Conway the Machine

Demond Price (born February 16, 1982), known professionally as Conway the Machine (or simply Conway), is an American rapper. Conway was born in Buffalo, New York, and is the older brother of Westside Gunn and cousin of frequent collaborator Benny The Butcher.

Conway the Machine
Birth nameDemond Price
Also known as
  • Reject
  • Nash
  • The Machine
Born (1982-02-16) February 16, 1982
Buffalo, New York, U.S.
GenresHip hop
Occupation(s)Rapper
InstrumentsVocals
Years active2012–present
Labels
Associated acts

History

2012–2019: Early mixtapes and G.O.A.T.

At age 23, Conway spent some time in jail, which he has cited as a motivation for weaning from a gangster lifestyle to focus on his career in music.[1]

In 2012 Conway was shot in the back of the head and neck, an incident that left him with Bell's Palsy, which paralyzed the right half of his face. Much like fellow New York native 50 Cent, Conway uses this near-death experience in his music, which often depicts hyper-realistic street violence told from a first person perspective. Furthermore, his facial paralysis contributed to what Consequence of Sound described as "a mush-mouthed, yet visceral flow reflecting the sheer force of will needed to overcome the incident that could have easily ended his career".[2][3] The violence of the grittiest Buffalo streets worked its way into Conway’s art, lending a biting verisimilitude to his raps, an element underscored by the dark, stark and grainy minimalism that is a hallmark of the production values represented on all Griselda Records offerings.[4]

In 2014, Westside Gunn founded Griselda Records, through which Conway and Westside Gunn would self-release their own projects and the works of artists such as Benny The Butcher and Tha God Fahim. In 2015 Conway released his first two official mixtape projects through Griselda Records, The Devil's Reject and Reject 2. Conway and Westside Gunn also released two collaborative EPs through London based record label Daupe!,[5] the first of which was 2015's Hall & Nash, followed by 2016's Griselda Ghost. In April 2016, during Mobb Deep and Smif-N-Wessun's "Hell On Earth" tour, Conway was introduced to Prodigy of Mobb Deep, who would become one of his earliest notable collaborators and supporters.[1]

On March 3, 2017, Griselda Records signed a deal with Eminem's Shady Records, a subsidiary of Interscope.[6][7] On October 10, 2017, Conway contributed an a cappella rap verse to the 2017 BET Hip Hop Awards Shady cypher.[8] The same year, Complex included Westside Gunn and Conway in their list of "15 Best Unofficial Rap Duos in the Game",[9] as well as two of the "17 Artists to Watch in 2017".[10]

Following Griselda's deal with Shady Records, Conway's first official release was G.O.A.T. (Grimiest Of All Time) in December 2017, which included production from Griselda's in-house producer Daringer, and featured verses from Royce da 5'9", Raekwon, Prodigy, Styles P and Lloyd Banks. Earlier in 2017 he released a collaborative mixtape with DJ Green Lantern titled More Steroids.

Much like Lil Wayne and 50 Cent before him,[11][12] Conway has made a name releasing frequent and well received mixtapes online, often for free. His mixtape collaborations for his Everybody Is F.O.O.D. series has included Busta Rhymes, Pete Rock, The Alchemist, Nottz, and Statik Selektah.[13] He has also made countless collaborations and features with other underground artists and DJ's alike such as NEMS, Pounds, Your Old Droog, Leaf Dog, DARINGER, Alchemist, DJ Muggs and DJ Premier.

2019–present: God Don't Make Mistakes & Look What I Became

On May 16, 2019, Conway, Benny The Butcher and Westside Gunn released their first single with DJ Premier titled "Headlines".[14]

Conway released "Bang", the first single off God Don't Make Mistakes, alongside Eminem on July 19, 2019.[15][16]During a Djvlad interview released on Aug 21, 2019 he had confirmed ScHoolboy Q, Rapsody, and 50 Cent would be some features on the album and there would be a lead up project before it called "Look What I Became."

