Lil Bushwick Is Ready To Carry The Legacy Of His Late Father Bushwick Bill

Lil Bushwick is living the lifestyle his late father Bushwick Bill once lived during the prime of his career.

The Houston native, who's known as Yung Knxw, has performed his dad's most memorable verses alongside the Geto Boys' own Scarface in front of a sold-out crowd. He even hits the stage with a Chucky doll in hand and hits the studio with legendary artists, just like his dad.

Now, the 26-year-old rapper, born Javon Shaw, is preparing to release his new song “Geto Emotions” featuring Bushwick Bill. It’s the first song of many that he’s releasing under his new moniker "Lil Bushwick," which honors his late pops who passed away in 2019 following complications of stage 4 pancreatic cancer.

“People already been calling me ‘Lil Bushwick’ but I never actually dropped music under Lil Bushwick,’ he told iHeartRadio during a recent zoom interview. “So this past few weeks I locked in and made the song ‘Geto Emotions.’ We got like an archived interview with my dad, basically talking about his mindset on life and his emotional output of how, when he got shot in the eye and him being in the emotional state to what led him to get to that moment and how to be in control of your emotions now that everything get the best of you.”

“It's really me going from my perspective and he's telling his perspective and I'm building off of what he said from, from an interview when he was exactly my age right now,” he added. “So it's like a real full circle moment.”

"Geto Emotions," which is produced by his trusted beatmaker Allen Krash, the first offering from Lil Bushwick’s upcoming project The Seed of Chuckwick. The new collection of songs is set to contain unreleased verses from his father’s vault. The two MC's were working together on the project in the months before Bill died. After putting the project on pause, Lil Bushwick focused on other records until he got a message from a producer who recorded some Bill's final bars before he passed.

“[The producer] said ‘I'm gonna tell you. I have a hard drive with a few of your dad tracks on there. And I feel like he'd want you to have those,’” Lil Bushwick said. “And when I say literally brought me like almost a tears bro…"

“Now I get to do the whole project I want to do,” he continued. “Now I get to finish that project. We didn’t get to finish it before he passed because everything sped up.”

Bushwick Bill’s son was mostly raised by his mother while the rapper was traveling throughout the country performing with Scarface and Willie D. He got to connect with his dad off and on as a kid until he was old enough to join him on the road. Lil Bushwick was 16 when he started riding with his dad on tours in major cities like Houston, Chicago and Atlanta. He’d spend two months traveling with Bill and bonding with the Geto Boys all the way until the teenager had to go home for school. That’s when he truly started to understand his father’s star power.

“I didn't really understand the concept of who my dad was until the Unsung series and certain things like that,” Lil Bushwick explained. “And being on the road with him, I'm like, okay, people are stopping us in the streets. I can't just go shopping with him. They started to do certain things. I didn't get it until I got older and I’m like ‘okay, I get your impact now.’ But at a young age I just see him like… that's my dad. And everybody is like, ‘nah, bro, that's Bushwick Bill bro.’”

As he learned more about his father’s career, Lil Bushwick began to embark on his own musical journey. He began his career as Young Knowledge, he shortened his name to Yung Knxw and dropped his first EP Nobody Knxws, which features six tracks including features from his dad, Texas native Craig Xen and the Based God himself Lil B. Later on, he dropped off his second song with his pops “Badu Vibe,” which got a remix from Treach of Naughty By Nature. Lil Bushwick recalls the night he agreed to do the collaboration while at Sugar Hill studios in Houston.

“We all was in the studio vibing and Treach liked this verse on my song,” he said. “He's like, look, ‘I'm gonna do a song with pops for his last music. And then I'm gonna hop on your song too nephew.’

Treach isn't the only veteran Lil Bushwick has worked with. His catalog also includes a collaboration with Paul Wall, who appears on the remix to “Real Vs Fake." After spending the past decade coming up with numerous OG's, Bushwick still remains plugged in with heavy hitters like J Prince of Rap-a-Lot and regularly connects with today's hitmakers like DaBaby, Larry June, and Tory Lanez. Last month, he was caught in the middle of an unforgettable moment between 50 Cent, Tony Yayo and Keith Sweat during Tycoon Weekend in Houston.

Lil Bushwick continues to embrace his roots on any stage that’ll receive him. He recently joined Scarface on stage to perform his dad's verses from Geto Boys’ “Mind Playing Tricks on Me” and “Chuckie" during the Houston stop of 'Face's Farewell Tour. Bill's solo track off the trio’s We Can’t Be Stopped album is one of Lil Bushwick’s personal favorite songs to perform because of how dedicated his dad was to embodying the Chucky character, which Bill related to due to his missing eye.

"It was the same stage that I was just on with him at 17 years old looking at him," Bushwick Jr. said about the performance. "I got video footage of him teaching me how to hold the mic. My grandpa right there next to me. And there's like three generations on stage. It was like a real moment. And then now he fast forward, boom, I'm on stage right next to ‘Face. He's like 'yo, you ready?' And I'm like, this is some moment. Like it was a real, crazy full circle moment."

“Geto Emotions,” which drops on September 23, is just the beginning of Lil Bushwick’s new era. His upcoming album is still in the works so a release date hasn't been confirmed. While he works on the project, he knows his father is watching from above. At the end of our conversation, Lil Bushwick points to a photo of his dad that he keeps by a calendar on the wall of his room. It’s a promo image of the Geto Boys his dad gave him that was taken in January 1996, which is the month and year he was born.

“I just like when I have my moments of like, ‘man pop, I need your guidance. I need help,’ Bill's son said. “And like, I promise you, bro. He comes through for me.”