Conway the Machine

Buffalo rapper Conway the Machine represents a revival of grimy old-school New York hip-hop as both a solo artist and a member of the Griselda collective and label. • In high school, Conway rapped in a group called The Forerunners with Westside Gunn (his half-brother), Benny the Butcher (his cousin) and Machine Gun Blak (Benny’s brother). • He decided to take music seriously after serving prison time in his early 20s and surviving a shooting in 2012. The attack left half of his face paralyzed due to Bell’s palsy—hence the rapper’s distinctive slur. • In 2014, Westside Gunn formed Griselda Records. The following year, Conway dropped his first two Griselda solo mixtapes: The Devil’s Reject and Reject 2. • Griselda landed a distribution deal with Shady Records in 2017. That same year, Conway appeared in the Shady cypher at the BET Hip Hop Awards alongside Benny and Compton rapper Boogie. • After a string of mixtapes, including several collaborations with Westside Gunn, the rapper dropped his debut studio album, From King to a God, in 2020. It reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Heatseekers Albums chart.