GUNNA “DS4EVER” BREAKDOWN

Rapper Gunna from Atlanta clearly wants nothing more than to have fun. The 28-year-old “drip” enthusiast wraps off his acclaimed mixtape series with the fourth chapter of DS4EVER, his most recent studio album. It encompasses Gunna’s development into a trap music mastermind and serves as a reminder that he is all about utilizing music to dictate a mood.

As a member of the Young Stoner Life Records label alongside Young Thug, Gunna has carved out a solid career for himself in the music business. Formerly a supporting player in the burgeoning hip-hop scene in Atlanta, Gunna has developed into a frontman, bringing his drip to the fore and expanding his wardrobe to usher himself in as a style icon (who previously caught Rihanna’s attention), rhyming over cutting-edge beats as one of today’s most important rap characters.

Gunna continually produces slick, sonically pleasing production decisions, which contribute to the seamless, effortless way he does everything. Many have attempted to imitate his sound, but there aren’t many rappers on the earth that can hold the interest of a crowd that isn’t in his income bracket by rapping nearly solely about fine clothes and expensive travels.

Gunna instead produces a sort of mood-neutral soundscape with DS4EVER that just conveys a feeling of pleasure and whimsy, rather than rocking the world with deep, thought-provoking lyrics. Young Thug and other guests’ outrageous lines, like “I n*tted all over her face and now, she look like a cow,” add quirkiness and humor, but the production is still the major attraction. With Taurus, Wheezy, and other producers being used, DS4EVER stays very close to the sound that Gunna has already developed at this stage in his career. A minor flaw in the tracklist is that there aren’t enough genuinely memorable or hypnotic moments.

Some songs, most notably “alotta cake,” have a basic framework that is similar to other songs from Gunna’s earlier discography, such as “Cooler Than A B*tch”; the latter almost seems like a continuation of the former without Roddy Ricch. Others, which repeat the rapper’s career-long banal themes (drugs, partying, etc.), sound like they belong at a nightclub just before the clock strikes midnight.

There are a few memorable moments that will make the listener come back to DS4EVER despite the absence of obvious aesthetic improvement. One of the album’s most thrilling solo songs, “south to west,” is reminiscent of the tumbling trap melodies that Gunna experimented with in the Drip Season 3 period, such as “Oh Okay.” On songs like “livin wild,” “life of sin,” and “die alone,” he also gets personal, singing things like “I just left the hospital, might need another liver/kidney failures, I tell you this sh*t couldn’t be more realer” and “I don’t want to die alone.”

The album is accompanied by some intriguing feature rhymes from artists like Kodak Black, Young Thug, Future, Lil Baby, and others. 21 Savage, who continues to set fire to everything he touches, seems to stir up more internet controversy than Gunna did himself. But aside from Chlöe’s vocals on “you & me,” many of these similar collaborations have already been done, at least on paper. Chlöe is the only female vocalist on the album, continuing a disturbing pattern in trap music where the male artists don’t seem to connect with the female performers too much.

At this point, the world has heard so many Gunna songs featuring Lil Baby, Young Thug, and Future that more variety in the vocalists would be welcome on the next release. It would also represent development for Gunna, who appears to be attempting to write a fresh chapter for himself after the Drip Season. Gunna managed to produce a quietly enjoyable album without taking any huge risks with his sound, filled with a number of tracks that will grow on the listener after the initial listen.

While the quality is what we have come to expect from Gunna, it may also be the same quality that we are getting tired of; therefore, if Gunna wants to keep developing as an artist, it may be time for him to experiment with new sonic possibilities and push his own melodies even farther.