By: Marquis “Southside_Gunn” Harris

For some artists, being a one-hit wonder is a huge accomplishment. You get a hit song on the radio, you get tons of money, you get to perform, get sponsorships—the list goes on. However, a small percentage of artists manage to make it past that one-hit wonder threshold and become a household name. For some artists, it’s a hit single; for others, it’s a feature on someone else’s track. Either way, it’s easy to be a one-hit wonder, but it’s even easier to torpedo your entire career if you even make it through to become a household name.

There have been some artists who’ve been able to completely change the trajectory of their careers both positively and negatively based on their antics once they’ve reached that certain mainstream point. However, the person that comes to mind is Goldlink. Goldlink had the world in the palm of his hand and managed to squander everything at the absolute worst time.

For those that don’t know, Goldlink, a D.C. area rapper and songwriter, was seen as very talented due to his versatility and the way he blended house, dance, electronic, and hip-hop. He was given a spot on the 2014 XXL Freshman Cover. Also, that same year, he released “The God Complex,” which is still seen as his best work to date. His biggest accomplishment comes from his song “Crew Love” featuring Brent Faiyaz and Shy Glizzy. The track charted as high as 45 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was noted as one of the best songs of 2017. So while that rise was quick and fast, so was the fall.

Right after the late great Mac Miller passed away in 2018, Goldlink took to Instagram, in a since-deleted post, and spoke about their friendship and how they “weren’t on the best terms,” as well as mentioning how Mac essentially copied him and his blueprint mixtape called “And After That, We Didn’t Talk” for Mac to make one of his best works, “The Divine Feminine,” in 2016. Goldlink, of course, was not given grace, as plenty of fans and friends of Mac Miller had words for Goldlink, and a lot of it was negative. Anderson .Paak, one of Mac’s friends, came to his defense, calling Goldlink’s post “gross, disrespectful, and unnecessary.” Goldlink did indeed make a YouTube video to essentially backtrack on said comments, but the damage was already done.

On June 11, 2019, Goldlink dropped his debut album, “Diaspora,” and while at this time Goldlink had taken a social media sabbatical, his album was released to somewhat universal praise, which was shocking considering a vast majority of his fan base wasn’t pleased with him since his Mac Miller comments. In 2021, he reappeared on Twitter, this time to go after Sheck Wes, who was someone he had had issues with in the past. That altercation and online tirade were used essentially as a rollout for his next album, “HARAM!” Unfortunately for Goldlink, “HARAM!”, unlike his debut, was seen as a bloated mess with UK and trap sounds that didn’t fit, and it was unable to chart; it is seen as his worst project to date.

Goldlink managed to work hard and surround himself with good people, just for him to surpass all expectations and disappoint them at the same time. As quick as his rise to stardom was, he equally played a part in it having an abrupt ending. Goldlink has not released a full-length project in over three years and only one single within the last two. Goldlink managed to get his fame quickly, like most artists, but he managed to sabotage everything he worked hard for.