Lil Bibby and G Herbo, strong and strong together

Rappers Lil Bibby and G Herbo met when they were kids, at a youth center in South Shore. They grew up together, had their first hit (2012’s “Kill S—“) when they were still in their teens and have maintained a tight connection even as their solo careers have gained altitude. They frequently perform together (they play Metro March 8) and are collaborating on an album, “No Limitations,” due this year.

Both are alumni of XXL magazine’s vaunted Freshmen Class, with long-in-the-offing solo projects: Herbo plans to release his official debut this summer; Bibby hopes to drop the latest mixtape in his “Free Crack” series, and an album, “FC3: The Epilogue,” back to back in the near future, and he’s contemplating going to college to study engineering in the fall.

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In separate interviews, Bibby (born Brandon Dickinson) and Herbo (born Herbert Wright, and previously known as Lil Herb) talked about their friendship, their fame, and the pull of street life.

Highlights from those conversations follow:

On their early days

Lil Bibby: My earliest (musical) memory is when we were doing it for fun, doing tape records on a cellphone. You know, you’d have the beat playing in the background, and then you’d rap over a cellphone as a voice recording. It was just me and Herb and a few of my other homies. We were just doing it for fun. Then we did “Kill S—” and it kind of changed everything.

G Herbo: It was all organic, just from us having fun, rapping about what we knew, about what was going on with our lives at the time.

On whether there’s competition between them

Bibby: I can’t compete with my homeboy. I don’t look at it as a competition. Certain times when I’m lacking on my work ethic and I see Herb working super hard, it makes me think, “Man, I gotta go super hard, too.” We push each other.

Herbo: A healthy, friendly one, yeah. We build off each other. He makes me better, I make him better. It’s because we both want the best for each other. The harder I see him go, it drives me to go harder. It’s that kind of competition, not a duel kind of competition. The relationship is way, way bigger than music.

On the downside of hometown shows

Bibby: With some of the Chicago artists, they make it hard on us to do Chicago venues. Police, they look at us like a hazard sometimes, and try not to let us perform at certain spots. Sometimes, people will show up to the venue if they see our names on a flier and shut it all down. I hear they do Durk like that, too.

Herbo: I don’t have those problems, honestly. I don’t have too much of a hard time performing at home. Maybe I don’t have that big cloud over me, where there’s any hesitation from somebody to book me.

On why Bibby will rap about but not talk about life on the streets

Bibby: I can give pretty good insight on what I think is going on, because I’m still here, and all of my homeboys are still in it and I’m kind of in it, one foot in and one foot out. I don’t talk about it because it’s real life stuff that goes on, and I would never incriminate myself. The police, I know this for a fact, look at all of our videos, our interviews. (They) see all the guns in the videos, that’s why I try not to put guns in videos. The recent times I’ve went to the police station, when I’ve gotten locked up for petty crimes, they already have our videos pulled up, they wouldn’t even know I’m coming in. They study all of our pictures and our nicknames and our gang affiliations.

On making a choice to get out of street life. Or stay in.

Herbo: It was a matter of me growing up as a man and an artist, saying, This is what I want to do. You gotta make a sacrifice to focus 100 percent of my time on myself and my craft, and what I feel is going to get me to the next level. Even if I’m just staying in the house, I just want to keep a clear mind and stay focused on what I want to focus on. I had to make that decision in my head, I had to feel it first of all, I had to follow my intuition. That’s where it led me to.

Bibby: I have brothers, I have family members, I have close friends that I look at as family members, and I don’t have enough money to take everybody out with me. I feel like once I have enough money, I can basically help everybody, if I get enough money to move all my people out. Unfortunately I don’t have enough money for all the people I love to come with me. They’re stuck.

Allison Stewart is a freelance writer.

Twitter @chitribent

When: 9:30 p.m. March 8

Where: Metro, 3730 N. Clark St.

Tickets: $5 (with RSVP)-$15.00 (18+); RSVP to www.Redbullsoundselect.com

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