Photo credit: Jolver Cutino
G Herbo
G Herbo was a 16-year-old kid on the east side of Chicago when he received his first break in 2011. After hearing his music on YouTube, the Chicago business mogul Mikkey Halsted flew in from Los Angeles to meet with Herbo, who had been rapping under the name Lil Herb. The significance of their meeting was lost on Herbo at the time. “When I met Mick, I was still a kid in the streets. Some of the stuff he said seemed foreign to me,” explains Herbo. “We had a three-hour conversation that day, and I didn’t realize the imprint he made in music, especially in Chicago.”
Herbo, who just celebrated his 23rd birthday this month, admits to not taking his music career seriously as a teenager. “The second time I saw Mick he came to my house to meet with my parents, but I was in the back of my room smoking weed, not even in the conversation,” he laughs. “That’s how you could tell back then I was young and did not care about that shit at the time.” Over time, though, Herbo’s relationship with Halsted helped him develop not only as an artist, but as a businessman.
In July, Herbo released his second full-length album, Swervo. It was produced entirely by the Atlanta producer Southside, who also worked with Herbo on his breakout mixtape Welcome to Fazoland and produced one of his more popular street singles, “Rollin,” from his 2015 mixtape Ballin Like I'm Kobe. Southside’s production on Swervo is a departure from Herbo’s debut album Humble Beast, which was rich with soul sampled beats.
“Working with Southside has helped my sound as an artist develop a lot because even when we did Welcome to Fazoland, he challenged me and gave me topics to cover and I completed them all like tasks,” Herbo says. “We grew together musically and I feel like I’m a completely different artist from Welcome to Fazoland, because Southside challenged me. When I started rapping, I didn’t even know how to record a hook.”
Another turning point in Herbo’s life was becoming a father this past April. He even speaks with us on the phone while holding his 6-month-old son Yosohn Santana, who chimes in occasionally with coos. “Fatherhood has impacted my music tremendously and I have to balance out my career with being a father, but everything revolves around him,” he says. On Swervo Herbo addresses Yosohn before he was born, dedicating the song “Letter” to him.
The internet played a huge role in Herbo’s rise, and continues to shape his career. During 2018’s South by Southwest music festival, Herbo went to Dallas radio station K104 for an interview when he was asked to freestyle over the classic Three 6 Mafia song “Who Run It.” His freestyle over a 19-year-old beat spread like wildfire and started a viral movement that became yet another milestone in Herbo’s career. Drake even direct messaged Herbo on Instagram to release the freestyle for streaming. The song is now one of Herbo’s most streamed.
The freestyle kicked off the “Who Run It” challenge where countless artists added their own freestyles over it, including even the creator of the original song, DJ Paul. “I wasn’t about to go to that interview at first but that day ended becoming a huge breaking point for my career,” Herbo says. “That goes to show you that the internet has a huge impact on music because you can literally be nobody and have your viral moment or you can also say the wrong thing, so you have to watch how you move on the internet.”
Herbo has matured in the aspect of giving back to the south side of Chicago as well as in the works of developing a creative media lab and music facility with Halsted and another business partner, Joseph Bowden. “I want the youth of the city to see that there is no limit to the things you can do,” Herbo says. “It’s not just sports. There’s also technology, music and engineering, and I want kids in high school to learn how to capitalize on these skills and really find themselves in their own community.”
G Herbo brings his “Swervo” tour with Southside and Queen Key to The Rave on Thursday, Oct. 18, at 8 p.m.
