in the Face” and soul-inflected, BJ the Chicago Kid-assisted “Gangsta Cry” speak directly to those with similar experiences. “I used to leave every day, not knowing if I’m going to make it home or not,” he told Apple Music about his upbringing. “I’m able to talk about my vulnerability on the album, where I can help other people understand.” Thanks to his potent lyricism, it’s a feeling listeners identify with, no matter where they were raised.
