Last December, Drakeo The Ruler was stabbed to death at a hip-hop festival in Los Angeles. The rapper seemed poised to break out from the west coast underground that he’d found so much success in – he’d even landed a Drake feature on the single “Talk To Me“ from his tape The Truth Hurts. Drakeo’s death was tragic, and he left behind a lot of unreleased recorded music to reinforce the talent that was snuffed out. Today, his estate shares his first posthumous project, Keep The Truth Alive.

The 18-track collection is mostly bite-sized songs and skits, but there are no half-measures in Drakeo’s lyrics. It catalogs his idiosyncratic ability to shift between keen humor, grim and paranoid tales of street life, and the facts of his luxurious surroundings that are as detailed as a Rolls-Royce. It makes the project a success, even if it has the inevitable unfinished feeling that many posthumous records do. The only feature is Ralphy the Plug, Drakeo’s brother and fellow Stinc Team leader. who shows up on two songs.

In 2021, prior to his death, Drakeo shared the projects Ain’t That The Truth and So Cold I Did Em 2. His album Thank You For Using GTL was one of our favorites of 2020. Members of Drakeo’s family including Ralphy the Plug are filing two separate lawsuits against Live Nation, the organizer behind the festival where Drakeo was killed.