Wunna - Gunna
Intro:
Gunna is one of the most popular young rappers in today’s music landscape. He is the premiere artist on Young Thug’s label, YSL Records, alongside other acts like Lil Keed, Lil Duke, etc. Since 2018, his career has only gone up with each new release and feature appearance. Many only enjoy Gunna on his guest performances, but I actually enjoy a good amount of his older solo work. I went into this new album hoping that it would at least be better than his previous project Drip or Drown 2.
Strengths:
One thing Gunna continuously does well at is finding catchy flows, and on Wunna this still holds true. When people describe Gunna’s music as having a chill vibe, I think his nonchalant way of riding beats is a main factor to it (Ex. Blindfold). There were even flashes of the “old” Gunna on this album like the song "Don’t Play Around” where he’s putting more effort into his vocal delivery. The low energy he usually brings to his lyrics works well on slower tempo songs that match his energy like “I’m On Some”.
The element that really drives this album though is all of the insane trap beats most of the album’s producers like Wheezy, Turbo and others. So many of them have really catchy or captivating melodies, my favorite being the electric guitar sample on “Rockstar Bikers & Chains”. In addition to this, the beats themselves are usually mixed pretty well. Drums are usually pretty standard, but I will say that “Gimmick” has an incredibly hard drum pattern. Gunna seems to always find a catchy pocket in on these type of beats.
Weaknesses:
While having good flows usually, there are still moments of dumbed down/basic flow patterns like the one on the title track. Gunna usually has a pretty chill and low energy delivery as mentioned above, BUT it can be extremely boring to listen to over a more interesting beat (Ex. MOTW). The song “Feigning” however features some of the worst vocals I’ve ever heard from Gunna on the chorus.
Topically he’s bringing nothing new to the table which I don’t mind, but he isn’t really try say anything in a new or different with the lyrics. I know he isn’t a lyrical artist but some of them flat out sound like he wasn’t trying. The worst example of this being the chorus on “Addy” where he’s just repetitively saying addy 38 times. Aside from Gunna himself, the features on this album are also not really that interesting to me besides both of Young Thug’s appearances. I believe if he made the tracklist shorter, it would’ve made the album more concise as I feel like the first half of the album is significantly better than the second half.
Other Thoughts:
Grew on me the more I listened to it every time
Works very well as background music (not even being negative)
Cover art is kinda goofy but I actually like it more than I did originally
Overall: 4/10
While I don’t love his album, it still exceeded my expectations by being better than the last. The album is even growing on me the more I listen to it. Again, I just think the album would’ve been a lot better if he cut the filler songs and made it a short album of the best songs. Thank you for reading, and you can listen to the album below if you haven’t listened yourself yet.
