When cinematographer DGainz posted an 18-second snippet of his video for Lil Durk’s Paris Beuller-produced "L's Anthem" on YouTube, it amassed nearly 20,000 views in two weeks. The L's in "L's Anthem" stands for Lamron, which is Normal reversed. Normal is a street that cuts through Chicago's Englewood neighborhood, close to where Durk grew up. "[L's] not a gang," Durk specified when I spoke with him last week. "We're all a family." Durk has also been paying attention to a lot of the violence that has recently torn through Chicago. "I've got a lot of kids watching my every move. You can't name one video I've got a gun in. I'm not gonna do an interview and say I want kids to follow in my footsteps, then turn around and put a gun in the video... I'm my own man, my own person." This is a theme throughout Durk's music, particularly the chorus to last year's "I'm a Hitta." In a city with a confusingly intertwined series of alliances, sets, cliques and crews, it's made Durk stand apart.
