A Guide To King L

Get to know King Louie, one of the few guest artists on Kanye's Yeezus.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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“Yeah, it’s like trap and drill and house.”

That was Kanye West, discussing Yeezus in a recent interview with the New York Times. Yeezus features only two guest rappers—Chief Keef and King Louie—both of whom emerged from the Chicago's local “drill scene." Keef, of course, became a divisive flashpoint over the course of the past year, due in large part to his young age.

King Louie has been overshadowed in the mainstream press, which remained largely clueless about the scene’s sound and origins. But at the time of Keef's arrival, Louie was actually the much bigger artist in Chicago, a deft lyricist who represented Dro City, the neighborhood in the city's Woodlawn section considered the origin point of drill music.

Louie already has an established catalog; his first tape, Boss Shit, came out in 2008, and gained considerable local buzz. Shortly thereafter, he was struck by a car and seriously injured. He had to learn to walk again. By late 2010, he recovered, and began releasing new music, beginning with the video for “I’m Arrogant.” Soon, his buzz built enough throughout Chicago that he caught the attention of Kanye West’s former manager John Monopoly, who signed on to guide his career.

The Chicago scene, though, had developed organically. The drill scene in particular had a unique sound, and until Keef gained the attention of national publications, King Louie’s music actually better encapsulated the varied dimensions of the music's style. Formed around Louie’s crew—producer LoKey, fellow Fly Entertainment rapper Big Homie Doe, Boss Woo and Loose Cannon, among others—drill bore a heavy influence of southern rap, but was also shaped by local culture and slang, Chicago’s unique gang-oriented geography, and whatever popular rap had most recently made a national impact.

For more on King Louie’s biography, check out our interview with the rapper here. But to get a crash-course in his music, check out A Guide to King L...

Written by David Drake (@somanyshrimp)

RELATED: Who Is King L?
RELATED: The 50 Best Chicago Rap Songs 

King Louie "What That Mouth Do" (2008)

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King Louie "I'm Arrogant" (2010)

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Mixtape: Man Up Band Up "The Mixtape Before the Mixtape"

After Boss Shit made its initial impact, Louie was struck by a car and was seriously injured. He had to relearn how to walk, and seemed to vanish from the music scene. His return came with a video for "I'm Arrogant," produced by Troy P of Hustle Squad Productions in "A Milli"-style and released on YouTube in late 2010. It also appeared on Man Up Band Up "The Mixtape Before the Mixtape," a release funded by his then-sponsor Doobie clothing, and which featured an animated Louie on the front cover with his distinctive broken front teeth (since repaired).

"I'm Arrogant" introduced his new rap style, where he would lock into a unique, hypnotic rhyme cadence, each line building into a song with its own cyclical, MC Escher-like logic. "I'm Arrogant" has no chorus, instead relying on its rhyme pattern as a hook.

It can take a minute to tune in what he's actually saying, but once a listener catches on, it becomes apparent how many clever lines he's built into each verse: "Drop the top, on the coupe/And just cruise in the nude/I know you see me YouTube/Superbad, I need lube/And your bitch need Lou/I'm a boss, fuck you!/My Lemonade need cubes."

King Louie f/ Boss Woo "Kush Too Strong" (2011)

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Mixtape: More Boss Shit

Shortly after "I'm Arrogant" took off, a new video surfaced in early 2011, with two songs attached. The first was called "Kush Too Strong," and it became another fan favorite and (primarily) regional hit. This time, he was joined by rapper Boss Woo, and rapped as if in a dreamlike state over the pillowy-est of production. The song's mantra-like chorus and soft-focus beat make the track feel like an escapist fantasy, as if Louie is simultaneously resisting and succumbing to the numbing power of the narcotic.

King Louie "Get Money (Man Up Band Up Remix)" (2011)

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Mixtape: More Boss Shit

This track showed up at the end of Louie's More Boss Shit mixtape, and crept in at the end of the "Kush Too Strong" video. Produced by LoKey, who lives up to his name with this subtle, graceful canvas, "Get Money" glides with demure confidence. Louie has edgier songs, more aggressive ones, and more lyrical moments, but none that match his effortless delivery so perfectly. A diamond in his catalog, the song's subtlety gives it a glacial purity. It's packed with quotable lines ("no slaves dog, our whips are cars," "AK-47 spit, bitch, duck or soak"), but the track's climactic moment comes with a series of internal rhymes in its second verse: "Purple potion, cause slow motion, plus we chokin' smokin' potent." Louie ends each verse with "It's nothin' else to fuckin' do," like an accidental echo of Common's "Nuthin' to Do," and twinned with the song's spacious production, it captures the humbling expansiveness of the city's wide streets, open topography, and lack of opportunity.

King Louie "Live and Important" (2011)

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King Louie "Mr. Incredible" (2011)

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King Louie "Too Cool" (2011)

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Mixtape: Chiraq Drillinois

The first single pushed after John Monopoly jumped on board, "Too Cool" was also the first track that seemed to get much attention outside of Chicago. But before it received a video and local radio airplay, the song was a track from Chiraq Drillinois, a mixtape with Call of Duty-styled cover art and an equally violent street edge. "Too Cool," though, was the most mainstream-friendly track, so it made sense for a single. Its jovial production, courtesy Hustle Squad's H.B. on the Track, alternates between synthesizer twinkles and sudden massive kick drums. Paired with Louie's catchy hook, it successfully captured Lou's sense of humor without being overly dominated by descriptions of bullet-behavior, but his unique style wasn't compromised in the effort; it's one of Louie's most Louie-esque efforts. Captions on the video translate the hook, although I could have sworn "Zoo Lou" was supposed to be "Zulu" (maybe it's a double-entendre?).

