Westside Gunn’s Final LP “And Then You Pray for Me” Picks Up Where “Pray for Paris” Left Off (Album Review)
Westside Gunn is a 41 year old emcee, songwriter, entrepreneur & curator from Buffalo, New York proving his legend status & that he’s to be a force to be reckoned with all in only the span of 8 years whether it be running one of the hottest hip hop labels in recent memory to his first 2 full-lengths FLYGOD & Supreme Blientele. Last we heard from West was the 10th & final installment of his infamous Hitler Wears Hermes mixtape series last fall only 3 days before Halloween, but is making his 7th & final official LP a sequel to his 4th one Pray for Paris over 3 & a half years ago already.
After the “FLYGOD DiD” intro, the first song “Mamas PrimeTime by Hall ‘N Nash featuring J.I.D is a dusty boom bap opener produced by Beat Butcha & Mr. Green boasting about how divine they are whereas “Kostas” by Griselda goes into trap territory thanks to Tay Keith talking about cooking up a batch & spitting at the top of the morning. “1989” featuring Stove God Cook$ finds the 2 turning up 36 ounces in public housing even though Westside’s chopped & screwed verse is distracting, but then “Suicide in Selfridges” works in a hazy loop with kicks & snares courtesy of Conductor Williams so DJ Drama can help welcome y’all to the new golden era.
Stovey returns for the orchestral “Kitchen Lights” explaining that the wrists be shining differently leading into “FLYGOD 2x” flexing the fact that he can get anything these days over a lo-fi boom bap beat. “DunnHill” featuring Rick Ross finds the 2 over more trap production making it clear that the protocol is to hit everybody just before “House of Glory” named after the Amazing Red & Brian XL’s independent circuit wrestling promotion of the same name that Westside Gunn & Master P have invested themselves into has a beautifully classy RZA instrumental flipping Gladys Knight so West & Stove God asking what they’d have to weigh it for since it’s all good.
Estee Nack joins Westside & Stovey for “JD Wrist” over an intoxicating trap beat from FLYGOD Jr. with additional vocals from DJ Trap-A-Holics cautioning not to trip like this while “Disgusting” featuring Giggs keeps the spacey vibes going with some hi-hats in the mix talking about how these bums really broke. “Chloe” luxuriously returns to the boom bap provided by Denny LaFlare getting his romance bag while “LL Bool Gunn” finds West singing over some keys & hi-hats paying homage to LL Cool J himself.
“Babylon Bis” featuring Stove God Cook$ has a sumptuous boom bap quality to it that JR Swiftz hooked up talking about them knowing their drug of choice prior to “Ultra GriZelda” featuring Denzel Curry justifiably boasting that they be running shit up over a cloudy trap beat. “Jalen Rose” featuring Boldy James looks at Daringer pulling off an eerie trap vibe showing off their globetrotter statuses while “Steve & Jony” featuring EST G compares themselves as the Steve Jobs & Jony Ive of the streets over a woozier instrumental.
Jeezy slides through on the energizing “Mr. Everything” to drop some braggadocio in their own respective styles while “Freddy Js” featuring Detroit trap star Peezy finds the 2 over some piano chords talking about their eastside roots. “The Revenge of the Flips Leg” featuring Rome Streetz brings back the kicks & snares to give glory to the king, but the title track featuring KayCyy closes out West’s last LP on a peaceful & beautifully sung note.
Pray for Paris is easily one of my favorites from the FLYGOD, so to hear And Then You Pray for Me as a counterpart makes a noticeable change in sound. The production’s more based around trap music even though he doesn’t abandon his boom bap/drumless roots at all as he pulls inspiration from all across the world by bringing a humongous list of guests with him throughout the journey.
Score: 8/10
