Rappers' legacies never really dice if they leave the correct things backside. Once rappers pass, their mixtapes, albums, and leaked material allow listeners to proceed their memories alive. For fans who notwithstanding nail 2Pac or Biggie wherever they go, it'southward the music that allows them to resurrect the fallen legends and relive their glory days all over again.

This year, hip-hop lost A$AP Yams, the Jacka, Chinx, Pumpkinhead, and Sean Price—all pivotal figures in their own right who likely left behind tons of unreleased music. While A$AP Rocky has confirmed he'south picking upward where Yams left off and putting out his posthumous album, the more immediate release is Chinx's debut, Welcome to JFK , out Aug. 14. The team behind the 31-year-onetime rapper's first posthumous anthology has been on an emotional rollercoaster e'er since his murder on May 17 in Jamaica, Queens. It has been difficult for Lionel Pickens' friends, family, and musical collaborators to recover from their loss, only they've finally grown comfortable enough to drop the projection his fans wanted to hear.

"For the past two months, that'south exactly what I've been doing," says Doug "Biggs" Ellison, Chinx's manager and executive producer of Welcome to JFK. "I literally went from planning an album, to planning a funeral, so got correct back to finishing up this album. It kind of helped me through the grieving procedure because I had something to do every solar day. So between his family, the wife, the kids, and this music, I've just been submerged in his presence and doing what he would desire me to exercise to make certain the legacy stays strong and alive."

Biggs and Chinx were in talks about partnering up as early as 2008 after Chinx served a four-year sentence at Mid-Land Correctional Facility in Marcy, N.Y. Seven years ago, Chinx was still trying to get his name out there, recording constantly in Biggs' studio in Queens and working with the Riot Team, which consisted of Bynoe, Cau2Gs, and the slain rapper Stack Bundles. Eventually, Chinx met French Montana through Bundles' friend Max B, and he became a fellow member of the Coke Boys after he clicked with them musically.

Chinx's steady grind on the mixtape circuit paid off when "I'thou a Coke Boy" off  his 2012 mixtape Cocaine Riot 2 became a popular single. Once Chinx saw the song bubble out of the underground, he approached Biggs and asked him to officially manage him.

"I'g not the blazon of person that takes [on] a agglomeration of artists," Biggs says. "I really like to get in the trenches and figure out who they are and what they need. I think that was what attracted him, the fact that I was accessible and I understood the business organization."

Biggs came on as Chinx'due south right hand when he was readying the release of his first retail EP, I'll Take Information technology From Here, in 2013. The five-track project, released through Riot Squad, NuSense Music Group, and Coke Boys, increased his contour equally information technology showed he could make tricky street records, like "Feelings," for a larger audience. Chinx also removed the "Drugz" portion of his stage name for a cleaner epitome. After "Feelings" started to get plays on New York radio stations Hot 97 and Ability 105.one, Sony Music Entertainment approached Chinx with a record deal in January 2014, just he opted to stay independent.

"With all the background that we had put in, the most important affair for him was plainly ownership," Biggs says. "I'm certain y'all know with all the deals everybody is offering these days, they're 360 deals. You walk away from the tabular array with little or nothing. We didn't want to get on the characterization and be shelved."

Afterwards he turned downward the Sony deal, Chinx went right back to work on free mixtapes, releasing his two strongest projects to engagement: Cocaine Anarchism 4 and Cocaine Riot 5 . These tapes showed his penchant for observational hood tales that pegged him as a rising star among Young Thug, A$AP Ferg, and his mentor, French Montana.

He was just and then humble and I wanted to show him [the] right direction 'crusade I know this game can suck yous dry with the wrong people. —French Montana

"I saw the talent before anything, so, his vibe was so ahead of time," says French. "He was merely so humble and I wanted to show him [the] right management 'crusade I know this game can suck yous dry with the wrong people."

Towards the end of 2014, Biggs was besides in talks with eOne Music. He felt strongly almost taking Chinx and his talents to the indie powerhouse afterwards he learned that Gabrielle Peluso, onetime general managing director of Def Jam, was brought on past eOne'south president, Alan Grunblatt. Off the strength of "Feelings," "Couple Niggas," and "Bodies," Peluso worked out a bargain with Biggs that was finalized in Feb 2022 for the release of Chinx's debut, Welcome to JFK.

