The Undisputed Truth

Playlist • 14 tracks(s) • 155K views

We know the truth. Drakeo the Ruler revolutionized hip-hop. No rapper since 2Pac has had such a widespread impact on the sound, slang, and style of the West Coast. In the same way as N.W.A. and The Chronic, Los Angeles rap can only be categorized as before and after Drakeo. If L.A. gangsta rap was once nationally known for khakis and ’64 Chevys, Drakeo ushered in the future: driving a Rolls Royce Dawn, “mudwalking” through Neiman Marcus with a .40-caliber bulging from his hip. No belt required. There are thousands of imitators, but there was only one Mr. Get Dough, aka Mr. Mosely, aka Mr. Everything, aka aka Mr. Big Banc Buddha, aka Mr. Pops On My Knots, aka the Flu Flam Champion, aka the Foreign Whip Crasher. Like Wu-Tang, E-40, or MF Doom, Drakeo conceived an entirely new rap language, at once flamboyantly absurd and sniper precise. A shadowland hieroglyphics of antique slang and diabolical taunts. You can still hear his counterclockwise, slithering brand of nervous music and mumbling, conversational mud walk flow in almost every breakout street rapper (and Pulitzer Prize winner) from San Diego to Seattle. A legend in his own time, Drakeo famously beat a death penalty murder case and not only lived to tell about it, he recorded Thank You For Using G.T.L. – an album that Pitchfork called the best ever made from jail. Rolling Stone declared its predecessor, 2017’s Cold Devil to be one of the greatest hip-hop albums of all-time. The LA Weekly once called Drakeo the closest thing that the city had to Gucci Mane. The Los Angeles Times called him the most innovative regional stylist since Snoop Dogg. Upon his release from Men’s Central Jail in 2020, Drakeo recorded a string of classic projects that anticipated the next generation of the West Coast while remaining forever timeless. Check the scoreboard. Even three years after his death, Drakeo still gets hundreds of millions streams a year. He’s been shouted out by everyone from Nas to the Emmy-winning television show, Abbott Elementary. His collaboration with Drake (“Talk to Me”) is approaching 100 million streams on Spotify alone. His latest posthumous release, The Undisputed Truth features 03 Greedo, Baby Smoove, Icewear Vezzo, and of course, his brother and Stinc Team co-founder, Ralfy the Plug. It’s more evidence why Drakeo’s body of work and artistic stature remains peerless and inimitable. Even if the Ruler is gone in the physical form, his influence is everywhere you look. The truth is more alive than ever before.