Westside Gunn - And Then You Pray For Me
WSG's new album offers a wider canvas with messier results
Westside Gunn has high art ambitions for grimy rap. Because he knows that in its purest form, it’s already there. What is Wu-Tang if not high art? With minimalist abstract beats and dense lyrical flows, his crew understands that Mobb Deep is as seminal as Mos Def. The Griselda Records team has mined this formula so dependably that the results sometimes feel rote. Individual talents still shine - Conway the Machine’s autoflow maturing to deeper themes, Benny the Butcher’s precise lyrical style, producer Conductor Williams scoring a recent Drake single. They’ve created a signature sound, but also a box for themselves.
In his early 40s, Westside Gunn is in an unlikely prime. By his age most rappers are washed up or just irrelevant. He’s neither, rather surfing along generational lines, carrying youthful swagger while moving with mogul responsibilities. I’d argue it’s not age but the opportunity window that defines success. WSG was largely inactive in his 20s, beset by issues with the law, his early musical efforts ignored. His hometown Buffalo was not known as a mecca for hip hop. So his story is unlikely and inspiring - breaking with 2016’s FLYGOD, then flooding the market with quality work.
At its best Griselda’s output is as good as anything from the ‘90s, bar none. In terms of atmosphere, beats, lyrics, and replayability I’d put Benny’s Tana Talk 3 up with Nas’s Illmatic. Why not? Conway’s God Don’t Make Mistakes evokes the gangsta emo of Scarface with the witty wordplay of freestyle kings. And WSG has ingeniously updated Wu-Tang’s kung-fu soundbite shtick, employing instead old clips of trash talking pro wrestlers to represent his philosophy. They create worlds - that sounds like a cheap marketing slogan, but it’s the indelible core of great music.
Griselda’s momentum shows no signs of slowing down, even as they thread the delicate needle of feeding loyal fans and gaining new ones. 2023’s And Then You Pray For Me is WSG’s most high profile release. It’s been loosely marketed as a sequel to 2020’s Pray For Paris, one of his finest efforts. But it bears little relation - where that album was focused and self-contained, showing evolution in songwriting and guest contributions, this one is sprawling, mercurial, with some baffling design choices.
Westside Gunn sometimes reminds me of Frank Zappa. Musical generals committed to quirky aesthetics, operating in their own insular worlds. But as Zappa found his permanent footing in the industry, his work got more inconsistent. And Then You Pray For Me is like WSG’s Sheik Yerbouti, absorbing new styles to his own concerns no matter how awkward the results. Much has been made of the trap beats with off-kilter flows. The rapping on “DunnHill” with Rick Ross sounds so disconnected to the beat that it reads as a production error. Though the lo-fi 2000’s mixtape sound of “JD Wrist” is a clear aesthetic choice. One gets the sense that the album could be a nod to DJ Drama and his Gangsta Grillz sound, but the tracklist is too chaotic to sustain some single vision. Mixed in is more traditional fare, highlighted by “Kitchen Lights” with an austere drumless sample and trademark absurd brags: “The Dolce robe match the stove/The Dolce stove match the refrigerator.”
Westside Gunn’s music has a meta element. I’d call it postmodern but that term requires some elucidation to not sound snobby. So - he’s a dedicated fan of classic gangsta rap music who’s able to imbue his version with enough character to lift it beyond mere nostalgia. For example, his albums are usually introduced with some spoken word by AA Rashid, as a riff on traditional rap album intros that espouse some street philosophy. I’m still not sure if Rashid’s are meant as subtle satire, because it’s clear that he’s just babbling (“What does we mean? ‘Oui’ means yes in French and they speak French in Paris…”) But it doesn’t matter. You can take it seriously or not, it works either way. That’s postmodernism as I see it, the absorption of cultural elements for something beyond satire into true meaning.
And Then You Pray For Me may not be remembered with Westside Gunn’s best work. It might be a bit too adventurous, with not riches enough to justify the efforts. But at least it’s something different. And his confidence and ambition are infectious. Consider - both Kanye and RZA from Wu-Tang have attempted fashion and high art moves, with clunkier results. Somehow WSG’s vision feels more connected to a raw populism at hip hop’s core. The stage is his now.