"Chinx only has that thing where he walks into a room and you know he'due south a star," says Peluso. "He walks into a room [and] says how-do-you-do to everybody. Shakes their manus. Makes every daughter feel like he's in honey with them, makes every guy feel like they could exist friends. I did the bargain without hearing whatever new music because it didn't thing. I knew he knew how to brand them."

eOne commissioned several studio sessions in October through Feb for the making of JFK with Chinx'due south in-house producers who have developed his sound since the commencement of his Cocaine Anarchism series. Backside roughly 85 percent of JFK 'south production are Four Kings (Young Stokes and Blickie Blaze), Amazin' Music Group (Lee on the Beats, Bkorn, Austin Powerz, Roc da Producer, Mae N Maejor, Jabarrie, Golden Male child, Chiliad-beatz, and Nathan Anthony ), and songwriter/singer/rapper MeetSims, who moved from Arkansas to New York so he could work with him 1-on-one. Chinx and his squad had always been working on JFK in some capacity; probably as early as when he outset got the concept tatted on his stomach . But after CR5, they started to fix aside records for the projection—the anthology'due south intro and the single, "Experimental" and "On Your Trunk," respectively.

However, Chinx didn't have a complete album. Just days afterward going to the studio to terminate up records for JFK, the fatal shooting that concluded his life halted his anthology plans. Later his funeral on May 26, everyone involved in Chinx'southward career had to come together and re-strategize the release of JFK —and figure out how to do it the way Chinx would've wanted.

"Once we got past the funeral, we sat back down and we merely readjusted," Peluso says. "Now that we didn't have him, people were rushing me. I had outsiders [saying], 'You have to put the album out now.' I was similar, 'You guys, I don't accept a finished [album]. It'southward not done correct this 2d. It'due south almost washed, just it's non fucking done.' I'g not going to jeopardize the integrity of this project because of pressure."

With just about every fan and manufacture insider in hip-hop talking about Chinx's murder—from Rob and Khloé Kardashian to Meek Mill and Jay Z—it would accept been easy to capitalize on the conversation and blitz out his debut for high album sales. The biggest hold-up for JFK was securing features before it was fourth dimension to turn in the album. While songs with Rick Ross, Chris Chocolate-brown, and Meek Manufactory never came to fruition, JFK even so boasts names such as Ty Dolla $ign, Jeremih, Lil Durk, Nipsey Hussle, and French.

On June 2, "On Your Body" featuring MeetSims was released as the single for JFK . Compared to the street bangers that raised Chinx's profile, this was the first time his fans got to hear the new direction of his music. Produced by Lee on the Beats with additional aid from Bkorn, "On Your Trunk" is a radio-friendly offering that finds the pair spoiling the women they like with riches. The video paints Chinx equally a family human being and stars his wife, Janelli Pickens, and their children.

"When we came out with 'On Your Torso,' you tin tell the response that we got from information technology," MeetSims says. "We knew people weren't expecting that. But information technology fits then right for him, so it sounded perfect."

"Nosotros all wanted a radio single for Chinx," Bkorn adds. "Before the vocal just had one poesy and a hook on it, [and] he was just going to the radio stations and playing that one tape and telling them this is going to exist the leading single off the album. He already knew the management the album was going in."

Afterwards the album was upward for pre-order on iTunes on July 17, more than teasers were made available for fans: "Yay," "How to Get Rich," and "Don't Listen Me." Each represents the range Chinx was trying to accomplish, helping widen his fan base and bringing new ears to his music. It marks years of honing his arts and crafts to the level where he no longer would take been boxed in as a street rapper. Like "S.A.B.," you'll hear the streets relate to "Yay" and what volition inevitably take over the clubs. The pianoforte-laden "How to Get Rich" comes directly from his time on the cake, where sharp introspective rhymes nigh getting your money upwards are taught through personal experiences. "Don't Mind Me" is a classic stunt anthem, but done in such a way that but Chinx could pull off.

"You know when a player comes into the League, they notwithstanding developing," says Lee on the Beats, "and and then they get to that point where you know they can practice no bad? It was like at that bespeak considering almost everything he did was good. There were no disappointments."

