Conway The Machine
Gramercy Theatre
June 23, 2026
Two months after releasing his most recent album, G.O.A.T., Conway the Machine took the stage at the historic Gramercy Theatre in downtown Manhattan and delivered a performance worthy of that title. Alongside several members of his Drumwork label, Conway demonstrated why he is one of hip-hop’s most beloved rappers with a gritty, lyrically dense, and unapologetically hard hour of music.
New York legend DJ Funkmaster Flex went on just before Conway and delivered a masterfully mixed and utterly New York DJ set, spinning old-school classics like Nas’s N.Y. State of Mind and Redman’s Tonight’s Da Night. In the wake of the Knicks’ first championship in 53 years, New York pride was at an all-time high, and Funk Flex capitalized on this momentum, shouting out each borough individually, as well as Buffalo, home of Conway and his collective Griselda. Unsurprisingly, there was a massive contingent of Buffalo natives in the crowd.
During his set, Conway directly addressed the controversy currently surrounding his relationship with his Griselda co-founders, Westside Gunn and Benny the Butcher, repeatedly shouting “Griselda forever!” between songs and once directly addressing the perceived distance between himself and Westside Gunn, reminding us that they are brothers and that nothing could change that. Fans were overjoyed to hear this, and even more so when he performed not only his own verse but the entirety of Griselda’s biggest hit, DR BIRDS, rapping Benny and Westside Gunn’s verses with passion and reverence. The crowd was as loud as I have ever heard at Gramercy Theatre when all 500+ people shouted “Told Virgil write ‘BRICK’ on my brick!” in unison.
In the hour building up to Conway taking the stage, a handful of other Drumwork rappers performed brief yet memorable sets. Most notably, Chase Fetti performed a couple of his biggest hits, such as Mobbin and Get A Ticket, and Keen Streetz got the entire audience moving—and singing along—with his new hit single (and potential song of the summer) Murderer. Also on stage, although without any dedicated set time, was Conway’s long-time collaborator, Daringer, co-creator of G.O.A.T. and producer for countless boom-bap classics.
In the midst of the tightly packed, smoke-filled, and sold-out Gramercy Theatre, one fan appeared to have found nirvana as he bobbed his head and rapped every lyric alongside Conway. Three or four songs into his set, and this fan had not missed a word yet. One look into his eyes, and you could tell just how much this music meant to him. Some songs filled him with joy and pride; others with anger and resentment. As Conway progressed from playing his biggest hits to his more introspective music, you could feel the energy in the room shift, and it became clear that this one superfan was not an exception but the norm. While not everyone in the room knew every lyric to every song as he did, they were all resonating with the emotion in the music.
Conway ended the night with a heartfelt and moving performance of The Cow, a song that grapples with the death of Conway’s close friend, MachineGun Black. Perhaps his most emotional song, The Cow explores both his grief over this loss and how he channeled that pain into determination, concluding with the realization that success, not revenge, is what MachineGun Black would have wanted for him.
Before starting the track, he gave the audience a proper introduction, claiming it was ‘the realest shit he ever wrote,’ and briefly explaining his relationship with MachineGun Black. The “Knicks in 5!” shouts of the jubilant crowd from earlier in the night had subsided, creating space for Conway to be vulnerable and honest about some of the most challenging experiences of his life. Despite his famously stoic demeanor, Conway suddenly bared his heart for the audience to see, and his grief was so palpable that each and every person in the room could feel it as though it were their own. As the track started, I didn’t see a single phone or camera in the crowd, just eyes glued to the stage.
“Ask my baby momma how much I cried when MachineGun died
When I pulled up and seen that yellow tape outside
Had me ready to grab the stick and go ape outside
I never found out who did it, that shit ate my pride, I swear
But maybe that was a sign
Maybe God ain’t want me killing them niggas and doing time
Maybe God wanted me here to kill them with the rhyme
Maybe that was part of his plan and part of the design
I don’t know, I’m not religious, all I know is I’m viciously gifted
When I script and then it’s strictly for my niggas
I might shed a tear listening to this shit
Pop the Spade cork like, “Machine Gun, we did it”
Excerpt from “The Cow” — Westside Gunn ft. Conway the Machine, from Hitler Wears Hermes 4 (2016), written by Westside Gunn, Conway the Machine & Daringer
