Brooklyn drill has faced a lot of backlash lately
for allegedly contributing to the rise in violence in New York City...
But one rapper who’s fighting to keep the wave alive is Fivio Foreign.
Fivio has had a wild come up,
but he’s proved that street dudes can make it out by telling their stories in music.
Today we going to get into how he went from hustling in the streets,
to one of the hottest rappers in the game.
Fivio’s connections to the drill scene run deep.
He grew up in the East Flatbush area of Brooklyn.
He was raised in the same building as Rowdy Rebel - a GS9 affiliate
and Bobby Shmurda’s right hand man
who also helped kick off the New York drill wave.
Fivio started rapping when he was a kid, but at first it was just a hobby.
His goal was to be a pro football player,
but his issues at school made him give up on that dream.
He tried working regular jobs, but those ain’t work out either
so he ended up in the streets to try to support himself.
Then in 2013
he linked up with a group of friends to form a group called 800 Foreign Side.
800 Foreign Side is allegedly the name of a set of cripps
that’s affiliated with GS9 and the Woos.
GS9, or Gangster Stone cripps,
is one of the most notable sets in Brooklyn drill.
Rowdy Rebel, Bobby Shmurda, and Pop Smoke are all affiliated with them
and helped put the movement on the map.
Fivio was close with all of the GS9 dudes who were popping off,
so he got a front-row seat to watch them blow up.
He told Complex “I saw the whole hood change.
I saw people start treating people different. I saw people acting different.
It was lit, though. ******* was outside.”
Watching his homies take off inspired Fivio to go harder into his own music.
800 Foreign Side started dropping tracks and music videos,
but the group never really blew up.
They kept working together for a few years,
but then some of them went to jail or just stopped making music completely.
Fivio said “I felt like, at a point, people just gave up.”
Fivio might have quit rap too,
But then tragedy struck and made him realize he had to go even harder..
In 2018, Fivio’s mom suffered a serious stroke
and spent two weeks in the hospital before she passed away.
Fivio spent every day in the hospital with his mom,
and even found out he was going to be a father while sitting next to her.
Fivio was living with his mom at the time.
So when she passed,
he was left without a mother or a place to live.
Plus he had a kid on the way,
so there was even more pressure on him to make something happen.
He couch surfed with friends and family,
and even tried to get a legit job as a construction worker.
But construction wasn’t the right fit, so Fivio bounced early on.
The situation wasn’t looking good for Fivio at the time,
but then he dropped the track that changed everything:
Blixky Inna Box.
Blixky Inna Box was really a diss track aimed at Blixky Gang.
Blixky Gang is a rival rap crew known for artists like 22Gz.
The diss song went crazy in the city and got everyone’s attention.
Fivio and the other two dudes on the track:
Jay Dee and Dee Savv, are allegedly affiliated with the Woos,
which automatically makes the Choo-affiliated Blixky Gang their opps.
The Woos and Choos been beefing for years.
They were originally known as Wave Gang and Hoodstarz,
two neighborhood gangs based in Brownsville
that was once cool with each other.
Then a massive police investigation called Operation Tidal Wave
ended with 43 alleged gang members getting taken down.
Wave Gang and Hoodstarz both took a lot of hits,
then they started accusing each other of snitching.
When it all settled, Wave Gang became the Woos,
Hoodstarz became the Choos, and both crews been out for blood ever since.
Blixky Inna Box might have just been a diss track,
but it caught the attention of Harlem legend Mase,
who ended up signing Fivio, Jay Dee, and Dee Savv
to his Rich Fish label.
Jay Dee already had ties to Mase through his uncle,
so they got a meeting set up and signed the deal immediately.
Apparently the deal with Mase’s label wasn’t great, though.
Rumors say Fivio only signed for 5K,
and he told DJ Vlad from Vlad TV that the deal was “some short ****.”
Then people started accusing Mase of taking advantage of Fivio and the others,
and that he was taking the rights to their publishing.
But Fivio cleared everything up in an interview and said Mase treated him right
and ain’t own none of his publishing.
Blixky Inna Box put Fivio on the map,
but according to his opps it also led to him getting jumped.
Nas Blixky said in an interview that he saw a bunch of GDs put hands on Fivio
when they caught him lacking in a corner store.
The Choos and the Blixky gang are mainly made up of GD’s,
who also beef with the cripps in Brooklyn
so they ain’t appreciate the disrespect.
But even if he caught a beating for Blixky Inna Box,
Fivio’s next track was about to take things to the next level.
Fivio dropped the track Big Drip as the single for a project called Pain and Love.
Big Drip went crazy in New York, and the video for the track
racked up over 70 million views on YouTube and helped the song go viral.
Big Drip and the Pain and Love EP leveled up Fivio’s career,
which led to a seven figure deal with Columbia Records.
A lot of rappers get the bag and then leave everyone else behind,
but Fivio wanted to do more with his platform as an artist.
He started a nonprofit called the Foreignside Foundation in 2020
to give back to the community.
