“Havin My Way” by Lil Skies (ft. Lil Durk)

When someone says their ‘having their way’, especially when you translate that phrase into hip-hop terminology, what that basically means is that they’re chillin. And even without that foreknowledge in tow, by all means a collaboration between Lil Skies and Lil Durk would most likely be based on such a topic anyway.

And of course, there has be some gunplay thrown in for good measure. After all, you can’t really chill in the ‘hood unless you have some means of self-defense anyway. So in the chorus, we see that Lil Skies sets out to engage in some ‘flexing’ or, more simply put, flaunting his wealth and standing. But regarding the ‘n–gas who want smoke’, i.e. other guys at the party who may decide to get into beef with him, the vocalist lets it be known that his response will be via gunfire.

In fact, Lil Skies even threatens to kill his enemies in “broad daylight”. So reading in between the lines, the message is like he’s not someone you’d want to mess with.

And there’s a whole lot going on in Skies’ verse, with the rapper, in a manner of speaking, delineating his lifestyle. There isn’t really anything featured therein that, once again, wouldn’t be expected of this type of song, with the vocalist most notably celebrating his wealth.

Besides that, he also speaks of “b–ches” aplenty and more specifically his sexual adventurism or what have you.

Some More Bombast!

Lil Durk then proceeds to engage in some of his own flexing. And overall he comes off very similarly to the main vocalist, being able to brag of money, riches, sexual conquests and having the guns to back it all up.

He also gives a couple of shoutout to his co-vocalist. One of them he does directly and the other, pointing to a line Lil Skies dropped in the past.

As with Skies, Durk also has quite a few tattoos, with one of them being on his face. And what he is saying is that now that he’s made such a life-altering decision, i.e. getting his face tattooed, he cannot go and like apply for a conventional job. So that’s another way of putting forth that once you decide to take such a countercultural stance, so to speak, you really have to be on top of your hustle, since now you can’t make money the way that most people do. To reiterate, it appears that line was inspired by a similar assertion Lil Skies made in 2018, on a song titled “Welcome to the Rodeo”.

Takeaway

And that, dear readers, can be considered the thesis sentiment of this piece or as another way of interpreting the phrase “having my way” in context. The vocalists, as presented, are empowered to live life as they see fit. The implication is that such is made possible not only through their wealth but also as a result of their boldness.

Facts about “Havin My Way”

The first time Skies, who hails from Pennsylvania, teamed up with Chi-town’s Durk, was when Durk featured him on his 2018 track “Rockstar”. But “Havin My Way”, which came out on 4 March 2020, did a lot better than that song, in that it managed to be certified gold by the RIAA (in 2021).

The music video to this piece was directed by Nick Tabidze and Astroknot.

This track is from Skies’ second studio album, a project titled “Unbothered”. On this same album, appear the hits “Riot” and “Ok“.

Skies boasts a unique appearance amongst rappers for a couple of reasons. One is that he is of a multiracial parentage, to the point that there has been confusion concerning his racial background. But of course his most outstanding physical feature is his number of tattoos, which appear as if they have completely covered his body. And that may be nearly true as, at last count, Skies literally has 100 tattoos.

With that noted, you can tell that Durk isn’t as tatted up as Skies. But Durkio does have more than the average tattoo adherent, as at last count he has 46 in total.

This song, as produced by Slim Pharaoh, utilizes a couple of older tracks by popular ATL rappers.  According to Genius, “Havin My Way” samples Gunna’s 2018 tune “Oh Okay”, and it interpolates 2018’s “Drop Too Hard” by Gunna and his de facto musical partner, Lil Baby.

Besides for the two vocalists and Slim Pharaoh, the other writer of “Havin My Way” is Turbo.

This track was put out by the Artist Partner Group, Atlantic Records and Lil Skies’ own label, All We Got Entertainment.