The world of trap is fiercely competitive, so performers need clearly defined brands to stand out in a crowded field. Young Thug is the cross-dressing purveyor of hyper-slurred bars, Rae Sremmurd are skinny binge-loving lads and Fetty Wap has styled himself as a Hallowe’en caricature of a mother-in-law’s worst nightmare.
Gucci Mane’s identity revolves around the authenticity of his gangster personality and, given his history of prison time, it’s hard to discredit his assertions of being involved with violence, illegal activity and loose sex. In that regard, ‘Woptober’, the second of three albums to be announced since his release from jail earlier this year, appears to be a credible record and one that details his life through a realistic lens. But in every other conceivable way, it's trash.
Let’s deal with the most defendable tracks first. Dirty Lil Nigga talks about the cycle of poverty, crime and prison in a way that conveys a sense of powerlessness and desperation tragically all-too-common in vast swathes of America, which is especially prescient in the run up to the election.
Elsewhere, Out The Zoo details Gucci’s inherent rage in a revealing manner that points to his psychological distress and also raises a broader point about mental health problems among ethnic minority communities across the US.
But the songs don’t really deal with these issues with any guile or intelligence. They are simply a backdrop for the self-serving, record-hyping beefs of the alpha-in-chief, Gucci. ‘Woptober’ is so tediously violent, so depressingly self-serving, petty and immature that it recalls Fur Q’s Uzi Lover from BrassEye. Its protagonist apparently started believing his own hype so long ago that he is no longer making much sense.
Icy Lil Bitch appears to reignite Gucci’s feud with Young Jeezy, but could simply be a standard misogynist diatribe, while the similarly ‘bitch’-laden Love Her Body sees Gucci asking himself: “Do I love my bitch or am I in love with her body?” It might be a moment of genuine introspection, but it feels a little shallow coming from a recording artist who is nearly 40.
The production is (at best) completely off-the-shelf or (at worst) a knock off of tracks from his previous album, 'Everybody Looking', an altogether more interesting record that was released just three months ago. And that brings us to the crux of the matter. Gucci's output is so prolific (read a couple of thousand songs released during a 10-year period where he also spent spells jail) that he is clearly sacrificing quality in favour of quantity.
Maybe it fits into a wider strategy. Maybe to understand Gucci's oeuvre one must embrace a kind of throwaway maximalism that promotes the short lifespan of the work; a postmodern joke on anyone dumb enough to take the record seriously. But that doesn't make 'Woptober' worth listening to - just cheap, boring and humourless.
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