Road to the Riches (song)

"Road to the Riches"
"Road to the Riches"
Single by Kool G Rap and DJ Polo
from the album Road to the Riches
A-side	"Road to the Riches"
B-side	"Butcher Shop"
Released	1988
Recorded	1988
Genre	East Coast hip-hop; golden age hip-hop; hardcore hip-hop;
Length	4:48
Label	Cold Chillin'; Warner Bros.;
Songwriters	Marlon Williams; Nathaniel Wilson; Billy Joel;
Producer	Marley Marl
Kool G Rap and DJ Polo singles chronology
Music video
	"Road to the Riches" on YouTube

"Road to the Riches" is the second single from American hip-hop duo Kool G Rap and DJ Polo's debut studio album Road to the Riches (1989). It was released as a single with "Butcher Shop" as a B-side and later also featured on the compilation albums Killer Kuts (1994), The Best of Cold Chillin (2000), Greatest Hits (2002) and Street Stories: The Best of Kool G Rap & DJ Polo (2013).

Background

The song is semi-autobiographic, rags-to-riches tale, with the first two verses detailing Kool G Rap's youth living in poverty and his life before becoming a successful rapper. The third and final verse warns of the dangers of living a life of crime. In a 2014 interview, G Rap stated that some parts of the song were true, such as him working a low-paying job in a Key Food supermarket and selling crack cocaine, while others, such as his father being a drug dealer, were fictional.^[1]

Music video

"Road to the Riches" was Kool G Rap and DJ Polo's first music video. The video begins with G Rap sitting with his young nephew on his lap, and the boy tells him, "Uncle G Rap, when I grow up, I want to be a rapper and a gangster, just like you". G Rap discourages him, however, saying "no, no, see, you can be a rapper but can't be a gangster. You don't want to be a gangster". The next scene is in medias res and shows Kool G Rap and DJ Polo in a courtroom being sentenced by a judge. The rest of the video depicts them as powerful drug dealers, committing various violent crimes, before they are arrested in an undercover police sting and the video ends again with the courtroom scene, as they are led away to prison.

Use in media

The song was featured on the 2004 action-adventure game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' soundtrack, playing on the fictional old-school hip-hop station Playback FM.

Samples

"Road to the Riches" samples the following songs:^[2]

"The Assembly Line" by Commodores
"Stiletto" by Billy Joel

And was later sampled on:

"Illegal Gunshot" by Ragga Twins
"Android" by the Prodigy
"Rotten Apple" by Operation Ratification
"Fool's Gold" by Zion I
"Pain the Town Red" by Children of the Corn
"My Life" by Billy Joel

Track listing

A-side

"Road to the Riches" (4:48)

B-side

"Butcher Shop" (3:44)

Charts

Chart (1988)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot Rap Tracks^[3]	16

References

External links

"Road to the Riches" at Discogs (list of releases)

[1] Kool G Rap Breaks Down His 25 Most Essential Songs

[2] Road to the Riches at Who Sampled

[3] Kool G Rap & Billboard

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[3]

v t e Kool G Rap
Studio albums	Road to the Riches (1989) Wanted: Dead or Alive (1990) Live and Let Die (1992) 4,5,6 (1995) Roots of Evil (1998) The Giancana Story (2002) Half a Klip (2007) Riches, Royalty, Respect (2011)
Extended plays	Offer You Can't Refuse (2011)
Collaborative albums	Click of Respect (2003) Once Upon a Crime (2013) Son of G Rap (2018)
Singles	"It's a Demo" "Poison" "Road to the Riches" "Truly Yours" "Streets of New York" "Erase Racism" "Bad to the Bone" "Ill Street Blues" "On the Run" "It's a Shame" "Fast Life" "Hey Mister Mister" "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" "Talk Like Sex"
Related articles	Discography Juice Crew The Godfathers Mafioso rap