Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of MaximumFun.org and is distributed by NPR.

It's Bullseye, I'm Jesse Thor.

G. Perrico is from Los Angeles and he's a gangster rapper.

That puts him firmly in a tradition that stretches from iced tea and the DLC and the 80s through

ice cube and snoop dog in the 90s and on to hitmakers like the game and YG in the 21st century.

Listen to a G. Perrico track and it's hard not to hear the echoes of 30 some years of

records about cruising, barbecuing and throwing up gang signs on the streets of LA.

You can't help me if you can't help yourself. I'm at the pin house,

flatten on my next 10 steps. 100 million.

Perrico is a master stylist. His nasal voice cuts up heavy beats. His lyrics are by turn playful

and brutal, sometimes both in one song. I'm all alone talking to G.O.D. he raps on one

lonely track and if he want to do business, then it's COD.

Perrico is a trickster with a gun in his waistband and the weight of the world on his shoulders.

He was born Jeremy Nash, grew up in South Central LA. His life was hard. He grew up in the

kind of neighborhood where broadly speaking you either had friends who rolled with gangs

or you didn't have friends. He's been arrested, been to the youth authority to jail and

to prison. He's been shot at and been shot. He raps about the LA he grew up in, cookouts

and car shows and always some danger around the corner.

G. Perrico broke through in 2016 with his record don't stop. That album established him at

the Vanguard of LA Street Wrap. In the years since he has recorded nearly a dozen albums,

including his most recent project, Hot Shot, Gangsta Grills. He released it with DJ Drama

earlier this year. When we spoke in 2021, G. Perrico had just dropped his record play to win.

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