Ebro Darden, the host of HOT97’s morning show in New York City, said about his latest project, “Best album you never heard of here… I don’t even know who this is. Shit”. Jacob Moore, writer and founder of Pigeons & Planes, titled the feature on him “Atlanta’s Next Great Storyteller” after his first project released. Grip had not always wanted to rap, but his music indicates otherwise. All he knew was that he did not want to sit at a desk every day.

“Fuck no. I never wanted to, never envisioned that shit. I’d work jobs for two or three months and quit ’cause I didn’t want to become complacent,” Grip says of working a 9-to-5 job. “I didn’t wanna be that 50-year-old guy that’s in there, bringing his lunch, getting there early and shit. I’m lookin’ like, ‘nah, this can’t be me’.”

The 30-year-old father-of-two’s recent sophomore LP, Snubnose, and his debut, Porch, are concept albums featuring thorough, vivid storytelling that cements his music into his audience’s conscience. The phrase “concept album” can be limiting, but Grip builds worlds where detailed songs cover many topics, yet no track feels out of place.

“[I]t’s a conceptual project, and a snubnose has a cylinder, so it rotates, and I wanted to speak on cycles,” he says. “[It’s referring to] the black community, but really it’s all walks of life. I speak on depression, I speak on poverty, us spending money that we don’t have, cultural appropriation in the music industry, robbery, the lengths that people go to get a dollar, or to come up… paranoia, police brutality… all these are cycles. So I speak on all of that shit. Single-parenthood. Houses being divided after a child is born.”

Grip crafts his sound and storylines like a luxury tailor. That’s why you wouldn’t recognize his name from a guest appearance on a deep cut from a superstar’s 25-track album. He would rather master his sound for his sake than lend an imperfect verse to someone to get a few streams. He recognizes that he signed up for this when he realized his goal of making music with meaning and purpose.

“My shit is actually thought-out,” he says. “It’s a little harder for me, more demanding, ’cause I’m not finna jump in the booth and say some dumb shit.”

Any hip-hop head’s face will twist up in approval of his bars, just as his lyrics will make the average suburban mother threaten to ground her child for listening. On “226” (feat. Big Rube), he spits: “All black hoodie on / feelin’ like Trayvon / but this time I got the gun drawn / n — — , you can get sprayed on”. He repeats the last bar four more times for good measure. His style honors the genre-forming lyricists of past generations — he cites Andre 3000 as his main influence — but his specific lyrics and diverse beat selection separate him from the pack. Still, with only 2,611 people following his Twitter account, he hasn’t broken through to the mainstream yet. Grip credits Moore’s article for helping his music reach his current audience.

“From the first time I heard his project Porch, Grip felt like an important artist,” Moore writes via email. “And I think we’re still only seeing the beginning of it. He’s such a talented rapper and storyteller, so true to himself and unwilling to make sacrifices just to cater to the diminishing attention spans of consumers. That’s really rare today.”

What’s also rare is Grip’s excitement about taking on challenges. He uses the word “attack” often when discussing his music. He’s hungry, and he knows he has a long way to go, admitting “I’m still not out of the doghouse.” Rap lyric database Genius shows his status in how it credits the majority of the production on Snubnose to a Brazilian EDM producer with half-a-million Twitter followers called Matue, when in reality, Grip’s best friend from high school named Tu made those beats.

“When the juices are flowing he knows how to hone in on that moment and watching that is special,” Tu says over text about working with Grip. “Excitement can also be frustrating too because when you get so caught up in the moment you want the best out of each other and everybody always doesn’t feel at their best so it’s good that we are both here to push each other into the greatness that we believe we are capable of.”

Grip and Tu’s perfectionism comes through in Tu’s frequent mid-song beat switches, which force Grip to adjust his flow, which he does with aplomb. The rapper alternates between his own point of view and the titular weapon’s perspective throughout Snubnose. He borrowed the idea from Nas, who rapped from a gun’s perspective on “I Gave You Power” from his second album, It Was Written.

“I wanted to [rap from a gun’s point of view] in the scheme of the album for it to play the antagonist throughout the album,” says Grip. “It’s a power struggle. There’s no protagonist, but it plays the devil on the left shoulder throughout the album. It’s almost like, giving the person an excuse to use it. It has this power over people. People feel way more powerful when it’s in their presence. And I always thought it would be cool to rap from the perspective of a gun anyways, like, challenge yourself.”

Critically-acclaimed producers Daringer and Beat Butcha have shown their respect for Grip’s craft, so it’s only a matter of time until other big names start to take notice of the spitter from east Atlanta. Until then, he will stay focused on his own sound.

“I don’t wanna just reach out and have someone be like, ‘who the fuck is this kid?’ Like, I’ll give you a feature. For fuckin’ $50,000. None of that bullshit. I’m good on that.”