Before he was G Herbo, before he was even Lil Herb, he was Lil Heroin — a kid on 79th and Essex with a pen sharp enough to eventually help invent an entire subgenre. Fifteen years later, Chicago’s most unfiltered narrator is doubling back to where it started. Today, G Herbo delivers Lil Herb: Lil Heroin Edition, the next chapter in a sonic memoir that refuses to skim past the details, and he’s pairing it with the official visual for the album’s most reflective moment, “Mad People.”

If Lil Herb was the return to fundamentals, Lil Heroin Edition is the deep archival dig — the boxes in the basement, the notebooks under the bed, the version of himself that existed before the world knew his name. Named after the very first rap moniker he adopted as a child, the project revisits the energy, mindset, and hunger of those pre-mixtape years while continuing the story the original album opened up.

“Mad People” is the emotional center of the record. Over a beat that leaves plenty of room to breathe, Herbo takes stock of everything — the loyalty, the sacrifices, the people he’s carried on his back through every era of his career. “I don’t owe shit to niggas, and nobody can say I switched on niggas,” he raps, before landing on the line that gives the song its name: “Even when I was on my last, I still took care of mad people.” It’s gratitude and frustration in the same breath, which is exactly the tightrope Herbo has always walked better than most.

The GotMrkd-directed visual matches that tone. Shot vlog-style between the Dominican Republic and Chicago, it follows Herbo on a getaway with his fiancée Taina Williams — four-wheelers through the countryside, pool days with friends, meals shared without a camera crew hovering. Performance scenes filmed in Chicago’s Chinatown snap the whole thing back to the city that raised him. It’s a rare look at a slower-paced Herbo, and it hits different coming off one of the biggest runs of his career.

Watch “Mad People” here: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=G+Herbo+Mad+People+Official+Video

The rest of the tracklist earns its 17-song runtime. “DND” with Ty Dolla $ign is Herbo drawing a hard line between the demands of success and the people who’ve actually earned his time. “Steel” and “Go” channel the same wolfish hunger that made the original Lil Herb tapes required listening in 2012. “Thug,” a fan favorite that’s been teased for years, finally gets an official release and lives up to every bit of the wait. Guest verses from Polo G, Skilla Baby, YK Dee, Big Opp, and Doowop keep the project grounded in the relationships that have never left his corner.

Nearly fifteen years in, with a Chicago drill blueprint, the Swervin Through Stress nonprofit, and a career-high hit in “Went Legit” already behind him, Herbo isn’t chasing reinvention. He’s documenting — in real time, with the same conviction he had when he was still trying to get anyone to listen. Lil Herb: Lil Heroin Edition is proof that the roots are still the point.

Stream Lil Herb: Lil Heroin Edition everywhere now, and press play on “Mad People” while you’re at it.