Chicago rapper Lil Durk is currently in jail as he awaits his October trial for his alleged involvement in a murder-for-hire plot. It is a disappointing turn of events for Durk, who first emerged as a pioneer of the Chicago drill sound in the early 2010s, along with his similarly aged peers in Chief Keef, Fredo Santana, and Lil Reese. Though those three were more well-known than he was at the time, a tireless work ethic and rapid development from project to project led to Durk eventually becoming the biggest star out of everyone he came up with.
Beyond his commercial success, Lil Durk is perhaps most well-known for his run of mixtapes. Those early mixtapes, in which Durk demonstrated considerable growth in a short amount of time, were the projects that took his exposure from local to national. Def Jam signed him to a joint venture deal with his Only The Family collective in 2013. Even more than his albums, it was his mixtapes that boosted his popularity in hip-hop circles. Durk left Def Jam in 2018, citing a desire to spread his wings as an independent artist and a lack of interest in being on the roster while changes at the top of the label took place.
Since leaving Def Jam in early 2018, Lil Durk has become one of the most popular rappers of the modern day. He has several platinum albums and singles, and even won a Grammy in 2024. Even though the plaques and awards are coming in now, none of that success would have been possible without the work he put in on those mixtapes. In total, Durk's released 12 mixtapes in nearly 15 years, and we are going to rank them from worst to best.
12. I’m A Hitta
Lil Durk’s first mixtape is unremarkable. Durk, who released the tape in August 2011 when he was just 18 years old, was still clearly finding his voice as a rapper, and it shows. So much of the material here sounds like he was taking from the biggest acts in hip-hop at the time. The most notable influence here is Lil Wayne. “Stand Up” stands out as a blatant No Ceilings-era Wayne pastiche. Every artist has to start somewhere, and this project, even in its most unpolished state, is not horrible. I’m A Hitta is a very interesting opening step toward where Durk ended up today. After revisiting it, you may find yourself wondering how his development concluded with the style he uses in 2025.
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11. I’m Still A Hitta
By the time Lil Durk released I’m Still A Hitta in April 2012, Chicago drill music was starting to gain national attention. Chief Keef released Back From The Dead, and by extension, the platinum-selling single “I Don’t Like,” in March. Fredo Santana made waves with his features on songs from his contemporaries before dropping his own mixtape near the end of the year. Durk, still an unfinished product, lagged behind Santana and Keef at the time. However, there was undeniable potential for success going forward.
I’m Still A Hitta is Lil Durk with increased confidence, no longer trying to sound exactly like the hottest acts in the game. The Fredo Santana-assisted “Wild N****s” is the tape’s standout. It boasts a big beat that feels like it’s missing some kind of involvement from Chief Keef. Santana sets the stage with his typically more reserved but still intimidating performance. Durk follows with one of his best early verses on the second half of the track. I’m Still A Hitta is not a “classic," but it is a competent release by someone still finding himself.
10. Love Songs For The Streets
Love Songs For The Streets is the first of four Lil Durk mixtapes released in 2017. It's adequate, but suffers from being a one-note release. That one note being nine trap&B songs primarily about women, with similar production motifs across the tape (midtempo trap beats with a lot of space) and nothing that stands out as a “great” track. Lil Durk was in the middle of a huge period of growth, both artistically and professionally. At the end of the year, he’d complete the terms of his Def Jam deal, before signing with Alamo Records and Interscope ahead of his 2018 album, Signed To The Streets 3. As such, this tape is a bit of a blind spot in Durk’s canon.
Love Songs For The Streets is not nearly as complete as his subsequent 2017 releases. On those remaining projects, he shows all of his different sides (street rapper, hood lover, Auto-Tuned crooner) over much more engaging production and with rappers that help accentuate his strengths as a songmaker. Besides the last three tracks (“Uzi” with Moneybagg Yo, “No Love” with Young Thug, and “What If” with TK Kravitz), this mixtape is ultimately not much to write home about. But, it is still better than the unpolished nature of his first two.
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9. Supa Vultures EP (with Lil Reese)
2017 was also a year of collaboration for Lil Durk. After a brief falling out with Lil Reese, Chief Keef, and others, Durk and Reese reconciled in 2014. They finally linked up for a project in 2017, and the result was Supa Vultures, the first of two collaborative mixtapes for Durk that year.
