Gucci Mane - Droptopwop

Gucci Mane
Droptopwop
2017
Spotify

Gucci Mane is arguably having one of the best years of all time. To go from prison literally one year before this records release to writing tweets like: "I'm Young, Active and Attractive !!!!!!!". That's right seven exclamation points and his excitement seeps through to the music. Gucci is so confident on this record it doesn't even seem like he needs to flex, He can just lay back and let the world come to him. Yet his passion for life is really what is the most endearing. He has gone through something, gone through a whole lot of things and emerged on the other side leaner and in a word: better. Gucci's early work was good but it was never this inspired, refined and incredibly of the moment. Gucci seems so relaxed yet focused, something that is really rap's sweet spot. "Met Gala" bangs harder than almost anything that has come out this year with it's dark almost Church inspired beat. Migo's Offset also brings a relentless Trap flow that makes the song really fucking pop. Metro Boomin provides the production exclusively for the record and it is a match made in Trap heaven. Metro and Gucci embody this idea that the music can be both fun and exciting but also come from somewhere really dark. That is the whole thing about Trap music, it is a celebration but doesn't gloss over blight. Gucci Mane is taking over, and man it feels pretty nice.

This record is definitely Gucci's most direct, partially because Metro provides all the production. It gives the album a real evenness, everything is done at a high level but there aren't the usual peaks and valleys. As is the decree in hip hop of 2017 2 Chainz features on "Both Eyes Closed", and delivers yet another solid performance. Track after track you get this great bang, and because the album is on the shorter side at only 10 tracks nothing ever becomes to much or overwhelming. Gucci knows how to get in, get out and move the fuck on. If Rick Ross would have been able to do what He does on "Loss 4 Wrdz" his most recent record would have been so much better. It's like Gucci's exuberance is so infectious that he makes everyone He works with better. Now with a Memoir in the works due out in September and who knows how many more records before he takes a break, Gucci mane is riding a wave that few could have seen for his career when He first went in to Prison. This album may not be directly about that time in his life, but it is the result of sticking with it, pushing through and always trying to better. It's just Gucci.

8.5 out of 10