It was announced two days ago that Atlanta native Grip would join the lyrical entourage under Eminem at Shady Records, prompting one universal reaction from hip-hop fans: Who is Grip? Well, here’s all we know about the 32-year-old father-turned-Shady trainee.
The Basics
Grip is now the newest rapper to join the rising ranks of ATL stars– though comparisons with other hometown acts like Young Thug and Migos can only go as far as their area code. Replace eccentric vocal inflections and triplet flows with fast-paced rapping more indicative of JID and Kendrick Lamar, and you’ll find Grip. Grip has long been an underground hip hop figure, receiving only sporadic attention from media outlets, but what Grip lacks in mainstream publicity he makes up for in work ethic. Perhaps you’ve heard his music before without realizing it, whether it was his Madden ‘20 track “100YD Dash” or “911 (Clap for Em)” off of HBO’s Euphoria soundtrack. Notable career highlights so far include his 2019 album Snub Nose (more on that below), a concept album inspired by Nas’ “I Gave You Power”, which drew attention from industry figures like Hot 97’s Ebro. His streaming-service available music, which encompasses two albums and over a dozen singles, has impressed audiences with aggressive cadences and poetic wordplay– all set largely to themes of life in poverty and crime. His most successful track to date, 2021’s “Chicken N Dumplins”, boasts over a million Spotify streams.
LISTEN: Grip “911 (Clap For Em)”
Early Life
Grip grew up in Decatur, Georgia. The rapper says that he came to age prematurely, at 13-years old, when he started falling into street life. “At 12 or 13 I jumped off [the porch]… I was doing dumb shit, you know what I’m saying, being reckless and shit,” Grip said in a 2020 interview with Dirty Glove Bastard. In another interview with Complex in 2018, Grip spoke on his often tumultuous childhood: “As a kid, we ain’t really have too much. I grew up in my grandma’s house, and it wasn’t in the nicest area… I was always smart, but we were in the hood, so we’d get into shit.”
He then moved to the Stone Island area of Decatur, though money problems followed his family to what he called the “black suburbs.” “We wouldn’t have lights sometimes. Nobody else’s shit was like that, but our shit was. Sometimes we wouldn’t have lights, water, whatever.” Grip’s mom enrolled him in nearby Dekalb Tech after college, but he was kicked out during his first semester for selling drugs. Grip admits that this compelled him to take music more seriously.
Career
Though Grip had been working on his pen game since middle school, he became serious about music after his exit from college. The rapper cites inspiration from T.I., Andre 3000, Jay Z, Nas, Mobb Deep, as well as Nirvana, whom he told Complex he can “relate to.” In conjunction with a daily 9-5 job, Grip worked on a number of projects that spent years on the drawing board: “I was getting better and better because it was me rapping by myself. I knew what I wanted to rap and I knew which beats I liked… Eventually I was like, all right, bet, I’m ready to have them released,” Grip told Ozy in 2019. These were released as The Leftover Tapes in 2015.
However, Grip’s breakout, independent project, and the first to make it onto streaming platforms, was his 2018 concept album Porch. Porch found the rapper tackling police brutality and struggles in the black community from three perspectives: a kid who has yet to witness the struggle or jump off the “porch”, one who had jumped off and was in the midst of the community’s problems, and an older man reflecting on a life off of the “porch”- “A porch is a staple, especially in the South, for people in the hood, and for people, period. Everyone sits out on the porch,” the rapper told Complex.
At a listening party for Porch, hip-hop curator and former radio host Premium Pete couldn’t contain his praise for Grip’s captivating sound: “Holy shit, this kid can rap his ass off. I like the way he puts his wordplay together and I’m being honest, his flow is something people haven’t heard in a while. He’s a rising star out of Atlanta.”
More praise came when Grip dropped his sophomore album Snub Nose in 2019. Snub Nose, like its predecessor, is a concept album that features Grip seamlessly moving through different perspectives– though this time using a revolver to tie everything in together. In the same Dirty Glove Bastard interview, he says Snub Nose is an attempt to “give people a glimpse of what it’s like where I’m from and how this shit goes and how guns and gun violence affect us.” The album, which took Grip only a year to make, details the cycle of gun violence by alluding to the revolving mechanism in a snub nose handgun: “The cylinder has these chambers in it that revolve, like cycles, so what I wanted to do was speak on cycles that go on in my community all while correlating it directly to the gun.”
Snub Nose cemented Grip as one of the underground’s most underrated and unknown storytellers. Ebro Darden, host of Hot 97, posted the album to his Instagram account after it dropped with the caption “Best album you never heard of right here… I don’t even know who this is.”
Success after Snub Nose and Shady Records Deal
Though both albums were released independently and made in the rapper’s home studio while still maintaining his day job, Snub Nose proved a defining moment in his career. Following the album, Grip went on tour in Europe with fellow Georgia native JID, in which Grip admits he had the time of his life. “As long as your shit is good, it’s almost like you’re the main act. They’re bouncing, they’re doing everything you tell them to do. They’re moshing. In America, I go to plenty of concerts– until the main act gets on there, [people] ain’t moving.” Grip was supposed to tour with Brent Faiyaz a few months later in March of 2020, but the tour was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Post-Snub Nose and touring, Grip returned back to the studio and released a string of singles through 2020 and 2021, some being his most successful yet. 2021’s “Chicken N Dumplings” and last year’s “No Más!”, from his 2020 Halo EP, both boast over 1 million Spotify streams.
On July 1st, 2021, it was announced the Grip would be joining the likes of Conway the Machine, Boogie, and Bad Meets Evil under the patronage of Eminem’s Shady Records label. Paul Rosenberg, president of the label, announced that: “Grip is the type of artist that brings you into his world and expresses himself through a complete composed body of work. If true album artists in this era are a rare breed- then Grip is a unicorn! We’re excited for him to join the Shady Records family.”
On the deal, Grip himself shared his enthusiasm: “It was one of those full circle moments because I grew up on Eminem so to have him reach out and let me know how dope my shit is was so cool. Excited to partner with Shady/Interscope and get the music out on a larger platform.” This is a big move for the Atlanta rapper, who can now create and release under the direction of one of his influences and an industry great. He released the track “Gutter”, featuring Wara, on July 2nd as his first release under Shady Records. He is reportedly working on his third album.
Let us know what you think of Grip joining the Shady roster.
WATCH: GRIP feat. Wara “Gutter”
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