Griselda Records wasn’t always Griselda Records. It started out just as Griselda — as a clothing brand, not a record label. GxFR might sound familiar to you; it stands for Griselda by Fashion Rebels. You can hear the brand-name drops in their earlier mixtapes.
The person behind the brand? Westside Gunn. Gunn was also the first one to drop music for what is now known as Griselda Records back in 2012.
The name Griselda comes from Griselda Blanco Restrepo, also known as The Godmother, the Colombian drug lady of the Medellín Cartel.
Alvin Lamar Worthy, also known as Hall, Goldie, FLYGOD, and most notably Westside Gunn, could to some be described as one of the most eccentric and influential people in hip-hop for the last ten years. Gunn does everything. He’s a rapper, songwriter, executive, curator, designer, performer, businessman, ad-lib master, and many things more. There is no limit to what this man can do.
A Buffalo, New York native born on July 27th, 1982, Westside Gunn started hustling from a young age to fund his clothing company Griselda by Fashion Rebels as well as to try to fund the career of Conway the Machine.
Gunn has a fascinating story. Growing up in impoverished East Buffalo, he turned to the most profitable outlet available to him and got mixed into the streets. Though still in love with hip-hop, he hungered for money. Young, poor, Black, in a city falling apart, and a father of two by the age of 20, Gunn was ready to do whatever, and wherever, to get it.
In those early years, he tried to split his time between music and his illegal affairs. While Conway and Benny were already picking up a cult following in the city chasing careers behind the mic, Gunn was more interested in a career on the periphery.
In 2005 Westside Gunn released his debut mixtape Flyest Nigga in Charge, Vol. 1. Sadly, a couple of months after the release of this mixtape, after pleading guilty to a weapons charge, Gunn was sent to prison for two years. During this time, in late 2006, his cousin Machine Gun Blak got shot and killed near Buffalo’s Hagen Street.
Despite being older than the others, Machine Gun Blak was inseparable from the other Griselda members until the day he died.
After serving the majority of his sentence, Gunn got released on parole in 2008 but ended up back inside later for violating the terms of that parole. While searching for whatever to do to pass the time in prison, Gunn found himself mostly reading — the Quran, the Bible and Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist to name a few. He read and traded books with his cellmates so they would have something new to immerse themselves in.
“I got a lot of knowledge in there. And I was just like, ‘OK. When I come home …’ Because Conway and Benny were still Conway and Benny. So they were doing their thing. And I’m just like, ‘Well, shit! I want to come out and get money,’” Gunn says.
In 2011 the Flygod was released from prison, this time for good. While he knew he wanted to commit himself fully to the music industry this time around, he was still unsure of what path to take. Griselda by Fashion Rebels had been existing for about six years by then. But he now wanted to be directly involved in music. Whether this was through a management role or as a performer didn’t matter.
With the last money tucked away from his previous life, Gunn fully backed Conway’s musical career. But a few months later, Conway got shot multiple times, one of the bullets entering his neck and leaving Conway paralyzed on the right side of his face. Gunn felt the urge to pick up the mantle, also hoping that by rapping himself he would motivate Conway not to give up on his own career and to learn how to navigate his new life with restrictions.
“If Conway would’ve never got shot, it wouldn’t be no Westside Gunn the rapper,” Gunn says.
After being away from the mic for about seven years, and with hip-hop culture and sound having majorly shifted, in October 2012 Westside Gunn dropped Hitler Wears Hermes. The first of a now-legendary 12-part series of mixtapes by the same name. The name was inspired by and a play on the 2006 movie The Devil Wears Prada featuring Meryl Streep. Whenever asked if Gunn ever regretted the title of this series, his answer always stays the same. A simple “Nope” is all he feels the need to say.
In one interview with The Ringer in October 2020 he had this to say about the title of his mixtape series:
“If that title was that title, and I was going around with swastikas and shit on, and skinhead and high boots and shit, and talking about hail Hitler in every other song, now we got a problem,” Gunn says before pausing for a moment.
“I don’t even mention Hitler in none of my shit. That is just a title.”
Over the next 10 years, Gunn released nine more of these mixtapes, and his following to this day is growing with each release. For an artist from a fringe market like Buffalo, there is an argument to be made that the publicity from the title really benefited him. In 2016 he dropped his highly acclaimed debut album Flygod, and two years later an equally acclaimed album Supreme Blientele. In 2019, after years of trying to make it happen, the Flygod engineered Griselda’s first group album WWCD (What Would Chinegun Do), in honor of their fallen brother Machine Gun Blak. Dropping three projects in 2020, Pray for Paris arguably landed Westside Gunn in the eyes of the mainstream. With features from Joey Bada$$, Tyler, the Creator, and a number of Griselda members and associates, the album debuted at number 67 on the Billboard 200 and landed in the top 10 of Complex’s top 50 albums of the year.
In February 2022 Conway announced his departure from Griselda. In an interview he explained it was over financial matters. Gunn said they are still brothers and support each other no matter what.
The music never stopped. In 2023 Gunn dropped And Then You Pray for Me, the sequel to Pray for Paris. He called it his last studio album but kept the mixtapes coming. Still Praying with DJ Drama in 2024. Then the Heels Have Eyes series in 2025, tied to his wrestling promotion Fourth Rope and the Heel the World tour. 11, 12, Heels Have Eyes 2, Heels Have Eyes 3. Fashion collabs kept rolling, including more Saucony drops. Limited physicals still sell out fast.
Benny kept pushing with Black Soprano Family and his own projects, including Everybody Can’t Go in 2024. Rome Streetz, Armani Caesar, and the rest of the roster stayed active. Daringer has still been in the mix from the beginning.
Rumors of rifts pop up every now and then. Fans and podcasters run with stories about equity and Paris nights. But Conway, Benny, and Gunn all keep saying the same thing. They are family. No real beef. Everything’s fine. A new Griselda project is already in motion.
When people say Griselda they often refer to the core members of the crew: Westside Gunn, Conway the Machine, and Benny the Butcher. There is much more to Griselda, though. From members who have been there from the beginning like Daringer, to female artists like Armani Caesar, to Rome Streetz and the newer names still coming through.
Griselda definitely doesn’t lack members and associates. In a world where male rappers are still far more successful than female rappers, you definitely don’t see favoritism in the Griselda household.
This is how it started. Clothing first. Then the music. From Buffalo. And it’s still going.
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