Eastside Flip was never signed to Griselda Records, never dropped a solo project, and never chased the spotlight in any conventional way.
He was a Buffalo neighborhood fixture who ended up on some of the most talked-about album covers in modern rap, and now he’s gone after being killed in a hit-and-run accident in his hometown.
The news was confirmed through Flip’s personal Instagram account, and it sent a wave through the Griselda community almost immediately.
Flip had been a constant presence in Westside Gunn’s world for years, appearing on the cover of the landmark album 10 and showing up in videos like “Super Kick Party,” where his raw, unfiltered energy connected with audiences who had no idea who he was but felt exactly who he was.
What made Flip’s story unusual is that Gunn didn’t find him through industry channels or casting calls. He was a real person from the East Side of Buffalo, known locally for his freestyle abilities and his magnetic presence, even while battling addiction. That realness was never a gimmick for Griselda, it was the whole point.
Gunn was vocal about their friendship long before Flip became a recognizable face online. I love FLIP and nobody in this world wants him to shine more than me,” Gunn said publicly, and he backed that up in ways that went past social media.
He brought Flip to Miami for Art Basel, featured him on tracks, and made sure the world understood that Flip was a person with a full life, not just an aesthetic choice or a viral moment.
When Flip overdosed in December 2022, some people online questioned Gunn’s role in his life. Gunn pushed back hard.
FLIP is MY homie y’all don’t know him or his situation so all of that why don’t u help him shit don’t u think I try and help that man Every single chance I get,” he wrote on New Year’s Eve that year.
He was clearly frustrated by armchair critics who had never set foot in Buffalo or spent a minute understanding what Flip was actually dealing with.
That moment in 2022 showed how complicated Flip’s story was, and how much Gunn genuinely cared about the outcome.
Addiction is not a simple narrative, and Gunn never tried to flatten it into one. He talked about it openly, defended Flip against people who reduced him to a punchline, and kept showing up in the hood whenever he was back in the city.
Flip’s final appearance came on Gunn’s 2025 album 12, which means his presence in the Griselda catalog stretches from the label’s rise all the way to its most recent chapter.
That kind of continuity says a lot about how Gunn viewed their relationship, not as a phase or a visual era, but as something ongoing and real.
The circumstances of the hit-and-run are still developing, and no arrests have been publicly confirmed. Buffalo lost one of its most quietly influential cultural figures, and the Griselda world lost someone who was woven into its identity in a way that no replacement could replicate.
