Demond Price (born February 16, 1982), known professionally as Conway the Machine, or simply Conway,[2] is an American rapper. Alongside his paternal half-brother, Westside Gunn, and cousin, Benny the Butcher, Conway was a member of Griselda Records. On February 21, 2022, Conway announced his departure from Griselda Records.[3]
History
2012–2019: Early mixtapes and G.O.A.T.
Throughout his 20s, Conway was in and out of jail.[4] During this time, he reflected on what he wanted out of life and began weaning from a gangster lifestyle to focus on his career in music.[2]
In 2012, Conway was shot in the head, neck, and shoulder.[5] Originally, doctors believed that he would be paralyzed from the neck down, however, today the only permanent injury is his face being partially paralyzed, giving him his signature slur.[6]
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 Mach-Hommy.[7] In 2015, Conway released his first two official mixtape projects through Griselda Records, The Devil's Reject and Reject 2.[8][9] Conway and Westside Gunn also released two collaborative EPs through London-based record label Daupe!,[10] 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.[2]
On March 3, 2017, Griselda Records signed a deal with Eminem's Shady Records.[11][12] On October 10, 2017, Conway contributed an a cappella rap verse to the 2017 BET Hip Hop Awards Shady cypher.[13] The same year, Complex included Westside Gunn and Conway in their list of "15 Best Unofficial Rap Duos in the Game",[14] as well as two of the "17 Artists to Watch in 2017".[15]
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.[16] Earlier in 2017, he released a collaborative mixtape with DJ Green Lantern titled More Steroids.[17]
2019–present: Studio albums
On May 16, 2019, Conway, Benny The Butcher and Westside Gunn released their first single with DJ Premier titled "Headlines".[18]
Conway released "Bang", at the time expected to be the first single from his album God Don't Make Mistakes, alongside Eminem on July 19, 2019.[19][20]God Don't Make Mistakes had been intended to be Conway's debut studio album, and Westside Gunn had stated it was "90 percent complete" in 2018;[21] however, Conway's first studio album would instead be the project From King to a God, which he released on September 11, 2020.[22] During this period, Conway continued releasing mixtapes and collaborative albums as well.
God Don't Make Mistakes was ultimately released on February 25, 2022, as Conway's second studio album.[23] It was followed by his third studio album, Won't He Do It, released on May 5, 2023, being Conway's first studio album not released with Griselda.[24]
