Dark Lo & V Don Break Down Each Track From ‘Made of Gold’
Billboard ·
The underground's dynamic duo make their triumphant return with their first project together since 2023's Charlie Pope 2.
I have tweets going back to 2019 comparing Dark Lo and V Don to the likes of Gang Starr, and Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen , because their chemistry is undeniable. In the era of streaming, where every album is 20-30 tracks long and every song is made to be a charting single, these two keep things simple, and in turn have been offering up timeless rap music for nearly 10 years.
Take Dark Lo’s 2017 single “Bandana,” for example — the North Philadelphia rapper goes off for nearly seven minutes straight over V Don’s gritty production, as he brings the listener into his world of pain with a unique flow and voice that you won’t be able to hear anywhere else. That was the first track that made me really start paying attention. Since then, they’ve collaborated on about four albums, including the one we’re hear to talk about today just in time for the release of the deluxe version.
The duo started working on Made of Gold back in April of 2025 as soon as Dark Lo came home after serving four years of a seven-and-half year sentence stemming from intimidating a witness in the AR-Ab case that saw his close friend and collaborator get sentenced to a staggering 45 years . You can imagine, however, that Lo wasn’t immediately inspired to make music when he got out and it took him some time to get back into the grow of things.
“I wrote ‘Freeze Tag’ and chilled for like a month,” he tells me when they stop by Billboard ‘s New York City offices. “It wasn’t in me. I didn’t want to go to the studio. I was lightweight depressed on some s—t. Like, I’m home, but I’m on house arrest, I’m broke. It was a lot of s—t.”
He’s back in Dark Lo the Crook mode now, though, as he and V Don plan to continue rolling out this project and have another one basically ready to go. “Hopefully, we drop first quarter next year. I just sent him some crazy s—t the other day,” the Harlem producer says after I ask what’s next for them, with the Philly rapper adding that he’s hoping to go on a feature run soon.
We kicked it a couple weeks ago before the deluxe dropped today, and they broke down each of the 11 tracks — so you can use this as sort of a companion as you sink your teeth into the four new tracks they added to the original. Check out our conversation below.