The Rapper’s Rapper ft Grafh
5/21/20261 hr 13 min
This week on The Almanac of Rap, Donwill sits down with Queens lyricist Grafh to talk about battle rap, mixtape culture, lyricism, and surviving the music industry on his own terms.
Grafh reflects on discovering rap through Nas’ Illmatic, studying rhyme patterns with a dictionary, and developing the intricate writing style that would later make him a respected “rapper’s rapper.” The conversation explores the difference between writing a great verse versus crafting a great song, ghostwriting for major artists, and learning song structure from collaborators like Kanye West and 88-Keys.
Grafh also shares stories about ba...
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First 90 secondsSpeaker 10:01
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Speaker 20:24
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Speaker 30:29
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Don Will· Host0:57
The thing that I've re- I'm realizing is that you're one of the first people to sit at the table that, like, made mixtape money for real.
Grafh· Guest1:05
Like, for real. Like, we coulda- That shit had to be insane ... we could, we could have bought houses with [censored] money. Like, it was crazy back then.
Don Will· Host1:10
Did it seem like it was just never going to end?
Grafh· Guest1:12
[laughs] It did. It did. 'Cause you don't realize, like, technology's gonna come change and, and, and- Yeah ... and, and change the world. We selling CDs hand-to-hand. And I feel like this generation, they missed out on CDs.
Don Will· Host1:22
Yeah, a- a 100%.
Grafh· Guest1:23
CDs, like, it's tangible. You could touch it.
Don Will· Host1:24
100%.
Grafh· Guest1:24
You could hold it. You could sign it. People put time into they [censored] photo shoots to make the booklet for you. Like, the