The simplicity of two old friends and running mates trading bars back and forth over straightforward drill and trap beats is an easy concept to get into, and it works well here. The opener “Distance” shows off their chemistry, as the two of them deliver hard bars about gang life over a trap beat with a prominent piano loop. Nearly eight years after its release, Supa Vultures feels like a minor blip in Lil Durk’s greater career. By 2017, a joint project with Lil Reese felt long overdue. He also outdid this release a couple of times in that year alone. However, it remains a quality project and shows why brevity can be a winning strategy.
8. Life Ain’t No Joke
Life Ain’t No Joke is Durk’s third mixtape, released in October 2012, just six months after I’m Still A Hitta. Durk is a much-improved rapper from the previous tape, which is nothing short of impressive. That development is most apparent on the tape’s opener, “52 Barz,” which remains one of Durk’s hardest-hitting tracks to date. It’s a flurry of bars about life in what drill artists of the era began referring to as “Chiraq” and also a bit of a “status update,” where he discusses fulfilling childhood goals, including earning his Def Jam deal, which he formally signed in early 2013.
The rest of Life Ain’t No Joke is decidedly a product of its time. There are guest appearances from French Montana, Soulja Boy, and Yo Gotti. The shiny, big beats popularized in the late 2000s and early 2010s by J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League and those attached to Young Money are so far removed from the more minimal sounds of modern trap music that it would be hard to say that much of what appears on this tape has aged gracefully. Despite that, it is unquestionably an important release for a much younger Durk. It proved to be the catalyst for his career-defining efforts in the coming years.
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7. Signed To The Streets 2.5
Released on Durk’s 25th birthday as a precursor to Signed To The Streets 3, Signed To The Streets 2.5 is the third of Durk’s 2017 mixtapes. It is an improved version of what Love Songs To The Streets aimed to achieve. The highest point on this tape is “India,” the track dedicated to Lil Durk’s on-and-off girlfriend India Royale. Their relationship began around the time of this mixtape’s release, and “India” is one of Durk’s best trap&B tracks ever. It is a genuinely heartfelt tribute, and shows just how much admiration he has for the woman he wants to do “everything under the sun” with.
The rest of Signed To The Streets 2.5 is solid as well. Opener “The Story 2.5” stands out as a commendable but bleak moment of introspection. Durk freestyles over an ATL Jacob beat about his come-up and the paths that everyone in his circle ended up going down (several of those named are either dead or in prison). The verse is extremely candid in its subject matter. Even with Signed To The Streets 2.5 being the setup for a future album, it is well-made and far from filler.
6. Bloodas (with Tee Grizzley)
Bloodas, the fourth and final mixtape from Lil Durk’s very active 2017, is a collaborative effort with Tee Grizzley. Grizzley began his career with the emphatic viral hit “First Day Out” earlier that year. The two of them give fans 12 tracks of street raps, with a mostly positive outcome. Tracks like “What Yo City Like” and “3rd Person” show off their chemistry. On the latter, Durk delivers a killer verse over a beat produced by ChopSquad DJ, where he forcefully rebuts some of the online chatter about him and those in his circle at the time, including his gang ties, relationship with Lil Reese, and people accusing him of biting Meek Mill and Future.
Of course, not everything lands. “Melody” is an awkward track where the two of them rap about treating their partners in ways that would make them awful boyfriends in every other context. Durk saying “take you to the heart of the trenches, ain't no romance” on the hook is basically a threat. However, the high points are still high. Bloodas is not either man’s best work. However, it is a thoroughly enjoyable collaboration between two people still planting their flag as commercial acts.
5. Just Cause Y’all Waited
Just Cause Y’all Waited is Lil Durk’s first post-Def Jam mixtape. The tape sees him refining the developments in his style that took place while he was with the label. Durk is completely in his melodic element, with several tracks and verses about love and sex. There’s more variety in sound, with Durk rapping over beats that do not strictly fall into the category of “downtempo trap beats” like on the previous year’s Love Songs For The Streets. “Public Housing” and “Just Flow” are prime examples of a more energetic Durk than on much of the aforementioned mixtape. Vocally, Durk seems much more self-assured than on many of the sappier cuts from that tape as well. Because of that, the tracks land way more effectively.