The general consensus is New York doesn't accept a sound that's easily identifiable. The era of Dipset and 1000-Unit seems similar ancient history in comparison to the eclectic tastes of the A$AP Mob and Azealia Banks. Chinx wanted to embody the Coke Boys style of hard-hit beats and elementary rhymes with the Riot Squad's grittiness.

"I remember Chinx telling me a week before he passed that he wanted me to listen to all the classic albums, like Jay's Reasonable Doubt , Wayne's Tha Carter Three. [Nas'] Illmatic ," Stokes says, who assisted in technology the project with Blickie Bonfire. "He wanted me to listen to all the archetype albums by the greatest and come up with the all-time work possible."

One of the album's highlights is "Far Rock," which features a new verse past Stack Bundles. Chinx wanted listeners to familiarize themselves with Stacks' contributions to New York hip-hop and pay homage to the Riot Squad. He asked Skane, the founder of Desert Tempest Records, and DJ Inkling to give him permission to await through the vaults of their former artist. In one case he found some verses of Stacks' he liked, he sent them to Biggs to aid put together a rails that organically matched Stacks from the by with Chinx of 2015.

Blickie Blaze was the producer backside the record, where he added excerpts of Chinx's uncle Norman Seabrook's speech at his funeral, Stack's final interview with Yum Yum the Lensman at Quad Studios, and a Chinx interview with Thisis50'due south Jack Thriller. He originally had Jay Z'southward speech honoring Chinx during his Tidal B-Sides concert in May to consummate the record, but was removed due to clearance issues.

Blaze recalls the night before Chinx's death that they fix a studio session with Stokes for Chinx to hear the terminal production. While Chinx was able to hear all the songs he recorded for his anthology, the eerie function was he never got to hear this one. "We was both actually sitting here in the studio, waiting for Chinx to become hither," Bonfire says. "Simply nobody knew where he went. He never came abode." The significance of "Far Rock" is a lot greater now: two of the neighborhood'due south finest forever immortalized through a song.

The album's closer, "Die Immature," sets the tone every bit the Coke Boys' argument for their fallen comrade. After MeetSims laid down a hook for the song, it was completed during Chinx's last studio session, and verses past French and his brother Zack were added later. Through the creators who heard the song that evening, Chinx's poetry—and the line "I pray I be OK when I grow up a trivial bigger/If I don't, tell my babies daddy was a real nigga"—almost prophesied what would inevitably be his untimely death. "I was at a lost for words," says Stokes afterwards he recorded his part. "I didn't know what to say to him after that. He didn't want to talk after that. It was done."

Bonfire echoed something similar: "It was only crazy considering when all this stuff happened, everyone was asking questions that couldn't be answered. He's not hither anymore. When that tape played for everybody, [they were like], 'Oh, that'due south the answer to every question.'"

Chinx'south absence still resonates with the Coke Boys, and his contributions to the crew are still missed. The Coke Boys desire to carry out his legacy by starting a charity for him in his proper name. "He was the backbone," Zack says. "That's what he really was. Me and him would keep everything together. He would e'er say, 'What you kill, you swallow. And so you gotta go out here and go to it.' I've learned a lot from my brother in unlike kinds of means. He was everything.'

Welcome to JFK won't be Chinx's final album. Currently, at that place are talks of releasing a second anthology on his birthday (Dec. 4) that'll maybe be led past a unmarried produced past Harry Fraud. Chinx's producers have approximately 20 or and then unreleased records that could be pieced together for a third project. MeetSims and Chinx even accept their own gear up of songs that could be packaged as CR six (Commemorative Riot ). French Montana, who is working on Mac & Cheese: The Album, confirms Chinx volition be on his sophomore endeavor and promises boosted collaborations with him and Zack on the way. There's a lot of Chinx'south music tucked abroad. The question is whether his music will be timeless plenty to concur the attending of time to come rap fans.

"His legacy volition always live through me," French says. "He was the next upwards. I wish he could have enjoyed it. We got a lot in store for Chinx's legacy—music is just the get-go, and so whenever you meet me, you see Chinx. It's just sad how the streets don't want you lot to win, even when y'all're a humble dude out hither pointing people in the right direction. I got Chinx for life. He will forever exist the No. ane Coke Boy."

Eric Diep is a writer living in New York. Follow him @E_Diep.