Westside Gunn’s goal was never to be the best rapper of all time, but rather be the best at putting together projects filled with unexpected collaborations, incredible production credits, and verses from everyone that Westside Gunn himself is a fan of. This new mixtape was advertised as an offering to hold us all over until his next full length project that he’s announced to be called “Michelle Records.”
Gunn must have been similarly mesmerized by “SurfinOnGoldWav.2” from Estee Nack and Sadhugold earlier this year as I was because Nack was enlisted alongside Stove God Cooks to do the rapping on this, “Peace ‘Fly’ God.” The production on the first five tracks of the album is courtesy of promising newcomer Don Carrera whose tracks are followed swiftly by a Madlib three-peat, then a beat each from Conductor Williams and Daringer to close out the 10 track tour-de-force.
After the obligatory AA Rashid intro (Maybe start giving Rashid some weaker beats to ramble over, It’s a tragedy that the ‘Peace Flygod,’ beat was not rapped on) Estee Nack, West, and Stove God Cooks deliver what is easily one of the best songs of the year with the menacing and warbling, ‘JESUS CRACK.’ This Don Carrera beat features one of the coldest vocal sample loops I’ve heard in a while. Carrera is really built different for this, it was a better vocal sample loop than anything I’ve heard Nick Craven do recently, it was reminiscent of something Sadhugold would create, which is high praise. The track opens strong with Estee Nack’s signature flow and delivery that make him sound ten feet tall, before heading straight into one of the most quotable Westside Gunn verses in recent memory.
“Nobody love me like my kids and my junkies.”
As Westside’s verse comes to a close with shrieks of “Hallelujah, bullets through ya,” the sample drops out briefly to throw a little Grand Puba sample and let it rock for a few seconds directly following West’s final bar,
“We cleared the plate, turned into Luger, Tesla Jeep playing Grand Puba.” (potentially, a call back to ‘Vogue Cover’ Eddie Lavert reference and sample)
Once the vocal sample comes back into clarity through Grand Puba, Stove God takes off, delivering a signature hook before dissecting the beat with his aggressive and charismatic flows.
‘Jesus Crack,’ is not Don Carrera’s only time to shine on this album, the song is swiftly followed by the one-two-three combo of his beats on ‘Ritz Barlton,’ ‘Big A** Bracelet,’ and ‘Bobby Rhude.’
‘Bobby Rhude,’ is a Estee Nack solo song that literally sounds like Nack is some type of otherworldly being spinning around the beat, picking and choosing differently angles to attack it and pull it apart from. His pauses speak just as loudly as his flows as he appears to be pondering his next flow and delivery to perfectly execute and Carrera continues to flip samples into gold like an underground King Midas.
We don’t even need to discuss ‘Big A** Bracelet,’ as it speaks for itself being one of the best tracks of the year without question.
However, once Don Carrera’s reign on the first half of this album ends, the legend himself Madlib takes the stage. The beats that Madlib offered to this project were great. ‘Horses on Sunset,’ and ‘Open Praises,’ brought a level of darkness and grit that I was not necessarily expecting from Madlib on here. Stove God delivered a bone chilling hook on ‘Horses on Sunset,’ and the verses that West lays down are smooth and effortless. I wish that Estee Nack had hopped on one of the three Madlib beats but maybe we will get to see that on “Michelle Records.”
‘Derrick Boleman,’ delivered a signature drumless and expertly crafted loop from Madlib and has arguably the best Stove God Cooks verse on the album.
Following these Madlib tracks, Conductor Williams give West his time to shine on ‘Danhausen,’ a battering assault of a beat that reminded me a lot of ‘Shadows of Tomorrow’ off of Madvillainy. West destroys this beat and it probably contains the hardest flows that he hits throughout the whole album.
“I’m insane, yo, shootouts all day though,
In the same boat, brains flow if you giving out halos,
Bench press wearing the same clothes,
Look how his vein shows, we copy and paste those”
West gives the last track on the album and Daringer beat to his Buffalo friend Eastside Flip. He posts Eastside Flip freestyling outside his car window on Instagram all the time before Flip does the digital dash in his wheelchair. Pretty funny guy. I thought it was cool that West let him rap for a minute or so to close out the tape, and he’s not a bad rapper either.
I really love this new Westside Gunn, obviously, I’m a little bit biased because I worship everything this guy drops but I would probably rate “Peace ‘Fly’ God” a 8.5-9/10.
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