This is the 5th full-length album from Buffalo emcee/entrepreneur Westside Gunn. Breaking out in 2016 with his near-perfect debut album FLYGOD, he would go on to take over the hip hop scene with his brother Conway the Machine & their cousin Benny the Butcher as they’ve consistently dropped a slew of high quality releases both solo-wise & as a trio. However, Westside has stated on numerous occasions that 2020 will be his final year rapping & kicked it off just this spring with Pray for Paris. But with the 1 year anniversary of FLYGOD is an Awesome God approaching this weekend, Westside is celebrating with a sequel preluding his Shady Records debut Who Made the Sunshine? set to drop next month.
After the “Praise God” intro, the first song “Michael Irvin” finds Westside talking about how no one’s flyer than him over a jazzy beat whereas the next track “Jose Canseco” with Stove God Cooks sees the 2 talking charismatically boasting over a soulful instrumental from STREETRUNNER. I was surprised to see the loosie “1 More Hit” appearing on here, but I’m glad it did & the new Stove God Cooks verse added on is a nice touch to it as well. After the first “Sadhu Interlude”, the song “Lil Cease” with Griselda Records’ newest signee Armani Caesar finds the 2 rightfully proclaiming their thrones as King & Queen of Buffalo over a creepy boom bap beat from JR Swiftz.
After the “Fuck the Police” skit, the song “Buffs vs. Wires” with Benny the Butcher & Boldy James of course gets on the drug dealer tip over a classy ass loop from Daringer. Then after the “Mr. Maino” skit, we’re treated to a remix of another old WSG loosie “Bubba Chuck” with Stove God Cooks being added on once again & I actually like this a lot more than the “1 More Hit” remix that I discussed earlier. After the final “Sadhu Interlude”, the song “Drive By Love” is a gangsta sex tune over a savory Chuck Inglish instrumental. The penultimate track “Rebirth” lyrically is exemplified by the snippet at the very beginning of the song of Kanye West’s infamous TMZ appearance a couple years ago & I absolutely love the peaceful instrumental. The album then finishes with “Steve Behr”, where Westside enlists Rome Streetz to talk about pushing coke over a hypnotic sample.
It’s not as good as Pray for Paris, but I still think this is a solid album regardless. In contrast to the predecessor seeing Westside Gunn experimenting & trying new things, he pretty much takes it back to the basement on here. Beyond excited to see where he takes things on Who Made the Sunshine?.
Score: 7/10
Source: UndergroundHipHopBlog.com