Album Review - Westside Gunn: 10
SOFT 7/10
Westside Gunn has been one of the more prolific, but consistent proficient, rappers of the early 2020s. The self-proclaimed “FLYGOD” launched the Buffalo-based Griselda record label back in 2012 with Mach-Hommy and his brother, Conway the Machine. The label itself is more of a collective than a tight-knit group, but every member of the conglomerate invokes a similar sub-genre of hip-hop that can be classified as “luxury rap”; a style that was spearheaded by the likes of Rick Ross and reinforced by a mid-2000s Jay-Z. This approach to hip-hop consists of excessively nuanced production that reaffirms the prosperity that has come from much of the crime-riddled pasts that such rappers are liable to discuss in their songs. While the sub-genre certainly took a nose-dive towards the late 2000s and throughout the 2010s, Westside Gunn has reinvigorated it with his extravagant, and WWE-inspired, fashion of lyricism, as well as instrumentals that are sample-heavy and indicate that Gunn is clearly in touch with pop-culture.
10 is an addition to the decade’s worth of mixtapes that Gunn has labeled the Hitler Wears Hermes (HWH) series. Deciding to drop the “Hitler” classification out of respect for the current socio political climate of antisemitism, the title is supposedly a satirical take on the film The Devil Wears Prada, further contributing to Gunn’s eccentric imaginative dramatization of his music. Although many of the themes of Gunn’s music persist on 10, whether it’s the recounting of illicit or buying exuberantly indulgent goods, the Buffalo rapper still attempts to freshen up what some might call a redundant saga of tapes. Gunn employs DJ Drama to introduce the album on “FlyGod Jr.” where the record spinner appropriately attaches the designation of “cultural art” to the release. Cultural art is essentially what Gunn and his companions attempt to illustrate throughout 10; Gunn has had his own run-ins with the law that stunted his career, so to utilize a hi-hat-heavy trap beat for this song is fitting for its subject matter in relation to the polarizing history of trap music. It’s certainly awkward to hear Gunn on this kind of instrumentation, but he manages to hold his own.
Conductor Williams’ producer tag has become a mainstay of Gunn’s discography and that remains the case on 10. “Super Kick Party” has excellent sample implementation that kicks up the pace for Gunn’s usually nonchalant approach to rap. Gunn continues the quality of his form on “Shootouts In Soho”, but his co-stars A$AP Rocky and Stove God Cooks merely sound like they’re attempting to match the rapper’s energy instead of bringing their own flare. Black Star’s Mos Def and Talib Kwali provide just this though on “Peppas”, another track of which Williams provides the soundtrack to. Black Star condemns violence while citing music as their weapon in contrast to Gunn’s more blunt references to drug-use and its unrelenting consequences on the urban youth. Posse cuts such as “Science Class”, “God Is Love” and “Red Death” have their moments to shine in the form of lyrical displays from Ghostface Killah, Raekwon and Benny The Butcher, but it sometimes feels like the nuanced production just provides an excuse for the artists to wander within their own world of irreverent creativity. Tracks like “Mac Don’t Stop” and “Switches On Everything”, which features the Run The Jewels duo, feel much more concise and engaging. The latter addition to the tracklist is particularly provocative with its insights on the delusions of grandeur exhibited in lyrics like when El-P raps “me and my two sisters made three, NYC/where the suffocatin' of dreams lurk behind the steel beams”, as well as when Killer Mike kickstarts his verse with emphatic claims saying “allow me to make a confession/I have not learnt all my lesson/I'm still rollin' and blowin' and smokin' on dope/while I'm grippin' my weapon”.
10 should certainly not be discarded in the musical universe of the HWH series, but it is definitely not as stylistically pronounced as his previous edition in double-record HWH 8. Gunn recycles much of the same substance that he has touched upon in prior efforts with a similar qualitative degree of production to back it, but many of the guest features water down the thematic elements that made his earlier work so enticing. Conductor Williams and Mike Shabb never take their foot off the gas in terms of their sonic additions to the mixtape, but the luxury that’s promoted by their substantial production is occasionally lost in translation through lackluster performances.