Conway

Demond Price (born February 16, 1982), known professionally as Conway the Machine (or simply Conway or The Machine), is an American rapper from Buffalo, New York. Alongside his brother Westside Gunn and their cousin Benny the Butcher, he is part of Griselda Records. At age 23, Conway spent some time in jail, which he has cited as a motivation for weaning from a gangster lifestyle to focus on his career in music. In 2012, Conway was shot in the back of the head and neck, an incident that left him with Bell's palsy (Bell's palsy refers to an idiopathic CNVII palsy, if there's a known etiology it's not Bell's palsy), which paralyzed the right half of his face. His facial paralysis contributed to what Consequence of Sound described as "a mush-mouthed, yet visceral flow reflecting the sheer force of will needed to overcome the incident that could have easily ended his career". The violence of the grittiest Buffalo streets worked its way into Conway's art, lending a biting verisimilitude to his raps, an element underscored by the dark, stark and grainy minimalism that is a hallmark of the production values represented on all Griselda Records offerings. In 2014, Westside Gunn founded Griselda Records, through which Conway and Westside Gunn would self-release their own projects and the works of artists such as Benny the Butcher and Tha God Fahim. In 2015, Conway released his first two official mixtape projects through Griselda Records, The Devil's Reject and Reject 2. Conway and Westside Gunn also released two collaborative EPs through London-based record label Daupe!, the first of which was 2015's Hall & Nash, followed by 2016's Griselda Ghost. In April 2016, during Mobb Deep and Smif-N-Wessun's "Hell On Earth" tour, Conway was introduced to Prodigy of Mobb Deep, who would become one of his earliest notable collaborators and supporters. On March 3, 2017, Griselda Records signed a deal with Eminem's Shady Records, a subsidiary of Interscope. On October 10, 2017, Conway contributed an a cappella rap verse to the 2017 BET Hip Hop Awards Shady cypher. The same year, Complex included Westside Gunn and Conway in their list of "15 Best Unofficial Rap Duos in the Game", as well as two of the "17 Artists to Watch in 2017". Following Griselda's deal with Shady Records, Conway's first official release was G.O.A.T. on December 21, 2017, which included production from Griselda's in-house producer Daringer and The Alchemist, and featured Royce Da 5'9", Raekwon, Prodigy, Styles P and Lloyd Banks. Earlier in 2017, he released a collaborative mixtape with DJ Green Lantern titled More Steroids.

Much like Lil' Wayne and 50 Cent before him, Conway has made a name releasing frequent and well received mixtapes online, often for free. His mixtape collaborations for his Everybody Is F.O.O.D. series has included Busta Rhymes, Pete Rock, The Alchemist, Nottz, and Statik Selektah. He has also made countless collaborations and features with other underground hip hop artists alike such as Nems, Pounds, Your Old Droog, Leaf Dog, Daringer, The Alchemist, DJ Muggs and DJ Premier.