Therefore, Evan Nabavian was always in the streets.
Rappers have been telling us about how they grew up too fast since Prodigy was 19. But it’s still jarring to listen to G Herbo recount several lifetimes’ worth of shootings and then learn he was born in 1995. On “Hood Cycle,” he muses about whether a percocet will kill him and he laments disappointing his grandmother while she was alive — preternatural concerns for someone not yet 25. He looks back at his younger self with regret for his indiscretions and bemusement at his luck at not being dead or in jail. Herbo’s only vestiges of youth are weed and sex.
The video sports the grainy VHS aesthetic of a home movie and the chipmunk soul beat sounds like something Kanye would have rapped over before he could afford Louis Vuitton. G Herbo shows no indication that he’s roughly the same age as Lil Uzi Vert and Playboi Carti — his video has no gloss and no fashion choices that would trigger Lord Jamar. But “Hood Cycle” is relevant because grief and stress are always relevant.
