Harold Stallworth insists that life is like a dice game. Willie The Kid’s hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan, is best known for being a world leader in office furniture manufacturing, but you would never know it from the plush tone of his music. Willie’s studio persona is anything but functional. He raps wealthy, even when […]

Harold Stallworth is the self-proclaimed lord of alliteration. When I interviewed Michigan rapper Willie The Kid circa 2011, he hinted toward a forthcoming LP produced entirely by Cookin’ Soul. He claimed the project was reminiscent of It Was Written, a summer album that was, in his words, “smooth but jagged at the same time.” At his best, […]

Evan Nabavian is holding four aces. The lexicon of macks, dons, players, pimps, hustlers, and Gs gets an overhaul from Willie The Kid on “Let The Money Stay.” His neo-noir vignette is a string of salient details: lily white leather, pink panties, sauvignon blanc. Absent are minks, canes, and hard-toe gators. Rather, Willie’s rhymes assume […]

Evan Nabavian is younger than Willie the Kid, but doesn’t feel the need to brag about it. The 70s and 80s begat drug dealers. They were ambitious and greedy and impulsive and their connects sold them grams upon grams. And they toasted foreign liqueurs to their success. And they rode coups through the city with […]