Content Carries Lil Durk’s ‘7220’

One of the biggest stories in Hip-Hop over the past two years has been Lil Durk’s journey to becoming one of the genre’s mainstays. The Chicago rapper is a late bloomer of sorts, being in the game for more than a decade with his first mixtape, I’m A Hitta being released in August 2011.  Throughout his career he has seen his national profile grow, however after his feature verse on Drake’s ‘Laugh Now Cry Later’ went viral, Lil Durk’s popularity has seen an exponential rise.

Many people would credit Lil Durk’s new trajectory to the Drake effect: a phenomenon where rappers who appear on tracks with Drake see an instant rise in their popularity. A Drake feature can be a stimulus package of sorts allowing rappers to get a taste of the attention that comes with being a part of one of the biggest tracks of the year statistically. However, the hype that comes a rapper’s way because of this Drake stimulus package isn’t the easiest to maintain as we’ve seen artists like BlocBoy JB fade away after his smash hit ‘Look Alive’ featuring Drake peaked at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2018. On the flip side, we’ve seen artists take the influx of eyes that come from making a track with Drake and run with it, solidifying their spot in Hip-Hop. Lil Baby is the most prominent example of this with his track ‘Yes Indeed’ featuring Drake peaking at #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 catalyzing his quick rise to the top.

So far it appears Lil Durk has been able to maintain the hype around him since his ‘Laugh Now Cry Later’ cameo. The Chicago native has been working to solidify himself as one of Hip-Hop’s marquee rappers with a combination of solo projects, collab projects, and an impressive feature run that took over 2021. Among the notable output over the past year and a half, his collab album with Lil Baby, The Voice of the Heroes stands out the most with tracks like ‘Lying’ and ‘Up The Side’ featuring Young Thug standing out amongst some of my favorite tracks on the album. 

With Lil Durk maintaining his newfound level of popularity for over a year it appears this will become his new normal. However, nothing is solidified without quality music and a consistently evolving skillset to satisfy Hip-Hop’s ever-hungry fans. With his latest album 7220, Lil Durk hopes to deliver both and maintain his meteoric rise through Hip-Hop.

7220 may be the best project I’ve heard from Lil Durk. The newest addition to the Chicago rapper’s discography combines his signature styles of aggressive street music and autotuned trap blues with the ratio of tracks favoring the latter. While I appreciate Durk’s aggressive street style more, the tracks featuring his autotuned vocals over trap beats may be the biggest example of his growth through the content he sings about in each track.

7220’s trap blues tracks aren’t a step forward from the perspective of sound. One of my biggest gripes about the project is that Lil Durk doesn’t do much to experiment with his voice throughout. The lack of experimentation makes Lil Durk’s music more predictable with the first line of the track typically foreshadowing what the entire track will sound like. The only example of Durk testing the boundaries of his vocals I can point to on 7220 is track eleven ‘Grow Up/Keep It On Speaker.’ The track’s second half features a beat switch and Durk singing in a deeper cadence from his ordinary autotuned voice. The ‘Keep It On Speaker’ half of track eleven is a breath for fresh air from Lil Durk’s usual autotuned singing, showcasing a cadence, flow, and beat selection that is an outlier from most of Lil Durk’s catalog. 

More experimentation on 7220 was needed, however, Lil Durk makes up for that with the level of vulnerability he showcased throughout the trap blues tracks where he uses his typical cadence. At first contact, many of the tracks on 7220 seem like tracks we’ve heard from Lil Durk before, but, the more you listen and pick up on the  Lil Durk is singing about, the more you realize that content is where Lil Durk chose to focus his growth. 

On the original intro track, ‘Started From’ is the greatest example of Lil Durk’s vulnerability throughout 7220. Durk starts the track by saying, “You know, 7220, like my Grandma address, there's like a whole story I wanna get off my chest, for real,” setting the tone for the track. Durk then starts to sing about some of his memories with lines such as, “Nuski stayed downstairs, the first floor under Granny crib” and “three bedroom, it was eight people who lived with us, I hated school but my granny made me, I couldn't disrespect her 'cause my granny raised me.” Through these lyrics, Lil Durk paints a picture of his upbringing and memories on ‘Started From,’ using his signature autotuned singing to tell his story.

The first verse of ‘No Interviews’ Lil Durk serves as a great example of Lil Durk’s growth in the content he raps about. Throughout the first verse, Lil Durk sings about his current lifestyle while referencing some of his peers such as Pooh Shiesty and the late Juice WRLD with the lines, “I brought Pooh Shiesty to my block, gave him my glock with an extension, I seen Juice WRLD documentary, I don't want a Percocet, I'm finished.” Lil Durk takes this concept a step further by referencing some of his peers’ signature phrases by singing, “I'm like Doe Boy, don't lie to me, I'll tell your ass, ‘oh, really?’” and “like Kodak said, take a Percocet, nigga, everybody turn gremlin.” The first verse on ‘No Interviews’ is one of the best verses on 7220, showing Durk’s traditional rap skills although being delivered via non-traditional vocals. 

Lil Durk sings about the trials and tribulations of his relationship throughout ‘Blocklist.’ With the lines “Before you block me I'm tryna text you, ‘I'm sorry that I hurt you,’ I'm a street nigga with a name but certain shit just ain't worth it, and I'm sorry what I did to you, I know you didn't deserve it,” Durk expresses remorse for hurting his girlfriend’s feelings. Durk continues to illustrate the situation throughout the rest of the track including lines about his girl telling her friends what he did and other ways she reacted to his actions. 

Throughout 7220, Lil Durk’s vulnerability and storytelling shine through, making the project an overall step forward for the OTF rapper. With 7220 debuting at #1 on the Billboard 200, selling a personal best 120k units in the first week it’s clear that Lil Durk’s popularity is still on the rise. More experimentation may be needed for Lil Durk to catapult himself into the highest tier of Hip-Hop. However, if Lil Durk plateaus where he’s currently at he will still be one of the most prominent examples of longevity.