On October 9, New York legend Westside Gunn revealed, in an exclusive with Rolling Stone, that his newest album, “Then You Pray For Me,” will be his final major release.
“I’m not saying I won’t come with a five-song EP with Madlib, or I won’t do a seven-song EP with Alchemist, or I won’t rap. I’ll do all of that, but making a studio album, I’m done with all that. It’s back to dumping until I don’t want to dump no more. I’m going to have fun now,” explained Gunn. The album sits at a lofty hour and 15 minutes, with 21 tracks and plenty of features; “I wanted to do something special I wanted to give u 2 albums worth of music AOTY with a cover designed by Virgil Abloh,” said the rapper on Instagram.
This highly anticipated album, released on Friday, 13, is a sequel to the 2020 masterpiece “Pray for Paris.” Some of the record’s collaborators include JID, Stove God Cooks, DJ Drama, and Keisha Plum.
The date may have been a bad omen, predicting a lackluster release. The beginning of the record has it’s best moments. The second track, “Mamas PrimeTime,” featuring JID and Conway the Machine, was one of my favorites. All three rappers take turns dropping memorable lines over a beat that’s right up Griselda’s alley. The outro features a unique tap solo that is intriguing but disappointing when it slowly fades out and leads to nothing.
You can diagnose the major problem on this album by the third track: “Kostos.” I expected a Griselda reunion song to be a return to the sound that made them so famous, but instead, the three Buffalo giants experiment with trap beats.
The change is not terrible, but it does not do Gunn any favors. I found songs like “1989,” “DunnHill,” and “LL BOOL GUNN” to be borderline unlistenable. The best moments of Gunn’s discography are when he shows off his expert flow and complex lines, but these bare-bones beats limit him to corny two-liners. Fans have come to expect more than lines like “N—- worth a lot of mills / Schwarzenegger, Richard Mille” off of “Disgusting.”
I enjoyed tracks like “Suicide in Selfridges,” produced by Conductor Williams. I avoid discouraging artists from branching out, but songs like these remind me when I am front-and-center whenever Gunn drops. I know the legend hasn’t lost it when he drops cold rhymes like “Ayo, ain’t nobody fresher, that’s word to Mohammеd / Brains everywhere on the wall, go get some Comet / Back to back Dom Perignon, I bought the ramen / Hangin’ out the all-red Ghost with the chopstick,” referring to the Rolls Royce Ghost.
Overall, I didn’t hate this album. Some fans will welcome and embrace the change, but I couldn’t find the appeal. The trap beats on the album worked against Gunn’s signature style and made some songs sound clunky and low-effort. Despite the misses making the album hard to get through, he still manages to impress on several songs. I’m just grateful that this is not Gunn’s last project.
Score: 6
Jose Zamora is a writer and creator from Boston, MA. He has been a music nerd since middle school when he started his record collection. His passion for Hip-hop began when he discovered legends like Nas and Gang Starr and became obsessed with up-and-coming acts like Kendrick Lamar and A$AP Mob.
He is a recently graduated, up-coming journalist, passionate about music and culture. He is always keeping an eye out for the next big thing and is eager to put their talent in the spotlight for others to enjoy. He believes firmly that “Good art deserves to be talked about.”