“How I Know” with Lil Baby is the track that best summarizes the direction of the entire tape. The two deliver verses about love and loyalty over a beat that sounds like something Polo G may have rapped over in the years following this tape’s release. The only big clunker here is “1(773) Vulture.” On it, Durk flips Logic’s “1-800-273-8255.” He turns the song about suicide prevention into one where he sing-raps “it’s gonna be a homicide” on the hook. Despite that outlier, the stronger moments across Just Cause Y’all Waited and more varied approach to song creation are more than enough for it to be in the top half of Durk’s mixtapes.
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4. They Forgot
They Forgot is a fitting name for Lil Durk’s seventh tape. During what was a huge run of one tape and album after another, this release went completely under the radar. It’s a shame too, because it may be the most consistent Lil Durk project from this part of his career.
By 2016, Durk had all but shed the drill sound in favor of more polished trap beats. With that in mind, there are definitely moments that still feel like the “old Durk,” namely the title track and “Hard S**t” with Lil Reese. “Shooter2x” with 21 Savage is a banger. 21’s verse is as hard and as menacing as one would expect from Savage Mode-era 21. Durk matches the energy to the best of his abilities. The tape shifts gears and concludes with a couple of melodic tracks. “Street Life" is the tape's closer, and it is another introspective track that features R&B singer BJ the Chicago Kid on the hook. Durk’s vulnerable tracks are some of the most interesting moments in his discography, and that one is no different. Overall, They Forgot is up there as one of his strongest releases from top to bottom.
3. 300 Days, 300 Nights
Lil Durk’s 2015 mixtape 300 Days, 300 Nights feels like an apology for his Def Jam debut, Remember My Name. Remember My Name lacked the lyrical focus of his earlier work. The album featured glossy production from big names (i.e. Metro Boomin and Boi-1da). Most egregiously, it came with an excessive use of Auto-Tune that ran counter to the gritty edge that fans grew to love. 300 Days, 300 Nights is a back-to-basics mixtape and features some of his best work to that point in his career.
“Waffle House,” with the late Young Dolph, has a thumping beat from C-Sick and verses where the two of them liken their trap house to a Waffle House because of all the “syrup” around. Of course, that contrasts with the much sweeter “My Beyonce,” featuring DeJ Loaf, where the pair croon about one another. DeJ even sings about changing her last name for Durk. 300 Days, 300 Nights encapsulates many of Durk’s best qualities and was an excellent way to refocus after a less-than-ideal major label debut.
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2. Signed To The Streets
Signed To The Streets dropped in October 2013. With it came huge shifts for Lil Durk on the artistic side. Life Ain’t No Joke was released almost a full year prior, and in the meantime, Durk kept honing his craft. The end result was the first great Durk mixtape, released as part of DJ Drama’s legendary Gangsta Grillz series (a fact that Drama lets you know of on every song) and a foundational document in the proliferation of the Chicago drill sound.
Tracks like the Zaytoven-produced “Who Is This” and the Young Chop-produced sequel to “52 Bars” are among Durk’s strongest early works. The former is full of charismatic smack talk about where he’s from, while “52 Bars, Pt. 2” is rife with Lil Wayne-esque stream of consciousness raps about the streets over a beat that’s just begging to blast through car speakers. Overall, Signed To The Streets was hugely important in showing that Durk was just as important to the growth and maturation of drill as his peers. Even in 2025, it remains one of his best ever outings.
1. Signed To The Streets 2
If the Def Jam deal and prior mixtape helped start Lil Durk’s rise through the ranks, Signed To The Streets 2 (released in July 2014) was the project that completely made him his own man. It is not hard to see why, even after years of much more commercially successful music, it remains the quintessential Durk release. Signed To The Streets 2 has no real down moments across its 65 minutes. It is the perfect distillation of why Def Jam wanted his talent on their roster.
Like the original, Signed To The Streets 2 is hardened and reflective of his times in Chicago. However, the songs are more fleshed out, as he goes from being almost solely the “rapper’s rapper” of the early drill sound to a multifaceted individual. He began to move away from delivering the largely joyless street tales that became synonymous with the lane he occupied and started adding the melodic hooks that he’d become known for in the present day.
Tracks where he does sing (like “Rumors” and “Perfect Picture”) are not about women like they are now, but rather about his city and his newfound status as one of the most famous people in it. Other moments like “Party” and “Lil N****z,” an Atlanta crossover with Cash Out and a much younger Migos, are speaker-ready to this day. Like its predecessor, Signed To The Streets 2 remains a classic in the Chicago drill landscape, and its importance to Durk’s career, on top of the overall quality of work, is what earns it the top spot on this list.
