Drip Season 4EVER – Gunna

The conclusion to the Drip Season series of mixtapes, Drip Season 4EVER is pretty much what you would expect from Gunna. Whether you enjoy it depends on how much you like Gunna’s brand of smooth melodies over languid production. Unlike his labelmates Young Thug and Lil Baby, his music prides itself on creating a mellow atmosphere that focuses on a certain vibe over lyricism. Though he never deviates from his established formula on Drip Season 4EVER, it features some of the tightest production in his discography. At 19 songs, the album is far too long for its own good but there are a few surprises here and there.

As always, the production mixed with Gunna’s laid-back flow remains the highlight of Drip Season 4EVER. On “Thought I Was Playing”, Mike WiLL Made-It crafts a piercing, harpsichord-heavy beat that Gunna and 21 Savage frantically rap over. “Pushin P” with Future and Young Thug has a sinister Wheezy beat with the trio trading bars. Gunna’s best songs only go as far as the production does and while Drip Season 4EVER has some highlights, it also has plenty of forgettable filler in between. Worst of all, Gunna’s lyricism is mediocre at best and downright insipid at worst. Lines like “I nutted all over her face/And now she look like a cow” give second-hand embarrassment and unfortunately, there’s plenty of them littered throughout. With such a monotone artist, it’s hard to justify the 19 song tracklist.

When the production and Gunna connect, the result is often compelling. The Metro Boomin assisted “Alotta Cake” is one of the highlights in Drip Season 4EVER as Gunna flexes his wealth and success over guitar chords. The penultimate track “So Far Ahead > Empire” is one of the most enjoyable Gunna songs in recent memory as the pensive piano transforms into an acoustic ballad at the beat switch. “Livin Wild” shows Gunna at his most soulful with a phenomenal Turbo beat. But there are just as many tracks that get easily tuned out like the boring Drake feature and overdone moaning on “P Power” or the phoned-in features from Chris Brown and Yung Bleu on “Die Alone.” Drip Season 4EVER succeeds and suffers from the same thing that every Gunna album does: a formulaic approach that never leaves his comfort zone.

Must Listens: Thought I Was Playing, Alotta Cake, So Far Ahead > Empire

52/100

About the Author

Jeff

I turned my incoherent ramblings on music, anime, and video games into an entire blog.

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