The most iconic line of Westside Gunn’s career
Westside Gunn is one of a kind. The Buffalo rapper has been one of the busiest rappers of the past decade, known for his high-pitched vocals and pushing forward underground hip-hop with a sense of confidence. As a co-founder of Griselda Records, he’s been a trailblazer in rap music alongside Conway The Machine and Benny The Butcher, while paving the way for artists like Armani Caesar, Rome Streetz, and Stove God Cooks.
The sheer amount of music he’s released since 2016 is commendable, between solo albums like Supreme Blientele, And Then You Pray for Me, and Who Made the Sunshine, and collaborative projects with DJ Drama and The Alchemist. Despite all of the material he’s dropped, there’s a line that’s far and away his most memorable moment as an MC.
Westside, Conway and Benny joined forces in 2019 for their debut Griselda album titled WWCD, short for What Would ChineGun Do. The project was released through Eminem’s Shady Records and blessed fans with the opportunity to hear the talented trio all in one place. On the lead single, ‘Dr Birds’, they took turns at rapping over a haunting instrumental from Daringer and Beat Butcha, resulting in a lyric that will go down in rap history.
In the first verse of the song, Westside raps, “Told Virgil write ‘brick’ on my brick,” which paves the way for Conway and Benny to carry the lyric into their verses. The line references fashion designer Virgil Abloh, who passed away in November 2021. He was the founder of Off-White and served as the artistic director of Louis Vuitton’s menswear collection.
Virgil’s designs often included writing that stated the obvious on items, for example, writing “shoelaces” on a pair of shoelaces. With Westside’s line, he’s telling Virgil to write “brick” on his brick of cocaine. When Virgil heard the lyric, he wrote “done deal” on social media and proceeded to release an actual brick with the word “brick” on it.
“I’m a fashion, art guy,” Westside said. “I’m always just thinking wild. Virgil always writing ‘shirt’ or ‘sneakers’ on sneakers, so I just wanted him to write ‘brick’ on my brick. No lie, when I made that part, I just knew that was gonna really get Virgil.
“Virgil already been tapped in like me and Virgin already DMed each other mad times, and he’d been a fan since the FLYGOD album, he posted songs off FLYGOD. I already knew he was tapped in and we rock a lot of Off-White shit all the time, so it’s always been love with Virgil.”
After he saw the brick, Westside replied, “O BEAUTIFUL!!!!! This by far is one of the Illest things the Culture has EVER seen, from one of the most impactful Artist and Designers of All Time @virgilabloh I Wanna thank u sincerely #FLYGOD.”
Upon the release of ‘Dr Birds‘, rap fans instantly gravitated towards the Virgil line, becoming one of those lyrics people chant in unison. Virgil later collaborated with Westside, with the designer creating the cover art for his Pray for Paris album using Caravaggio’s David with the Head of Goliath. Hip-hop has a funny way of bringing people together.