King Louie "Work Something" (2011)

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King Louie "My Niggaz (Remix)" (2011)

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Mixtape: Chiraq Drillinois

Not to be confused with "My Niggaz," his recent single from Drilluminati, this earlier track from Chiraq Drillinois became one of the rapper's most quotable tracks if only for its opening lines: "Roll up the dope/Where the bitches at?" not only became a locally-viral catchphrase but spawned later Louie tracks as well.

King Louie f/ Boss Woo "Gumbo Mobsters" (2011)

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Mixtape: Hardbody The Mixtape

Shot during Dro Day, a celebration of the life of a former resident of the rapper's neighborhood who had been killed, the "Gumbo Mobsters" video was described in-depth by videographer DGainz in our extensive interview with him. "After I recorded it he was like, 'Can you make this look like Paid In Full, when they was all outside getting it cracking?' I was like, yeah, I can try to get that look. And that's how I tried to do it."

"Gumbo Mobsters" is archetypal street Louie, with rugged threats and particularly visceral descriptions of the extensive plans his bullets have for the rhetorical target, even in the chorus: "Bullets go through heads/Motherfuck the Feds." The production, with its stuttering kick drums, chopped horns, and the strange melodic element that shifts in over certain portions of the song, is disorienting, as if making the listener feel that they were on dangerous alien terrain.

King Louie f/ Boss Woo "Money Dance" (2011)

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Mixtape: Hardbody The Mixtape

“Money Dance” was another team-up with videographer DGainz, shortly after the duo released the “Gumbo Mobsters” video. Both this track and “Gumbo Mobsters” came from King Louie’s Hardbody The Mixtape, his strongest tape up until the recent release of Drilluminati. It included some of the most diverse production on a Louie tape to that point, from “Gumbo Mobsters” chaotic war cry to the smooth melodicism of “Smokin’ Dope.”

The “Money Dance” beat was its own animal, with production that sounds at once like a tribal war cry and a starship’s red alert, helped make the song into one of the signature anthems of the drill movement, due in part to its sparse, harsh sonic template. DGainz didn’t just shoot the video, but produced the beat as well. Gaines describe shooting the video in our interview here.

As a point of reference: The “money dance,” although popularized nationally when Lil Mouse broke into the WorldStar consciousness, is actually a reference to “Dro Style,” a windmill-style dance initially broken locally by Pac Man’s “Dro Style” video. Pac Man, before he was killed in 2010, also coined the scene-defining term “drill,” and was Dro City’s most well-known rapper-resident prior to King Louie.

King Louie f/ Boss Woo "Walk It Out" (2011)

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King Louie "G-Shit" (2011)

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King Louie "Louie Montana" (2011)

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Mixtape: #ManUpBandUp Pt. 1

Trust us, we’re not including King Louie’s “Tony Montana” freestyle due to a lack of options; instead, this makes the list for completely remaking the original in his own image. This track is one of the rapper’s most quotable singles, packaging his nonchalant threats and imperturbable-ness with the kind of effortless self-mythologizing all rappers should strive for. “Shoot a big nigga in his chest, tell him die strong,” “Play my shit while I get ink, that’s a tat-tune,” “First they was sleepin’ on me, now Louie coffee,” “They assassinate the great so now I’m drillin’ till they off me.”

Shady f/ King Louie "Go In (Remix)" (2012)

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Mixtape: The Motion Picture

A local schoolyard drill classic, Shady’s DGainz-produced “Go In” received a big boost from Louie when he remixed the anthemic track and spit an unforgettable, intricate, chorus-free verse that captures his hypnotic flow while somehow building up momentum on every line before suddenly shifting rhyme schemes: “Fix ya hat, get ya gat, if you ain’t with it, keep it straight/My bitches not straight that mean they bi/No story, don’t gotta lie/Kush still too strong, so you know I’m riding high.”

King Louie "Bars" (2012)

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Mixtape: The Motion Picture

With the release of the C-Sick-produced “Bars,” Louie created the most dramatic example of how his rap style was innovative and fresh in a world of imitators and emulators. Again, he locked into a unique flow and found that the limitation of one pattern actually created a space for even more creativity, as he built variations upon it. The beat, with its steadily-building metallic timbres, perfectly complemented Louie’s circle rap style, which seemed to build up in intensity in a never-ending loop of increasing pressure.

Every line on “Bars” felt like it could be turned into a hook, which was ironic because the song had none. Seeing a performance of this track live in Chicago last spring was revelatory; the entire audience seemed to have the song memorized line-for-line: “I’m so high in the clouds, every day’s a vacation/Niggas say they get money?/Spin, heavy rotation!”

King Louie f/ Shorty K "Hitta Shit" (2012)

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King Louie "Val Venis" (2012)

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King Louie f/ Juicy J and Pusha T "My Hoes They Do Drugs" (2012)

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King Louie "Band Nation" (2012)

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Mixtape: Drilluminati

"Bada-boom, bada-bing/Ballin' like I got a ring..." "Band Nation," from Louie's tape Drilluminati, is one of his best tracks. Its skeletal, bleeping structure, created by the Nez and Rio production duo, presages "New Slaves" as much as Kanye's own "Clique." Louie's flow locks on, and as usual, leaves no prisoners, dropping quotable lines in an unconventional pattern that becomes so hypnotic you almost don't realize how clever what you're hearing really is: "Cars we cop just to crash/Married to the money so I guess relationships do last/Not in the car, it's on me, in my pocket is the new stash/You can think I don't, but I do blast."

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