Conway the Machine on Vinyl: Where to Start with the Buffalo Heavyweight

Conway the Machine came up in Buffalo, New York, and his records carry that city in them: cold rooms, hard consonants, drums cut like they were made in a basement on purpose. Born Demond Price, he built his catalog alongside his half-brother Westside Gunn and their cousin Benny the Butcher, the three of them turning a local circle into Griselda Records in 2014. Gunn founded the label and Conway is credited as a co-founder, and for a decade the imprint's aesthetic was theirs to define: loose loops, soul samples left dusty, no hooks, rappers who treat a verse like a ledger.

The voice is the first thing people notice. In 2012 Conway was shot in the head, neck and shoulder. Doctors initially believed he would be paralyzed from the neck down; the lasting injury is partial paralysis of his face, and the slur it left him with became one of the most recognizable deliveries in rap. He does not work around it. He leans in, and the result is a rapper who sounds like he is talking at you from a few feet away rather than from a stage.

Griselda signed with Eminem's Shady Records on March 3, 2017, which put Conway in front of a much larger audience. He announced his departure from both Shady and Griselda in February 2022 and has since run his own imprint, Drumwork. What we carry is the part of that run that made it to wax: the mixtape era and the producer collaborations more than the flagship studio albums. That is a feature, not a gap, because the tapes are where his voice is most unguarded.

Reject 2 - Where the Catalog Really Starts

In 2015 Conway put out his first two official mixtape projects through Griselda, and Reject 2 is the one that stuck. Ten tracks, no filler, and a version of the Griselda sound that had not yet been polished for anybody. If you want to understand why a regional Buffalo tape ended up mattering to listeners in London and Tokyo, this is the document. We also carry it as a picture disc and in a Taha Records obi edition.

• The earliest Conway most collectors can own on vinyl, closest to the tapes that built Griselda.
• Ten tracks and no concessions, which makes it the most useful first listen if you are weighing up the whole lane.
• Three separate pressings here, so you can pick the jacket you want.

Reject on Steroids - The DJ Green Lantern Tape

Twelve tracks produced by DJ Green Lantern, which gives it a different texture from the Daringer school of Griselda beats: more space, more radio muscle, freestyles next to full songs. Royce Da 5'9" and Benny guest. It reached vinyl through RRC Music in collaboration with Drumwork Music, and it is the tape for when you want Conway over beats that push back instead of receding. We have it with Cover 1 and Cover 2 artwork.

• Twelve tracks of Conway over one producer, which is how his catalog works best.
• Green Lantern's drums are louder and cleaner than the Griselda house style, the easiest entry point from mainstream rap.
• Two cover variants, both made for the vinyl edition.

Blakk Tape - The One to Put On First

Released March 27, 2018 through Griselda and Vinyl Digital, Blakk Tape runs ten tracks in about thirty two minutes, with production from Bozack Morris, Daringer and V Don. It is the most efficient record in his catalog and, for most people, the right first purchase: short enough to play twice in a sitting, varied enough to show his range.

• Thirty two minutes across ten tracks, the most replayable Conway record we carry.
• Three producers on one short tape, so you get the range without a full-length commitment.
• Daringer production, so this is where the Griselda in-house sound is most concentrated.

If It Bleeds It Can Be Killed - The Big Ghost Ltd Record

Out February 5, 2021 on Griselda, If It Bleeds It Can Be Killed is produced start to finish by Big Ghost Ltd, and the two have made enough records together that the chemistry is settled. Ten tracks, roughly twenty nine minutes, with Rome Streetz, Ransom and Knowledge the Pirate stopping through. Big Ghost builds beats that sound like they are eroding, and Conway is entirely at home in them. Ours is a red pressing on De Rap Winkel Records.

• One producer across the whole record, the format Conway's voice suits best.
• The guest list doubles as a map of the wider underground he sits in.
• A red vinyl pressing from De Rap Winkel, a label that treats this catalog seriously.

Won't He Do It - The Independent Turn

His third studio album, out May 5, 2023 on Drumwork and Empire, and the first he released without Griselda attached. Won't He Do It is where he stops being one third of a crew narrative and starts making decisions alone, and it sounds like it: bigger arrangements, more deliberate sequencing, a rapper auditing his own career in real time. Westside Gunn still appears, which tells you the split was business rather than a falling out.

• The pivot point in the catalog, the first album made entirely on his own terms.
• A studio album rather than a tape, so the writing and sequencing are tighter.
• You can hear what he kept from the Griselda years and what he left behind.

Conductor Machine - Short, and Worth It

Seven tracks, about fifteen minutes, out December 1, 2023 on Near Mint with Conductor Williams producing throughout. It is an EP rather than an album and we will not pretend otherwise, but Williams is one of the most distinctive producers in this corner of rap and the pairing is a good idea. 7xvethegenius and Jae Skeese appear. We have the standard pressing and a purple galaxy color edition.

• Conductor Williams production throughout, a different palette from Daringer, Green Lantern or Big Ghost Ltd.
• Fifteen minutes long, so it works as a single-sitting listen.
• Two pressings, including a purple galaxy color variant.

The Rest of the Catalog

A few Conway records are worth knowing even though they are not on our shelves. From King to a God, released September 11, 2020, is his debut studio album. God Don't Make Mistakes followed on February 25, 2022, the last issued through Shady. La Maquina arrived in April 2021, and the G.O.A.T. tape, out December 21, 2017, carries production from Daringer and The Alchemist. Slant Face Killah came May 10, 2024 on Drumwork and Empire.

If You Like Conway the Machine

• Westside Gunn: his half-brother and the founder of Griselda, higher and sharper voiced, with louder taste in fashion and art references.
• Benny the Butcher: their cousin and the most conventionally skilled writer of the three, best heard on the Plugs I Met records.
• Roc Marciano: the Long Island rapper whose drumless, loop-driven approach is the direct ancestor of what Griselda built.
• Boldy James: Detroit, flat affect, a deep catalog of one-producer albums, the closest parallel to how Conway works.
• Freddie Gibbs: the most technically gifted rapper in this orbit, and a bridge if you want the same era with more melody.

Where to Go From Here

If you want one record, take Blakk Tape. If you want the one that explains the rest, take Reject 2. If you want him fully in charge, take Won't He Do It. From there the whole Buffalo lineage is worth pulling on, and our Hip-Hop and 2020's sections are where most of it lives. Our Essential 2000s Hip-Hop guide covers the era Conway grew up rapping over. To see every Conway the Machine record we have in one place, including variants not listed above, browse the full Conway the Machine collection.