Chinx

Born Lionel Pickens in Queens, New York, Chinx has been paving his musical path since an early age. Surrounded and influenced by some of the greats of our era, his sound is “I don’t want to fit in,” he says. “I want people to respect my music. I have the drive to be original and to stay true to who I am as a person and as an artist, and not create a gimmick with my artistry.”

During the early years of his career, Chinx formed a friendship with the late Stack Bundles, also from Far Rockaway. The two created The Riot Squad and continued to record together for several years. In 2005 Chinx was incarcerated and it was during his time inside that Bundles lost his life. His death was heavy not just for Chinx but for fans everywhere, that had a profound respect and admiration for Stack Bundles as a person and as a musician. As personal as this loss was, it awakened the musical child in Chinx, who didn’t want the legacy that Bundles had built over the years to disappear with his death. When Chinx was released from prison, he started focusing on really making an impact with his music. Meeting French Montana through Stack Bundles’ close friend Max B, the two fashioned a genuine alliance. “We were making music together at Max’s house,” Chinx says about first working with French.

Becoming a pivotal member of French Montana's crew and the man behind the Cocaine Riot series of mixtapes, Queens rapper Chinx was about to make his official debut in 2015 when he was killed in a drive-by shooting. Chinx and Stack Bundles, both spend time in the Rockaway Riot Squad before they joined Jim Jones' group Byrd Gang. He moved on to French Montana and Max B's Coke Boyz in 2009, then that same year he began releasing mixtapes. His solo career caught fire in 2011 when the first Cocaine Riot dropped, and reached a fever pitch in 2013 with the release of Cocaine Riot 3. His I'll Take It from Here EP followed that same year, then Cocaine Riot 4 arrived in 2014.

On May 17, 2015, as they were working on the rapper's debut album, Chinx and producer Antar Alziadi were victims of a drive-by shooting. Chinx was pronounced dead later that evening at the Jamaica Medical Center in Jamaica, Queens. The posthumous Welcome to JFK appeared in August of that year. A second posthumous album, Legends Never Die, was released a year later.