The organization is “geared towards providing beneficial resources
and programs for at-risk youth, the homeless,
current and former gang-affiliated individuals,
incarcerated individuals,
and communities that are in need of supplemental and educational assistance.”
Fivio is trying to make a positive impact and help others
since he went through the same struggles,
because in 2020, he lost two friends to gun violence.
The first was Pop Smoke on February 19th.
Fivio and Pop had been close for years and made several tracks together.
But Pop was more like a brother than a collaborator.
Fivio told Complex “The pain I felt was crazy.
After my mother passed away, I got cold and ****.
I didn’t really care after that. This one felt different.
We was in this **** together. It’s way deeper than music.”
Later that same year, Fivio lost another friend
when King Von was shot and killed in Atlanta.
Despite the pain he felt from losing both of them,
Fivio kept pressing forward
and dropped his debut mixtape 800 B.C. in April 2020.
The project featured massive artists like Meek Mill, Quavo, and Lil Baby.
But even though his career was taking off more than ever,
Fivio was still facing a lot of struggles.
In October 2020,
he was arrested for allegedly assaulting his girlfriend.
He was booked on a simple assault charge and held in jail,
but his girlfriend hopped on social media to explain the situation.
According to her, a nosy neighbor called the police,
but she had no intention of pressing charges.
When Fivio got out of jail, he went on Twitter and said
“I would never hurt or harm any pregnant woman especially not my girlfriend.
My mother would kill me, plus I'm raising two black little girls.
and woman do everything for me in my my life.
In relationships people argue and have disagreements,
Whoever know us know we been arguing
we argue and we will always argue.
It’s just unfortunate that I have nosy ass neighbors who can’t mind they own business.
Wasn’t the first time and won’t be the last.
2020 was a crazy year for Fivio.
In August, rumors started flying that he had been shot and killed in Atlanta.
Then Murda Beatz seemed to confirm it when he posted
'‘Rap game ****** up rip Fivio” on Snapchat.
A video started going around
showing an SUV that allegedly belonged to Fivio shot up with its windows busted out,
and for a moment it looked like hip hop lost another talented artist to gun violence.
Then Kenny Beats and others started tweeting out that Fivio was actually ok.
A news report confirmed there was a shooting at the nightclub
Fivio was supposed to perform at,
but it all went down before he took the stage.
No one knows exactly what happened, but luckily Fivio wasn’t injured..
He hopped on twitter to let everyone know he was alive and well, and said
“I don’t stay safe I stay Dangerous.”
Fivio made it out alive, but he was about to lose another close friend.
His homie Jay Dee got locked up
around the same time they all signed with Mase off of Blixky Inna Box.
When Jay got released,
he went on IG Live to call out Fivio
and say that he pretty much abandoned him during his legal battles.
He also said Fivio only got a deal with Mase because of him.
Then Jay Dee got locked up again
when the cops arrested 34 Woo and Choo members in a massive indictment.
Fivio apparently paid his bond, and Jay ended up beating the case.
After that, Jay started showing love to Fivio in interviews,
so everyone thought the situation was all good.
But out of nowhere, Jay Dee started going off on Fivio again.
He said that he made Fivio and without him he wouldn’t have a career.
Apparently
Jay was upset that Fivio ain’t give him the support he thought he deserved
when he got out of jail.
Fivio seemed more hurt and disappointed than anything,
but then he sent a subliminal at Jay Dee on the track Self Made.
On the song he raps
“They sayin’ they made me. Huh, make another one.”
Jay Dee responded with the track Subliminals,
where he spent the whole song going straight at Fivio.
Then another one of Fivio’s old friends,
Drizzy Juliano, backed up what Jay was saying about him.
But while two of his homies were going after him on diss tracks and social media,
Fivio lost another one to the streets.
On February 3rd, TDott Woo was shot and killed
just a few hours after he signed his first record deal.
Fivio was tight with him, and his death hit him hard.
He paid his respects on Instagram and said
“Imma miss you forever baby boy. You was the prince of this city.
Long Live Prince T Dot. I love you gang.
Like forever watch over me like you always do.”
TDott’s murder was allegedly payback for the shooting of Nas Blixky
that went down a few days before.
On January 27th,
Nas was ambushed when he was walking out of a store and shot three times.
He almost died from the injuries, and his step-dad said
it all happened because of Nas dissing his opps on social media.
But right now there’s no evidence actually linking the two shootings.
Fivio’s come up aint been easy,
but through all the struggles he’s still moving forward
and working with some of the biggest artists in the world.
He linked up with Drake for the track Demons,
then later he appeared on the song Off the Grid on Kanye’s album Donda,
which many critics said was one of the best features on the project.
Recently he dropped City of God with Alicia Keys and Kanye,
and even met with the mayor of New York to discuss the ban on drill music.
Fivio has lost a lot of homies to the streets, and more to petty beef.
Hopefully he can focus on his own career
and avoid getting dragged back into all the drama,
but the drill scene is more violent than ever right now.
Rest in peace to everyone who lost their lives,
hopefully artists in New York can come together
and find a way to stop the violence.