G Herbo is one of the more conscience rappers of this new era. Much of G Herbo’s lyrics aren’t heavily embedded with talk of money and jewelry, but rather urban plight. Herb hails from 79th and Essex, a violence-stricken neighborhood in South Side Chicago; though Herb and many others refer to this area as Over East.

Herb can attribute his vivid tales of street life to his upbringing. The NLMB spitter doesn’t think he is promoting negative lifestyle, but rather exposing his listeners to his shocking reality.

Herb told SF Weekly during an interview he hopes to spark discussion around his hometown’s violence.

“Violence is always going to occur in Chicago, it always has, and it always has everywhere else,” he said. “But you can create opportunities for people so that they can have other things to do with their time and more opportunities for them to provide for their families so they don’t have to go and commit violent crime and things like. People can come together and create more happiness, more opportunity, and less poverty in the world. People feel like nobody cares for them. I know that, I’ve been there. They feel like they on their own and it’s them against the world, but it shouldn’t be and it doesn’t have to be. You have to create opportunities for them so it’s not like that, and hip-hop can play a big role, and artists have to know that, they gotta speak on making it better, not making it worse.”