Bear in mind “Stilettos”? It’s okay in case you don’t, and in case you do, there’s at the very least a small probability about it as a result of Erica Banks interpolated the 2004 Crime Mob tune for her 2021 single “Designer.” The OG was stable, however clearly, it was utterly overshadowed by the Georgia group’s precise breakout tune, “Knuck If U Buck.”
However that’s not the purpose. If you happen to’re an early ’90s child, the actual zinger is that this: One among your favourite crunk deep cuts is formally sufficiently old to be sampled. Like, in the identical manner that Dr. Dre reimagined ’70s soul data. The music you grew up on is the old-fashioned. You are previous. And Gucci Mane is even older. And he’s pleased with it.
That’s some extent he makes on his newest album, Breath of Recent Air. Cruising over a deeply soulful opener, “Should Be Me,” he explains that he was trapping at precisely the identical time Crime Mob dropped their debut album, and regardless of that, by his personal estimation, you’ll be able to’t contact him. His newest launch is additional proof that he’s principally proper.
Stuffed with shapeshifting flows, dense autobiographical particulars and confident confidence, the album showcases Gucci nonetheless accountable for his powers, even when it stretches on about 10 minutes too lengthy. He remembers his previous and embraces his current whereas flaunting the dexterity to outrap the relative new schoolers. His flows are sprawling; he raps diagonally, vertically and horizontally.
On “Should Be Me,” he goes sluggish and deliberate as he stitches collectively a mosaic of entice aspirations, refined tragedies and self-actualization. He speaks of steerage that fell on deaf ears and an affiliate who by no means discovered learn how to learn. His connection to the streets that raised him is eternal, a blood oath. However he acknowledges circumstances have modified, residing in a crib that’s so huge that if he shouts, it’ll sound like he’s repeated himself. It’s vivid, delivered in a manner that’s each exact and unpretentious — a marker of a talented wordsmith.
Gucci speeds issues up only a tune later. On the Lil Child-assisted “Bluffin,” GuWop laces fluttering keys with a lucid glimpse into the previous days and the brand new ones, juxtaposing the time intervals with pinpoint particulars that put you in his jail cell. Skittering over a stern piano loop for “Abdomen Growlin,” Gucci serves up a triple-time move. He will get bonus factors for merging writers’ advocacy with a hearty dose of self-mythology: “Writers on strike and I do know why they did it, Hollywood moguls be paying ’em pennies/AI can’t write the tune Gucci would write —‘trigger AI didn’t keep up all evening within the trenches.”
Bars just like the one above are braggadocious, however they’re additionally layered with perspective; Gucci Mane’s achieved a whole lot of rising up since being launched from jail over seven years in the past. Tracks like the marginally heavy handed “Harm Folks,” whereby he advises younger people to place the weapons down, emanate a paternal sincerity that may solely include rising older. It’s recommendation ’06 Gucci wouldn’t hearken to.
Gucci retains issues reflective on a whole lot of the undertaking, however he nonetheless makes time to have some unadulterated enjoyable. “Thank Me” is a playful, Younger Dolph-assisted anthem that’s free, mischievous and petty. “06 Gucci Mane” is a self-referential anthem with standout stanzas from DaBaby (!), 21 Savage and Wop himself, and the J. Cole-featured “There I Go” is a slap. “Woppenheimer” has some stable bars, and the blatant opportunism behind the title makes it all of the extra pleasing.
Any undertaking that stretches an hour-and-fifteen minutes can get monotonous, howeverGucci’s versatile flows go a protracted method to forestall his. There aren’t many duds on Breath of Recent Air, however “Married With Tens of millions” can go when there’s already the far superior “Mr. and Ms. Good,” and of the 2 Kodak Black options, “King Snipe” is the one which’s price maintaining. As a lot as we miss Dolph, having two of the tracks on the identical album most likely wasn’t essential.
Nonetheless, Gucci’s newest LP is a collage of spectacular raps and spurts of memorable anthems from a person who sounds greater than at peace with himself and the life he leads. Breath of Recent Air is the sound of somebody ageing gleefully.
