7 x 7220

 

Lil Durk is not so little anymore if you consider the facts that he is now 29 years of age, has been in the game for over a decade, released 7 (solo) albums, 12 mixtapes and 138 singles (!), created the collective and label Only The Family, fathered 6 children — while simultaneously seeing far too many of his closed ones violently pass away. This is bound to remind us of the Notorious B.I.G.’s and 2Pac’s of this world, who would talk about death at an untimely age all the while living 10 lives’ worth of experiences in as many years, as if they somehow knew their end was coming sooner rather than later…

Only Lil Durk is very much among us. His close friend and protégé King Von may have sadly passed away back in 2020, with his second (posthumous) album released earlier this month, but Durk is as active as he’s ever been. He was (naturally) featured on Von’s album, which incidentally reached #2 in the charts, following his first #1 LP, 2021’s collaborative The Voice of the Heroes with fellow trap superstar Lil Baby. He was also featured on both Kanye West’s Donda and Drake’s Certified Lover Boy, a great way not to take sides in that feud. His home, meanwhile, got broken into that same year, although he successfully defended it — gun in hand.

And now… 2022. With a new album, 7220, named after his grandmother’s street number. All in all a rather tight affair — “only” 17 tracks clocking in at 45′ — and a style that is becoming somewhat more sober or more somber or just… older, if you will. Granted, the latter part of the album, with songs like “Petty Too” (featuring the ubiquitous Future) or “Smoking & Thinking”, tend to get back to Durk’s drill/trap fold of highly melodic, extremely dense tracks. But the first tracks on there, starting with “Started From” or “Shootout @ My Crib”, come with a deeper side to them. Not only because they refer to very real life, but because it feels like the rapper is slowly taking stock of the world he is navigating through, becoming ever so more contemplative in the process. Then you have tracks like the breathless “AHHH HA”, whose heavy beat harks back to older MC’s, perhaps a J. Cole, even Kanye?

Either way, this album may not be a bone fide revolution in the artist’s discography but it sure is a welcome, more mature addition to it. Which bodes well for the years to come…