On September 7th, 2019 Conway had officially revealed the release date of the Look What I've Became mixtape on Instagram [17] and it released on September 13th, 2019 with features from Dave East and more.

Speaking on Conway's 2019 work Dan-O of Freemusicempire said "Conway went beyond skill this year, into himself, with rewarding results." [18]

Discography

Studio Albums
  • From King To God (2020) (TBR)
  • God Don't Make Mistakes (2020) (TBA)

Collaboration Albums
  • Organized Grime (released in collaboration with Trillmatic Goods) (2019)
  • Lulu (with The Alchemist) (2020)
  • No One Mourns The Wicked (with Big Ghost LTD) (2020)

Mixtapes
  • The Devil's Reject (2015)
  • Reject 2 (2015)
  • Reject on Steroids (2017)
  • G.O.A.T. (2017)
  • Blakk Tape (2018)
  • Everybody Is F.O.O.D (2018)
  • EIF 2: Eat What U Kill (2018)
  • Everybody Is F.O.O.D 3 (2019)
  • Look What I Became (2019)

Collaboration mixtapes

With Griselda
  • WWCD (2019)
  • Don’t Get Scared Now (2016)
gollark: Is this "mobile telephone" capable of computation?
gollark: Do we have satellite maps I've been ignoring or something?
gollark: Why do we have a weirdly denominated gold currency and apparently random unexplored-ish areas of wilderness but mobile telephones and credit cards?
gollark: shÖes did.
gollark: Can I find the equation of the tangent to the hyperbola with equation x²/9-y²/4=1 at x=3?

References
  1. "Artist of the Month Conway on Repping Buffalo, Second Chances, and Being the Grimiest of All Time". Consequence of Sound. 2017-11-16. Retrieved 2019-06-01.
  2. "Prepare Yourself For Conway's Bleak, Dusty, Evocative Street-Rap". Stereogum. 2017-01-11. Retrieved 2019-06-01.
  3. "Conway: G.O.A.T." Pitchfork. Retrieved 2019-06-01.
  4. "Watch now: Rapper Conway the Machine gives back to Buffalo". The Buffalo News. 2020-05-14. Retrieved 2020-06-17.
  5. "Daupe!". Discogs. Retrieved 2019-06-01.
  6. "Shady X Griselda Ink Deal For Westside Gunn and Conway". Shady Records. Retrieved 2019-06-01.
  7. https://www.npr.org/transcripts/789690521
  8. Mojica, Nick. "Conway, Boogie and More Spit in Shady 2017 BET Hip Hop Awards Cypher - XXL". XXL Mag. Retrieved 2019-06-01.
  9. "The 15 Best Unofficial Rap Duos in the Game Right Now". Complex. Retrieved 2019-06-01.
  10. "17 Artists to Watch in 2017". Complex. Retrieved 2019-06-01.
  11. "10 Best Lil Wayne Mixtapes". Red Bull. Retrieved 2019-06-01.
  12. "How 50 Cent Used Mixtapes To Market His Brand – Stop The Breaks | Independent Music Grind". Retrieved 2019-06-01.
  13. Sanchez, The Lesson w/ DJ (2018-04-08). "Conway The Machine Releases New Project "Blakk Tape"". The Source. Retrieved 2019-06-01.
  14. Chesman, Donna-Claire. "DJ Premier & Griselda Interview: Making "Headlines"". DJBooth. Retrieved 2019-06-01.
  15. "Conway The Machine – "Bang" (Feat. Eminem)". Stereogum. 2019-07-19. Retrieved 2019-07-30.
  16. "Listen to Eminem's Guest Verse on Conway the Machine's "Bang"". Spin. 2019-07-19. Retrieved 2019-07-30.
  17. ""Look What I Became..."September 13th". Instagram. 2019-09-19. Retrieved 2019-09-14.
  18. http://freemusicempire.com/2019/12/24/2019-fme-mvp-griselda
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