Rapper Grip Has The Rap Game On One Hand and the Other Finger Pointing Up.
East Atlanta emcee Grip is a maverick who wants his just dues.
Atlanta’s impact and reign over music has been a foregone conclusion for the last thirty-plus years, covering all facets from R&B and soul to hip hop. Often people focus on the impact of early rap icons like OutKast, sonic pioneers like Future and the Migos and trap music mixtape figures like Gucci Mane, forgetting about Atlanta’s elite rappers who wrestle with rhyme schemes and inject authentic storytelling into their work. Grip, one of Atlanta’s most prolific rappers, straddles all the lanes mentioned above.
In the seven years since he’s gotten serious about music, he’s garnered critical acclaim for impactful projects like 2017’s Porch and 2019’s Snub Nose, which led to him earning the title of Atlanta’s Next Great Storyteller from Complex subsidiary Pigeons and Planes. He’s toured internationally, aligned himself with large corporations and in 2021, partnered alongside rap icon Eminem’s Shady Records. Yet the elusive crown he seeks still does not seem quite in his grip. His story of living in the stray corners of society offers clues on how he plans to overcome it all.
Beginnings
Born in East Atlanta in 1990, Grip, born Kyle Clow, spent his early years doing what most inner city kids did which was spend time with his family and friends in the neighborhood. Raised in the Avondale Estates neighborhood in Decatur, Grip’s early memories involved him riding bikes, watching movies and drawing while also spending time with his grandmother who played an integral role in his upbringing as a young man before he moved to Stone Mountain as a preteen.
Musically, Grip came of age during Atlanta’s seismic rap shifts which included the end of the bass era and the entry of crunk and trap which is why artists like OutKast (3K in particular) and Nas’ projects remain his favorites. Albums like Aquemini captivated him as a child and inspired him to do the same, but ultimately Nas’s It Was Written catalyzed it all.
“It Was Written to me was the first Nas album I was of age. My granddad and mom are from New York so that summer I remember hearing If I Ruled the World the whole summer. It made me fall in love with Nas’ music.
Once he came of age and began in his words, jumping off the porch, Grip took to T.I.’s music, in particular, Trap Muzik, which he felt reflected his reality and inspired him that success in the music business was attainable. “It came from someone down the street in Bankhead and you could tell that this album was refined, says Grip.
As a teenager at Stephenson High, he began experimenting with the streets, dabbling with different activities while trying to get his high school diploma. A hub for talent, Stephenson like many other Atlanta high schools, was an incubator for future talents like his fellow Eastside brethren JID, and his producer TU!. Despite all the components, Grip wouldn’t come into rap until after college.
Post College
Kicked out of college his freshman year and now forced to take care of new responsibility, Grip fell into the 9-5 grind, juggling different jobs and rapping on the side. Heeding his mom’s pleas to get himself together, he took the ultimate risk, dropping his first experiment with his 2015 work, The Left Over Tape EP.
“I was everywhere emotionally. I was recording in the closet and ambitious more than anything. I was super dedicated though at that time, more so than now even. “
Despite its lack of polish, it showed Grip the possibility of a career and from there he doubled down, releasing his first classic, Porch, in 2017. A consummate Southern classic in the same vein as YG TUT’s Preacher’s Son, Porch’s authentic account of this theatrical stage blew away critics like writer Jacob Moore of Pigeons and Planes who was the first journalist to sound the alarm on Grip’s skill in his article.
“Porch was a first offer. I knew I was nice enough to try and do this forreal. Dropped it and it got discovered by Jacob. Once he posted it, it was over.”
Snub Nose
The attention following the Pigeons and Planes article changed Grip’s life in immeasurable ways, but left him feeling hungrier than ever for a way to provide. Inspired and eager, he followed up with arguably his most comprehensive and focused album, Snub Nose, a homage to his favorite weapon and to the famous Nas song, “I Gave You Power”.
Almost overnight the project became a cultural phenom, garnering him even more attention and opportunity as some of his favorite emcees such as Big Rube and classmate JID found themselves working alongside him to help his name grow larger. Embracing the brand he and his manager created, Stray Society, Grip went on tour with JID, performing with him on his overseas date while actively planning for a 2020 tour with R&B sensation Brent Faiyaz.
Right around the time of the tour however, the 2020 Covid pandemic struck, removing his chance from him almost instantly. When asked about it, Grip says, “It was close after Snub Nose then Covid came and derailed it. I had to be on the offense and drop two projects. Then Eminem found Snub Nose during Covid and that was enough to light another fire under me.”
Stray Society
Inspired by what he heard, Eminem’s team reached out Grip and ended up doing a deal with him that allowed him to partner with Shady Records. The result was his first major label debut off Shady Records, I Died For This! For Grip, the success of the project and slew of new fans made him confident, but he admits that it altered his life in ways he couldn’t fathom. Still, for someone who came from the bottom of the city, it is his destiny to keep pressing on.
Fresh off a tour and preparing for a tour and future project, Grip plans to continue challenging the conventional sound and approach to his record. “I have real live instrumentation on here and it sometimes teeters on alternative. But it is still rap. I picked up the guitar and even the keys on it. This will be unlike what you heard from me, he says.
Successful, skilled, and spirited, Grip for all his talent is still a human who often finds him struggling to find motivation and inspiration. But his fans remain his north star.
“My lifestyle is different. It isn’t the typical rapper life. I don’t want to be noticed though. I know I’m not the easiest rapper to be a fan of though. I’m not used to having fans. But I want to thank everyone who sticks with me in spite of that to know I love y’all.