Written By: Mike Double G
Grade = 83% or 4 ️Stars
Track List - 40 minutes
1. Murders in Maxfields 0:35
2. Blessed Times (Feat. AA Rashid) 1:58
3. Mariota (Feat. Stove God Cooks) 2:53
4. Vogue cover (Feat. Stove God Cooks) 2:41
5. Margiela Split Toes (Feat. Mach-Hommy) 2:55
6. Draymond (Feat. Rome Streetz & Stove God Cooks) 2:20 ️
7. Peri Peri (Feat. Rome Streetz) 2:46
8. RIGHT NOW (Feat. Stove God Cooks & Jadakiss) 3:39 ️
9. Westheimer (Feat. Stove God Cooks, Boldy James, & Sauce Walka) 5:38
10. Bash Money (Feat. Lil Wayne) 2:27 ️
11. Claires (Feat. Conway the Machine, Benny the Butcher, & DJ Clue) 6:44 /
12. Spoonz (Feat. Conway the Machine) 2:04 ️
13. 716 Mile (Feat. Boldy James) 3:46 ️
About a year ago Westside Gunn announced he would be retiring at the end of 2020. I never believe rappers when they say this but Gunn is someone to take seriously. Gunn, Conway, Benny, and Boldy James are in their mid to late 30’s. All of them have been rapping for years but it’s only recently that they have gained mainstream attention. Another reason I believe Gunn is because he has so many other talents and interests. Particularly in art, fashion, and business. Conway said it best on his song 6:30 Tip Off. The Machine says:
They say West is the brains behind it and Benny is the star, but let's not act like Machine ain't the silliest with the bars.
This couldn’t be more true especially when it comes to Westside Gunn. Even when the group would go up to radio stations to freestyle West would leave the rapping to Benny and Conway. West might not free style but he’s a great rapper in his own right and brings so much more to the table. Gunn is the owner of Griselda Records and a marketing expert when it comes to the business.
It’s now nearly a year later and Westside Gunn is still bringing us heat. On August 27th Gunn released this project which is the first side of a double album. This is eighth and final chapter of the Hitler Wears Hermès series. Griselda has never been more popular than it is right now so its only right that West gave us a double album. It’s also a smart move business wise as a 40 minute project has more replay value as far as streams go. We see this happening more often in Hip-Hop. Even Eminem released Music To Be Murdered By in January of 2020 and waited until December to release side B.
When it comes to the features we saw plenty of Griselda as Conway the Machine, Benny the Butcher, and Boldy James all had features. We also saw guys that West was worked with in the past like Jadakiss, Rome Streetz, AA Rashid, and Mach Hommey. West and Mach had a long history of rapping in the 2010’s but after West wanted to charge Mach for a verse it put a strain in the relationship which led to Mach dropping a diss track. The two exchanged shots on Twitter but after a short time Mach eventually gave some kind of apology which allowed them to squash the beef back in December. The most surprising features came from Lil Wayne, Sauce Walka, and DJ Clue. Conway, Boldy James, and Rome Streetz all rapped on two different songs but the person who stole the show was Stove God Cooks who appeared on 5 songs.
The first half of this album felt like Stove God Cooks project. If you don’t count the first two tracks which is an instrumental then a skit he was featured on 5 of the 11 songs. Stove & Gunn could have dropped an awesome EP with these songs alone. Don’t be surprised if Cooks is on side B as well. I think more than two features from one artist is too much. Cooks had 3 features on Flygod II but I was okay with because it introduced Cooks to the world. After hearing Cooks on Gunn’s album I went back to listen to Cook’s album Reasonable Drought (produced by Roc Marciano) and it was a classic. I’m seeing Conway the Machine and Stove God Cooks September 24th and I’ve been waiting for a new project from Stove. He’s been killing the features but if he kept some of the music he would have dropped already. I have a feeling Stove will drop next week because the Love Will Get You Killed Tour with Conway starts September 8th. 5 features are way too many but to his credit he deliverers for the most part.
One of my least favorite songs on this project is Westheimer. At this point of the album I was sick of hearing Stove God Cooks and I’m not the biggest Sauce Walka fan. On top of that West didn’t even rap on this song. West has done features where he doesn’t rap and this is not the first time West hasn’t rapper on his own song. On Flygod Is An Awesome God Conway and Benny rapped on the song Pete Sake with out any bars from Gunn. I’m not a fan of this but it’s more common than you might think. Drake did this on his album Take Care when he allowed Kendrick Lamar rap solo on the song Buried Alive Interlude. More recently Kehlani did this on her LP It Was Good Until It Wasn’t. Kehlani paid tribute to her late friend Lexi Alijai; as Lexii closed out Kehlani’s album with the song Lexii’s Outro.
The other song I wasn’t crazy about was Claire’s Back. Claire is a famous crack cocaine addict who lives in Buffalo. She appeared on the cover of Griselda’s album WWCD. This song was nearly 7 minutes and was on two different beats. I didn’t like Westside Gunn’s verse in the beginning or the the fact he talked for 2 minutes in the middle of the song. That’s the . When the beat changes Conway and Benny finish this song out strong. Both had great verses so that’s the reason why I counted this one track as two different songs. This was Benny’s only feature but on the next track Conway appeared on Spoonz. This was one of favorite tracks. It had that vintage Griselda sound as brothers Conway and Gunn exchanged bars through out the whole song. After Spoonz Gunn closed out the album with 716 Mile. This was another favorite as Boldy James verse on this song was stronger than his verse on Westheimer”. I would have preferred Gunn to close out the project with his own verse before the outro skit but Boldy did his thing so I’m not too mad about it.
I was a little skeptical after the first listen but after a couple more spins Westside Gunn dropped another strong project. I would have liked to hear more verses from Gunn himself but this is only the first side of a double album. I do believe Gunn will retire in the next year or two but I don’t believe Side B will be his final release. I think there was too many features from Stove God Cooks but most of the songs he was on were strong songs. My favorite songs on the project were Draymond which featured Cooks and Rome Streetz and RIGHT NOW which featured Cooks and Jadakiss. I’ve never been a big fan of Sauce Walka but Gunn made up for that by getting Lil Wayne on this project. The first half of this album was steady but the strongest part of the album is the ending where we hear the most Griselda. Many of the ‘Hitler Wear Hermès” projects were considered mixtapes but I believe Westside Gunn is calling this a LP. Overall, this is another 4 ️Star project from the leader and CEO of Griselda records.
Best Song= “Draymond” (Feat. Rome Streetz & Stove God Cooks)
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