The four biggest influences of Westside Gunn’s career
Westside Gunn, co-founder of Griselda Records alongside his half-brother Conway the Machine and cousin Benny the Butcher, has always been submerged within the hardcore, East Coast rap tradition. New York, and the rappers it produced, helped to form the artist he eventually became.
Gunn spent his childhood in Buffalo, New York, considered to be one of the most dangerous places in the US. “It’s like a war zone,” Gunn told Passion of the Weiss in 2016, speaking of the neighbourhood where he grew up. “It’s nothing to play with. It’s one of those type of situations where if you’re not from there, don’t go over there. Anything can happen. You just never know.”
Gunn spoke about how the crime rate in Buffalo is higher than in the other New York boroughs, pointing out how that affects people’s lives on a day to day basis. “Everybody who’s poppin know everybody,” he said. “Somebody get killed, nine times out of ten you know them or know somebody that’s very close to them. With people dying almost every other day it’s like, ‘Damn, I just seen him yesterday.’ It’s crazy.”
But despite how tough Buffalo can be, it’s evident that he still holds a great deal of affection for the place. “Once I started getting older and moving on my own I started going to different neighborhoods,” he said. “I really got a taste of every side. I’m cool with every side of Buffalo. It’s love everywhere.”
Music can be a huge source of release for young people who live in environments like this, with hip-hop, especially in its harder, more gangsta forms, being an especially powerful and apt means of escape. Westside Gunn, naturally, was very drawn to artists operating within the harder tradition, highlighting four artists in particular who shaped him.
“I always liked Kool G Rap,” he said. “Jus the street shit. That’s what I love. I love fly street shit.”
Nas and Wu-Tang member Raekwon were also huge for Gunn, as was Raekwon’s bandmate Ghostface Killah. “Of course you got your Raekwon and Nas,” he said. “I would say them are probably really like the top three. And I like Ghost, too. It was always Ghost and Rae. Those two always been my favourite since I could remember.”
He did mention that his top three influences were Kool G Rap, Nas and Raekwon, but listing Raekwon without Ghostface Killah is almost like a contradiction in and of itself. “That’s like peanut butter and jelly,” he said.
Gunn elaborated on why Nas was so appealing to him while he was growing up, highlighting his particular talent for lyrics. “Nas was dope with the words,” he said. “Back in the day when I started to rap, I was real lyrical. That was the age where you keep flipping the words. I used to do all that back in the day, too. I was kid so I was all about rhyming.”