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Matthew Adams
Managing Editor
Buffalo native and Griselda Records artist Westside Gunn has just released his latest project, “And Then You Pray For Me”. This release is the sequel to Gunn’s 2020 project “Pray For Paris.”
When listening to a Westside Gunn album, it always feels luxurious. All of the lo-fi, soulful, gospel, or even classical samples give off a certain level of elegance when listening.
You first start with the cover art, which is elegant in itself. The cover art is from the late Virgil Abloh, who used a painting from Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio titled “The Entombment of Christ” and put Westside Gunn’s unique jewelry on the fellow disciples.
“And Then You Pray For Me” starts with an intro that expresses the sentiment of elegance quite well. AA Rashid begins with a couple of remembrances of his fellow comrades, then gives you a well-detailed explanation of what is to come during the listening experience.
After the 1:57 second intro, you are engulfed in the lo-fi rapping competition between Westside Gunn, J.I.D, and Conway the Machine on “Mamas Primetime.” All three of these lyricists were able to come together to give a solid performance.
Then you get to the Griselda Records trio song, “Kostas”, backed with Tay Keith production, which really surprised me. There were a couple of songs on this album with trap production, which was a great touch to the album.
Westside Gunn is known to have lo-fi production from people like Conductor Williams and The Alchemist. These are producers who bring out his sound the best.
“Kostas” had an underwhelming feature from Benny the Butcher that the listener could have done without. Even though the feature was underwhelming, it wasn’t song-destroying.
Conway and Gunn were able to carry the track and turn the song around. The next song on this album is “1989”, which is one of the many features from Stove God Cooks on this album.
On this song, Gunn brings in the distorted and grungy sound that he brought on “Clairborne Kick”, from “Pray For Paris.”
DJ Drama made an appearance on this song and was able not to be annoying but instead did an intro and an outro. There were other prominent DJs on this album, such as DJ Holiday on “Freddy Js”, and DJ Swamp Izzo on “MR EVERYTHING,” who was a huge proponent in the rise of Young Thug.
The feature from Stove God Cooks is quite underwhelming. He doesn’t really add to a song that Gunn shines on.
The next song on this project is “KITCHEN LIGHTS,” which is possibly the best song on this album. It is the best representation of the concept of elegance.
‘KITCHEN LIGHTS” is back with an orchestral string arrangement sample that is heavenly, to say the least. On this track, Stove God Cooks gives another underwhelming performance, which is a trend throughout the album.
“House of Glory”, “JD Wrist” and “Bablylon Bis” are all solid songs that Stove God Cooks give disappointing verses. Granted, he does give good hooks, which do the songs justice. Gunn usually delivers a solid verse, but it always seems to be his co-stars that potentially ruin the song. For example, “JD Wrist” was a song that I enjoyed thoroughly only because of Westside Gunn, who carried the track.
There were highly lackluster verses that were thrown in from Estee Nack and Stove God Cooks. Nack gave incomprehensible bars that were not needed on this project.
After the Stove God Cooks features end, the album starts to become more cohesive and not saturated with his features. There are some enjoyable features on this project, such as Denzel Curry on “Ultra GriZelda”, EST Gee on “Steve and Jony,” and Giggs on “Disgusting”.
“And Then You Pray For Me” is a solid album that has many downsides, which can be overwhelmingly noticeable but Gunn makes up for his style of rapping that meshes well with the production. The many other features besides Nack and Stove God Cooks make up for their abhorrent performances.
Projects like these are for a select group of people. If you enjoy lo-fi hip-hop and have an affinity for it, then this album is for you.
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