Let’s be actual: You knew what One in all Wun gave the impression of earlier than you pressed play. Gunna’s motor-mouthed tales of the excessive life right here, his dreary piano ballads there. His final album a Present & a Curse wasn’t an entire lot totally different; neither was the one earlier than that. Glazed, melodic raps about garments and ladies and no matter jewellery he wore to the studio that day are Gunna’s bread and butter. That’s the method that has made him one of many greatest Atlanta rappers of the final decade. Although lately it appears like even Gunna is becoming bored, spicing it up dangers derailing the cash practice.
Regardless of his appreciable success, within the final two years Gunna has been unofficially shunned from the inside circles of well-liked rap by hip-hop cornballs who’ve interpreted his plea deal within the YSL RICO case as “snitching.” (Kendrick not too long ago made him the butt of the joke on his Drake diss “Euphoria” when he mentioned, “I do know some shit about niggas that make Gunna Wunna appear like a saint.”) The state of affairs hangs over One in all Wun, clearly weighing on Gunna at the same time as he tiptoes round these frustrations to maintain the great vibes intact. He’s making an attempt to have the very best of each worlds: An ol’ usual mild and enjoyable Gunna flex-a-thon, sprinkled with a reflective bar or wistful tune from time to time. Tonally, it’s complicated. No person desires Gunna’s ache rap album or his Me Towards the World, however I do need him to be actual with us.
Again within the day, when Gunna sung about the way in which his “Worry of God pants match his Worry of God Vans” on Drip Season 3’s “Almighty,” or his “AP blacker than Akon” on WUNNA’s eponymous monitor, he sounded as if nothing else on the earth mattered to him extra. Now his boasts of getting the sharpest outfit on the Met Gala (“One in all Wun”) or a brand new Balenciaga crop high (“Prada Dem”) really feel compulsory. I don’t doubt that he nonetheless will get matches off commonly, however everyone knows he has a lot extra on the high of his thoughts. It comes off as a deflection.
He’s making songs that sound like catchy Gunna songs of the previous—he’s nonetheless capable of float on these laid-back, skittering ATL entice variants whereas studying straight off his SSENSE receipt—however they don’t really feel like them. He’s going by means of the motions. His rapidfire circulation on “Hakuna Matata” is clear however the power is flat (he ought to have saved it for the soundtrack of Barry Jenkins’ upcoming Mufasa film). He’s made “On One Tonight,” with its buzzing beat and limp croons, a dozen occasions earlier than. I do nonetheless get a kick out of his newest sexual escapades (on the gymnasium, on a yacht, in an orgy) and luxurious automotive purchases—the extraordinarily chill “Again within the A” is a standout, particularly when he says, “My automotive is a half million {dollars}/I got here a good distance from Impalas”—however he’s so checked out that a few vivid bars can’t conceal that he’s carrying a masks.
