Lil Durk, 7220

By Leo Hewitt-Provost

03/11/2022

Started from is the opening track of the album is Lil Durk keeping it real, talking about his family, his dad serving life in prison, and all odds against him as he rose to fame. 

Headtaps follows the same lyrical pattern as its predecessor but the cadence of the track is much faster, “told my momma that I’m gifted, I feel better rich, I’m in a cell thinking of my kids like I could be with them watching Peppa Pig. Headtaps is very melancholic and reminiscent. Smurk mourns the loss of many family members and friends. 

AHHH HA served as the first actual single of the year for Lil Durk, even though Broadway Girls and Pissed Me Off are on 7220 when they were released at the end of last year. AHHH HA is a much different song to the opening two songs and serves as a direct response to NBA YoungBoy’s many disses towards the Chicago rapper. On this explicitly dangerous reply, Lil Durk mentions his late close friend King Von from Chicago who was brutally murdered two years ago, talking about NBA’s baby mama, the feds and the altercations between his gang and YB’s.

It’s easy to say AHHH HA was a big part of the promotion for his album, having originally tweeted a few months ago that he was dropping 7220 on the same day as Kanye with Donda 2- which didn’t come out on the day anyway- Smurk only dropped the song with its music video on YouTube, but that was enough to get people talking.

Shootout @ My Crib goes back to the basis of the album, which is ultimately for Lil Durk to put his life into words, describing what it’s like to live life on the edge, mourning losses and being a product of your environment. 

Golden Child was released just a day before the full release of 7220, and goes straight to the point: “That boy is dead I’m glad […] I don’t fuck with Vlad […] I’m Smurk I’m a golden child, I’m a street n****, […] 100 mill Imma throw in the towel.” The track is concise, menacing and just the right length.

No Interviews is exactly what the title suggests, with the exception being Million Dollarz Worth of Game where Lil Durk appeared a few days before the worldwide release of his project, he explained on the podcast that Wallo and Gillie were the exception because they have always kept it real, on the song he says “One reason I don’t be taking no interviews is because they bring up rats, the last killing was a big mistake so why aren’t you stating the facts?”. On the podcast, inspirational and motivational speaker Wallo brought up the fact that he was sentenced to prison, but he learned to forgive his brother’s killer, as he was tearing up and getting emotional it was his only hope that Lil Durk and his brothers were taking in everything he said, as it all comes back to King Von, NBA YoungBoy and gang violence in Chicago.

Petty Too features Future and is only one of four guests appearing on the project, the song is nothing extraordinary from the Atlanta-born rapper but both executions are great, which make for an enjoyable listen.

The transition to Barbarian is really smooth, as the track sounds very nostalgic and sounds like Durk is in his feels, as a lot of people discovered last year with his joint album with Lil Baby where a lot of tracks sounded as melodic as Barbarian, there isn’t a lot of criticism to be added on here, with the sole exception that sonically, Future would have fitted on this track better than he did on Petty Too.

Hard-working, humble, creative, committed and driven are just a few words that come to mind when describing the late Virgil Abloh who sadly passed away last year, he was a fashion designer but he was so much more than that, he had a lot of ties with the hip-hop industry so it’s really nice to see Gunna and Lil Durk working together on What Happened to Virgil, as most of the album is, this song is also very melancholic and tells us just how short life may be.

7220 is everything that was needed for Smurk fans, a mix of drill and sorrow goes hand and hand with the rapper from Chicago, who does ever so well on this 17-track album; something internauts were quick to hop on and be skeptical about. Songs on the latter half of the project are as powerful as the opening half, and Lil Durk wouldn’t want it any other way. He has always stayed true to himself.