Westside Gunn is a 39 year old emcee, songwriter & entrepreneur from Buffalo, New York who’s already proven his legend status at this point whether it running one of the hottest hip hop labels in recent memory to his first 2 full-lengths FLYGOD & Supreme Blientele. Last we heard from him was almost a year ago by now with the double disc conclusion to the Hitler Wears Hermes mixtape series with Side B being superior to Side A but with his 40th birthday coming up at the end of the month, he’s celebrating a little early by dropping his 9th mixtape.

After the titular intro, “Jesus Crack” with Estee Nack & Stove God Cook$ sets off the album with drumless yet soulful & jazzy instrumental talking about making cake by the thousands whereas the Estee-assisted “Ritz Barlton” takes a lo-fi boom bap route comparing the halfway house to that of the titular hotel. “Big Ass Bracelet” with Stovey works in a bare soul sample to get on their fly shit, but then “Bobby Rhude” is basically an Estee solo cut talking about glory over more beautiful vocal chops.

Meanwhile on “Derrick Boleman”, we have Gunnlib & Stove God Cooks on top of a classy loop spitting that street shit leading into “Horses on Sunset” incorporates a smoky boom bap beat talking about how someone should’ve shot someone 7 times instead of 6. The song “Open Praise” details love turning to envy ’cause Westside’s success over some pianos while the penultimate “Danhausen” has a jazzy boom bap banger produced by Conductor Williams with West rightfully bragging. “Flip v. Phil” by Stove God ends the album with a sample provided by Daringer reminding that he’ll put his competition to sleep.

I know he’s been teasing Michelle Records for a while now & for him to give us this as a prelude to warm everyone up for the main course, I’ll definitely take it. Stovey & Estee continue to take their lyrically chemistry with Westside to new heights with the production giving off some abstract undertones this time around.

Score: 7/10

Source: UndergroundHipHopBlog.com