The honest verse Conway The Machine described as the “realest shit” he ever wrote
Conway The Machine went through the most traumatic experience of his life when he was 30. Years before fame, the Buffalo rapper was shot in the head, neck, and shoulder, resulting in his face being paralysed. The 2012 incident left him diagnosed with Bell’s palsy, and he’s lucky to even be alive to tell the tale.
The 43-year-old (real name Demond Price) has been open about the experience. While rappers have been known to use shootings for bragging rights, Conway has been open about the incident for other reasons. He wants the near-death experience to inspire people to never give up, even in the toughest of times.
With the odds stacked against him, he was still able to succeed. “I was the guy with all the obstacles that you could think of,” he told Ebro in the Morning. “I was the older guy in the room, in the studio, I was shot, I had half my face paralysed. I’m from Buffalo, you know stuff like that. And to me, those was just obstacles and imagine if we could just break through those walls what we could be. I just wanna inspire people with my story.”
The shooting incident has inspired many of his raps. In 2016, he released one of the best tracks of his career so far, teaming up with fellow Griselda rapper Westside Gunn on ‘The Cow’. The pair spit a verse each on the Hitler Wears Hermes 4 song, with Conway recalling the moment he was gunned down. He admitted that he wrote the lyrics while crying.
He raps, “‘Member that fuck n*gga pulled up using his chrome/ Hit the back of my head and neck, I should’ve died, n*gga/ I feel like my n*gga Dunce kept me alive, n*gga/ Slapping my face like, ‘Bruh, open your eyes, n*gga/ Shaking my head like, ‘Fuck that, you can’t die, n*gga’/ Only real shit what I provide, n*gga/ I wrote this shit with the tears in my eyes, n*gga.”
Later in the verse, Conway describes his bars as the “realest shit I wrote,” and it’s hard to disagree with him. After finding out that his face was paralysed, he was defeated. As someone who had dreams of making it in hip-hop, Bell’s palsy was making it difficult for him to physically rap. Not only that, but he was also self-conscious about how he looked.
He continues, “After I got shot in my head, I seen my face like, ‘I’m done with this shit’/ Trying to spit my verses and mumbling and shit/ Face twisted up, looking ugly and shit/ That Bell’s palsy had me looking like I had a stroke/ But every bar raw like a slab of coke.”
Conway was lucky enough to survive, leaving the incident with severe nerve damage to his right side. He initially lost feeling in his arms and legs. For over a year, he was learning how to walk and lift things again. Sure enough, his determination paid off, regaining strength in his body and succeeding as a rapper. During those darkest moments, he could never have imagined that he would end up signing a deal with Eminem.