The 26-year-old sounds reinvigorated on his latest—the flows are crisper, his puns are more colorful, and the beats are pristine.
Gunna’s lifestyle is less like a rapper and more like one of Bravo’s Real Housewives. He shops, travels, hangs out with his rapper friends, and has few issues outside of what color Audemars Piguet watch he should wear on his wrist or if his new pair of Amiri jeans will fit nicely around his waist. Among his Atlanta peers, he’s the most predictable. Listening to a Gunna album or tape is easy and familiar, like turning on the television and landing on a marathon of your favorite sitcom.
The difference between Gunna’s best verses and his worst is at the molecular level: The best are easily recitable and bring color to his lavish lifestyle; the worst are basically the same except it just sounds like he’s going through the motions. On WUNNA, the 26-year-old’s latest, Gunna has the heart and is the most engaged he’s sounded since his 2018 breakthrough, Drip Season 3. (Insanely, WUNNA is an acronym—“Wealthy unapologetic nigga naturally authentic”—and as you would expect he explained the title in an interview as, “Honestly, I was just high, bro.”)
WUNNA is more than an endless barrage of boasts about his designer clothes and foreign whips; the flows are crisper, his puns are more colorful, and the beats are pristine (new-age Atlanta beat-making royalty Wheezy and Turbo are mainly behind the boards). On the calm, Turbo-produced single “Wunna,” Gunna’s flow is patient, every word is emphasized. And then on the intro, “Argentina,” he changes paces with ease. Thanks to his bank of deliveries and melodies, his flexes stick. “It’s easy to slip, don’t want you to fall/Walk in with the drip at Met Gala ball,” he croons on the “Met Gala” hook. It’s a simple line that could have been generated by a bot, but through sweet vocals, it becomes something more.
WUNNA hits a stride when it becomes a family affair. Much like “Sold Out Dates” and “Drip Too Hard,” “Blindfold” is like hanging out with Gunna and Lil Baby as they partake in a fashion duel: Gunna has a new pair of Rick Owens jeans and Lil Baby can’t decide if he wants to lace up his Dior or Jordan sneakers. Similarly, the album revolves around a pair of collaborations with Young Thug. “Dollaz on My Head” is ripped by Thug and Gunna is smoothly rapping about spending a bag on Prada. Followed by “Far,” their second collaboration, a welcomed disruption, and a rare moment of introspection. “I ain’t tryna talk down ’cause I know niggas be hardhead/Thinkin’ about how they put my brother in the ground, had to pour up more red,” wails Gunna, as it slides into a vulnerable territory he should go to more often.
But, of course, at 18 tracks, there are moments when Gunna lapses into monotony. The nearly four-minute two-parter “Nasty Girl/On Camera” is tiresome, and guest features by Roddy Ricch and Travis Scott seem like nothing more than formalities to juice streaming numbers. Yet it’s hard to not have fun when Gunna is telling posh tales in a rushed melody over Wheezy and Turbo beats that sound like an elevator ride up to a penthouse. Like “I’m On Some,” where Gunna reflects about the moments he truly cherishes: a New York trip to buy baguette diamonds from celebrity jeweler Elliott Eliantte and purchasing his latest girlfriend liposuction just to brighten her mood. Who else can sound so unrelatable, materialistic, and superficial, and still remain charming? Only Gunna.
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