Cory Gunz

Born Peter Cory Pankey Jr. in 1987, the Bronx rapper known as Cory Gunz entered the scene delivering precise, hard-hitting East Coast rhymes. As the son of fellow rapper Peter Gunz, he was already performing publicly at 14, when Jay-Z personally helped secure his Def Jam deal. That same year he appeared on the remix of Rihanna’s “If It’s Lovin’ That You Want,” and he soon followed with the self-released series The Apprentice Mixtapes, Vols. 1–3.

Through the late 2000s and 2010s he maintained a steady output, trading verses with Smoke DZA, Meek Mill, Method Man and many others while issuing his own projects, including the 2008 tape Best Kept Secret and the 2009 DJ Drama-hosted Gangsta Grillz installment Heir to the Throne. He also linked frequently with Lil Wayne, recording a verse for the 2008 multi-platinum single “A Milli” that was ultimately left off the released version; his contributions did appear on several other Wayne tracks, most notably the 2011 cut “6 Foot 7 Foot.” After signing with Young Money, the label issued his 2013 mixtape Datz WTF I’m Talkin’ Bout in partnership with After Platinum. Into the 2020s he continued dropping singles, mixtapes and EPs, among them the 2020 project Guns & Butter and the 2022 collaboration Gunz x Bars with David Bars, all while pursuing his long-awaited debut studio album after more than a decade in the industry.