Westside Gunn Talks ‘Heelmatic,’ WWE, 4th Rope & Status of Griselda: ‘I’m a Legend Now’
Categoria: Musica
The Buffalo rapper decided to go back on his word of not making another album, because he was inspired by Mass Appeal's "Legend Has It" Series.
Por Billboard | 13/11/2026
Westside Gunn and pro wrestling go hand in hand. The Buffalo rapper and Griselda Records founder is back with his first official studio album since 2023’s And Then Pray for Me after saying he didn’t want to make them anymore. But, when Mass Appeal rolled out there “ Legend Has It ” series last year where they released seven albums from seven different legends, Westside was inspired and reached out to Nas and pitched his idea for Heelmatic . The conversation was quick. “I love what Peter Bittenbender and Nas are doing at Mass Appeal,” he tells me when stopping by the Billboard office earlier this week. “I told them what I was trying to do. I told them what it’d take to do it, and if they was down. It was like, ‘Bet.’ It wasn’t even, ‘Let me think about it. I want to be in that legend series before I hang it up because I’m not about to do it later like they did. I’m not about to do it 10-20 years from now like they did. I want to do my s—t now. I’m a legend now. I don’t want to wait till I’m 60 years old for you to tell me I’m a legend. The s—t I done did, nobody has done.” Heelmatic is a play on Nas’ Illmatic and “Heels,” a brand tied to Gunn’s independent pro wrestling promotion 4th Rope, something that he’ll be more focused on even more as his rap career begins to wind down. “I need new energy,” Gunn explains. “That’s the only way I can stay in this s—t, bro. ‘Cause this s—t is corny. Look at this s—t, man. This whole industry is corny as f—k, bro. This s—t is f—king corny.” Check out our conversation below, where he addressed the photo he took at WWE, Conway the Machine ‘s Instagram comment trolling fans, his new album and what the future of 4th Rope looks like. Last time we talked you were saying you didn’t want to make albums anymore, because you wanted to just put music out whenever you felt like it instead of having to deal with a release schedule. What was it about Mass Appeal’s “Legend Has It” series that put the battery in your back to then make an album? I got the song “SummerSlam ’88” where I say “Motherf—ka, I’m a legend.” I was saying “I’m a legend” 10 years ago, and I feel like I’m at the end of my career. When I said I was gonna drop Awesome God 3 , which would be my last solo album, I meant it. I just was inspired by “Legend Has It.” Before I drop that album, I want to do something for New York because right now it just didn’t have that sound. All year long, I haven’t really heard no representation on a mainstream level of this sound, of this essence, of where we come from. It’s like nobody doing that s—t, you know what I’m saying? I want the Marvel comic book like Slick Rick . I wanna be a part of that wave. I want to see the Sup