Gillie Da Kid

• Genre: Street Hop

About

Considering his talents, it's unfortunate that in most hip-hop history books Gillie da Kid is little more than a controversial footnote in the career of Lil Wayne. The Philly emcee got his start in the late 1990s as part of the Major Figgas crew. With their 2000 single, "Yeah Thatz Us," the group burst out of the regional bubble and caught the attention of Cash Money CEO Baby the Birdman. Gillie signed to the New Orleans label and proceed to spend the next few years caught up in contract disputes. He would later claim that he ghostwrote much of Lil Wayne's breakout album Tha Carter I. Wayne adamantly denied this claim, and the two released a slew of diss tracks and YouTube videos arguing the point. Though we'll never know whether Gillie's claims were accurate, there are some remarkable similarities between Gillie's flow and Wayne's. In fact, they even use some of the same metaphors (specifically the yellow bottle, purple bag/Lakers trope). The dispute brought Gillie to the forefront and drew publicity for his 2007 collection The Best of the GDK Mixtapes and 2008 single "Get Down on the Ground." Both were well received within the hip-hop community.

- Sam Chennault