— 03 Aug 2018 —

Written by Cyrus Bennett

G Herbo (once Lil Herb) has become something of a Chicago rap stalwart in recent years. He burst onto the scene in 2014 with the cold, assaulting mixtape Welcome To Fazoland. That tape introduced a rough-nosed, frosty rapper with an understated storytelling ability. Little has changed in the years since. Swervo, his latest joint-effort with 808 Mafia producer Southside, draws upon that same unrelenting energy and talent. It’s a satisfying if unambitious affair, and it might leave you wondering whether Herb could do with a bit more creative focus.

In the increasingly weird rap world, somehow full of both Lil Uzi Verts and Kendrick Lamar aspirants, Herb has become something of an anomaly. He rose up with the twinkling drill music that Chief Keef championed but he’s an infinitely better lyricist than any other drill artist. He never breaks into singing, something of a rarity these days. His songs are a near-constant barrage of double-time rapping, sounding more like a boxer constantly pressing his opponent onto the ropes.

The writing here is generally crisp and evocative, at times reminding of some of his better tracks from Welcome To Fazoland including ‘At The Light’ and ‘Welcome To Hell Pt. 4’. Herbo constantly sounds desperate and half out-of-breath. As on that mixtape, he’s still at his best when he’s lamenting life in Chicago’s streets. ‘That’s How I Grew Up’ features a lacklustre 21 Savage verse, but Herb’s opening verse is vividly grim, recalling old friends who fell down different paths (“’member me and Manski on the phone T’ing up/fourteen, we was young as fuck, all ready to fuck shit up/comin’ up, no fear in us, we ready to kill some/Lil Roc died, Rellski turned himself in for a year or some”). There are plenty of moments, like on the tracks ‘Bonjour’ and ‘Letter’, where the rapper’s vivid storytelling comes to the light and jolts the listener into focus.

Southside, one half of producer duo 808 Mafia, is a capable hand. He provides a synth-heavy, tipsy-turvy beat on the excellent single ‘Swervo’ and for once Herb sounds relaxed and happy (“used to eat fried boloni/now I eat rigatoni”). ‘FoReal’ has a swirling carnival-esque beat, and the producer draws it in and out of volume to keep the spectacle on the rapper and his blunt writing (“I used to get all the way up and go broke/said to myself I ain’t doing that no more”).

But G Herbo is mining such a narrow lane that it often feels as if it might cave in on itself. A lot of Southside’s production on this album is sparse and skeletal featuring little else but skittering drum patterns and some synths lasering through. No doubt this is why Herb wanted to pair up – it lets him trample all over the beats with little resistance. But it can often be his own worst enemy. ‘Bonjour’ is a two-and-a-half-minute track with no real hook, one monstrous verse and a barely-there drum-heavy beat. There’s nothing to counterbalance his aggression, even if the writing itself is typically powerful (“long live that nigga Zach TV, heard he had a daughter/the police here ain’t solving murders, this ain’t Law & Order”).

It doesn’t help that Herb isn’t a natural hook-writer. His hooks tend to become effective out of pure relentless emphasis than anything else. Nothing on here is as brilliant or memorable as his chorus on ‘At The Light’. He sometimes cedes that work to others on this project to middling results. Young Thug is typically goofy, and a nice contrast, on ‘100 Sticks’ (“my diamonds light brown like beer/niggas say they can’t stand me, get a chair”), Chief Keef offers a hand on ‘Catch Up’ and man-of-the-moment Juice WRLD turns up on ‘Honestly’. The latter two are fine if unremarkable, but maybe apart from ‘Swervo’, none of the hooks on this album will stick in your brain.

But this is still the same rapper who penned ‘Malcolm’. There are frequent bursts of emotion in Herb’s writing that will linger after you pull the headphones out. At this point, he’s nearly perfected an ability to paint starkly vivid portraits of harsh Chicago living, and he plays with the interesting mix of suddenly living in Chicago with wealth while still having to watch your back. On standout track ‘Letter’, which is an ode to his soon-to-be-born son, he’s focused and bright on the subject (“yeah, I bought yo mama a Range, 90K/I bought my mama a Benz, 60K/just got pulled over in that Bentley today/Police trying to talk to me, ain’t got nothing to say”). From the earth-shattering intro ‘Some Nights’ to the ending tracks, he’s never at a loss for words.

G Herbo is doing big numbers now. He’s an out-and-out star in his own right completely removed from the shadows of drill music or any other similar Chicago artists. Swervo is a visceral, ice-cold listen that captures a lot of what made him stand out from the pack. His writing still pops eyes out of skulls. But he could benefit from a bit more direction and focus – beatmakers that challenge him instead of simply letting him loose in an open sandbox, and a stronger emphasis on songcrafting rather than merely stamping verses on top of production. Nonetheless, this is a crowd-pleasing affair with a great lead single. We won’t complain if he keeps blazing down this lane.

7.1