Fly God Is An Awesome God 2 - Westside Gunn
Intro:
Westside Gunn and the rest of his Griselda members have been commanding the attention of today’s rap scene for the past few years. Of these New York rappers, I think Westside is probably my favorite member at the time of me writing this. I enjoyed his previous album “Pray For Paris” a lot, so naturally my expectations for this one were raised. I did try to tone down these expectations during all the listens I gave and here are my thoughts:
Strengths:
Westside comes through with the usual themes of gangsta/street topics seen in what many now call “coke rap”. I always liked how his lyrics seem to be more focused on the imagery they paint in hard rap lines, which is an undervalued form of creative lyricism. I also have always been a fan of his nasally-high pitched vocal delivery (and ad-libs), as it always made him standout on a track.
The production here is the usual grimy'/gritty sample based beats for the most part. The sample choices themselves really give this album and Westside’s other work a very “artsy/renaissance” aesthetic; that beautifully contrasts his voice and violent subject matter (For example: “Michael Irvin”). Songs like “Rebirth” showcase how Westside’s flows really fit into the pockets of these samples as well.
Lastly, I actually was pleasantly surprised by the features on this album. I enjoyed almost all of them, and I actually was not familiar with most of them until this album. My favorite had to be Stove God Cooks who’s entertaining delivery stood out on songs like “Bubba Chuck”.
Weaknesses:
So the only song I can say I actually did not like at all was “Drive By Love”. No disrespect, but I genuinely can’t tell if Westside was trying to make a serious romantic song or not. The vulgar lines are just delivered very awkwardly, and some of these lines by themselves are just really forced and corny in my opinion. I can respect the change in subject matter though, and I did find some comedic value in how awkward the song was to listen to. To be fair, it could also just be that a song like this is coming from Westside Gunn’s tough guy perspective.
Outside of that specific song, I really don’t have too many other negative takes on this project. There were a lot of features though, and I did finish the project wanting to hear more solo Westside tracks. I think i also just wish there were more tracks in general, as a lot of the tracklist is skits. These are just minor gripes however. You could also complain that Westside isn’t pushing his own boundaries or trying different sounds here, but I don’t necessarily mind the consistency of Griselda’s style/sound.
Other Thoughts:
I feel like the “Praise God Intro” really sets the tone for this project. Honestly, I think it perfectly describes Westside and the rest of Griselda’s place in the music industry right now; essentially being that they probably are the start of a Hip-Hop renaissance that will only continue from now on.
I can’t confidently describe the renaissance myself, but my interpretation is that it’s one of substance, lyricism, competition, etc. Essentially, the core elements that made up the foundation of the genre instead of whitewashed materialism that can be found in new forms/artists/styles in the genre. But, that’s simply just my perspective/idea.
Overall: 7.5/10
I’d say Westside Gunn delivered another solid project, as usual. I definitely didn’t enjoy it as much as Pray For Paris or his other work, but it didn’t really have to do with any actual bad songs/rapping. To me, it sounded like a cool project that Westside had fun making for his fans, which I appreciate and respect. Thank you all for reading and be sure to listen to the album yourself with the link below.
