In Key Glock We Trust

On Tuesday night, a crowd of loyal, diverse fans flocked to the Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom, anxiously awaiting entry to see Key Glock and Paper Route Empire perform. 

Paper Route Empire’s DJ Rocksteddy immediately got the crowd hyped with hit songs from Chicago Rap pioneers Chief Keef and Lil Durk. The Memphis-bred DJ is dialed into Chicago’s hip-hop culture. As fans and DJ Rocksteddy sang along to Chief Keef’s viral hit song “Earned It”, Rocksteddy changed disrespectful lyrics from the song that were aimed at Chief Keef’s rival gang members. 

The infamous line “take a Tooka blunt then I burned it” was changed to “take a yellow pack then I burned it”, something more acceptable and less offensive. Fans showed love to Paper Route Empire’s Artist Zo Trapalot, Jay Fizzle, and Paper Route Doo as they opened for Glock. 

Fans went insane once Glock touched the stage after 8 p.m. Trap drums and 808s filled the ballroom as fans screamed along, word for word, to notable songs like “She Ready”, “Let's Go”, “Ambition For Cash”, “Mr Glock”, and “Russian Cream”. Glock kept his late mentor Young Dolph's music alive when he invited fans on stage to rap popular songs by Young Dolph, like “100 Shots” and “Major”, creating an immersive experience for the fans. 

Jon Craft, a 37-year-old Memphis native who now calls Chicago home, represents the kind of transplant fan that Glock's music unites across city lines. Growing up in Memphis, Craft was immersed in the city's hip-hop culture from an early age—his mother worked with the Memphis Music Foundation, providing government grants to emerging artists, including Three 6 Mafia in their pre-mainstream days. “I grew up knowing Three 6 Mafia personally,” he recalls, explaining how his family helped the influential group secure funding to convert their early work to CD format. Now living in Chicago, Craft embodies the Memphis diaspora that Glock's music speaks to—fans who carry their hometown pride wherever they land. “We kind of buddy up, you know, just you can spot each other,” he says about Memphis transplants. “If I see somebody with a Grizzlies hat, I will walk across the entire market, because there's always only like five or six of us at any given place.”

Memphis trap music at its core is gritty and raw, with lyrics rooted in street life. Memphis hip-hop started in the late 1980s but took off in the early 90s and 2000s, according to The Commercial Appeal. The Memphis DJ, DJ Spanish Fly, is referred to as “the godfather of Memphis hip-hop”. Memphis hip-hop artists like Al Kapone, Playa Fly, Lil Noid, Evil Pimp, and Tommy Wright developed their sound under DJ Spanish Fly's blueprint; in fact, many artists in the late 80s and early 90s had to go through him to be heard.

While West Side Chicago hip-hop is unlike Memphis hip-hop in many aspects, it does talk about the detrimental effects of street culture. Artists like Saba deliver introspective raps about growing up on the West Side of Chicago. Saba elaborates on the struggles he’s faced like depression and losing his friend Walter, who was “killed for a coat”. He cites this in his song “Busy/Sirens”. Glock has also expressed dealing with grief and the loss of his friend and former CEO Young Dolph in his songs “Proud" and “Work”. Both artists express similar trauma through their music, but Saba raps over smooth, soulful instrumentation while Glock’s beats encompass hard hitting 808s bass, drums, and dark synths that capture the gritty essence of Memphis hip-hop. This shared focus on street culture's realities, albeit from different angles, explains Glock and Paper Route Empire's strong reception in Chicago. Both scenes understand the struggle, even if they express it differently.

And these modern-day ties have deep roots in Memphis hip-hop history.

Ramon “Tempo” Sanchez, a 36-year-old Berwyn audio engineer who has worked with Glock and Paper Route Empire, confirms that connections run deeper than musical appreciation. “There are definitely connections. I’ve recorded him and PRE [Paper Route Empire] before and he actually has Chicago people in his entourage. They even have a Chicago artist named Chitana that’s in PRE as well. West Side has had a lot of visibility going back to Twista, but has been growing with artists like Sicko Mobb, DCG, Pronto Spazzout, Von of 1700, etc.”

DJ Spanish Fly was among the first wave of Memphis hip-hop artists to blend heavy 808 bass, slowed-down production, dark lyrics, and horror-inspired sounds over rap vocals, pushing the subgenre to what it's become today. You can hear elements of his production in iconic groups like Three 6 Mafia—the Memphis collective featuring DJ Paul, Juicy J, and Lord Infamous, with Project Pat (Juicy J's brother) playing a key unofficial role in their popularity.

Three 6 Mafia, alongside Project Pat, took the Memphis hip-hop sound and made it mainstream. Hints of Three 6 Mafia permeate modern artists today like A$AP Rocky, & Chief Keef. A$AP Rocky’s song “Gunz N Butter” not only features Juicy J, but it also samples Project Pat’s 2002 song “Still Ridin’ Clean”. Chief Keef sampled Three 6 Mafia”s “Slob on my knob” for his song “Like It’s Yo Job” off his 2021 4nem album. 

With Chief Keef sampling Three 6 Mafia, it’s clear how the Memphis influence has reached Chicago. TikTok users have also taken popular songs from Project Pat and grown them into viral social media hits by remixing them, causing songs that debuted in the early 2000s to resurface again. Almost four decades later, the sound that DJ Spanish Fly helped create is still relevant today. 

Glock sticks heavily to his Memphis roots, channeling the same signature production that originated from the city in the late '80s and '90s. It’s evident that fans absolutely love this sound because the energy never died at the Aragon Ballroom that Tuesday night. Glock transforms that sound into something smoother and more “playa” like, maintaining the raw, 808-heavy production while delivering verses with poised confidence. In addition to performing songs from his most recent album Glockaveli, Glock also mixed his set list with fan favorites from previous albums like Glock Bond, Glockoma, Yellow Tape, Yellow Tape 2, and Glockoma 2. 

The trust Glock has earned from fans isn't just about his music; it's about his refusal to compromise his Memphis identity for mainstream acceptance. Craft, watching from the crowd as both a Memphis native and Chicago resident, sums up Glock’s rise perfectly: “As far as having to choose an authentic Memphis connection to mainstream success, I don't think he's going to have to choose, because if you want to get paid, you got to get out of Memphis.”