Art by Evan Solano
Donald Morrison is pitching on three days rest.
Rio Da Yung OG was approaching Reno, Nevada in a wood-paneled tour bus when he finally beamed onto my computer screen. The shit-talking pioneer was at the beginning of an enormous, 50-plus-stop, country-wide tour — the flyer of which went viral for how cartoonishly long and intense the schedule looks. When asked if the next three months of nonstop shows seemed daunting, Rio just shrugged and said he’s going with the flow. It’s an answer that conveys how hard it is to shake the helplessness of nearly seven years of restricted freedom.
For the entirety of Rio’s career, the Flint, Michigan-raised rapper has been under some form of confinement. He was on house arrest in 2019 when he earned his first viral hit with “Legendary,” an endless barrage of one-liners that serve as a jaw-dropping introduction to Rio’s deadpan villainy. As his music was taking off online, Rio was sentenced to spend nearly five years in federal prison, which he began in the summer of 2021. To maintain relevance, Rio says he recorded what amounts to hundreds of songs in preparation for his prison bid.
His plan worked. He’s perhaps one of the only contemporary rappers, aside from Drakeo The Ruler, to get more popular while serving years in confinement, years away from a rap ecosystem that forgets about artists the moment they’re not visible. Fiend Lives Matter in December 2021 and single “Talkin Crazy” confirmed Rio to be effortless while the numerous rappers shamelessly riding the wave he created could not find their footing. These artists attempting to capitalize on Rio’s signatures were mere knock-offs, simply playlist-filler until Rio was released to a halfway house in Atlanta in December 2024.
Rio wasted no time getting back to work after his release, continuing his prolific output with “RIO FREE,” the best first day out-track in recent memory. An accompanying album followed, and although it felt a little rushed, it still cemented his return to the top of the Michigan rap pyramid. His official debut album, F.L.I.N.T. (Feeling Like I’m Not Through), shows a less-hurried and more experimental side of Rio without losing his flow and trademark humor, used as a weapon to expose and process the pain, absurdity, and contradictions of his environment, whether that’s Flint or a federal prison in Arkansas.
I caught up with Rio in early August over video chat, hours after he left Portland, Oregon, where he performed for a sold out crowd three nights in a row in both Rose City and neighboring Renton, Washington. We spoke about the new album, what it’s like being free to roam the country after years of being locked down, how prison impacted his relationships with family, Rio’s surprise at all the white people at his shows, fatherhood, his hit “Shark,” with Jorjiana, and the passing of Drakeo. We also talked about Rio’s relationship to Flint, and how he plans to give back to the city that raised him.
When someone goes to prison, they kind of expect people to change. Because we are in prison, right? I had to sit down and realize that it’s like, Nah, y’all didn’t go through the traumatizing experience I did, so I might have gone through change, but when I look back, people are the same they were when I left. Because we are so close, you know what I’m saying? When we put distance in between each other, the true colors come out. And it just be simple as that, I don’t feel like nobody meant harm or nothing, it’s just I didn’t see they’re true character before prison.
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