In celebration of Westside Gunn’s ‘FLYGOD’ album turning 10 today, I wanted to dedicate this review to an album that changed my life and perspective on hip hop forever. A man who resurrected the love of the genre to me, and for that, I’ll be eternally grateful. So let’s get into it!
This is the July 2019 album by rapper, wrestling promoter, Griselda member WestSide Gunn with production from:
-Daringer
-The Alchemist
-Motif Alumini
-JR Swiftz
-Denny LaFlare
-Madlib
-SadhuGold
-Al Divino
-Evidence
-DJ Muggs
This is the first time I’ve really researched the production credits, and holy shit! What a fucking line-up! I couldn’t ask for a better line-up if you asked me to!
And I can still remember it to this day. I was on the bus coming home from work, scrolling through Spotify wanting to find something different to listen to, and then out of nowhere I saw this artwork, had no idea who WSG was, but decided to press play, and the rest was history!
Across this track, we start things off with an intro speeding the legend himself, Raekwon. The surreal instrumentation makes it feel like you’re sitting in a conference with the Sopranos! It’s the perfect way to start an album and set the vibe and tone of the entire record.
Right after that, we get the first official song in -Sensational Sherri (which remains one of my favourite WSG songs of all time) as this is 4 minutes and 19 seconds of absolute cold-blooded & minimal action where we see Westside go ballistic on!
He doesn’t pull any punches, adlibs every few seconds with a variety of sounds (including the screeching of a car at one point), this track with its banging bass drums and sharp chord progressions makes it feel and sound like a villain’s soundtrack! It’s pure villain energy at its finest! (Not to mention that gritty Benny The Butcher verse that goes along with it)
As with any Westside album, this one is full of wrestling snippets and honesty, some of my favourites in any of his albums! From The Miz saying his trademark line ‘and I’m AWESOME!’ or a personal shoutout by both Hacksaw Jim Duggan and Razor Ramon!
But my favourite has to be the sample of Macho Man Randy Savage proposing to Elizabeth and hearing that crowd reaction? It’s absolutely beautiful! Still gives me goosebumps to this day!
Another one of my favourite Westside songs is on here in the form of -Gunnlib. This one has that repetitive/hypnotic groove with that high-pitch vocal sample that evolves every 10 seconds into a fully fleshed vocal chorus! On top of that, we have those luscious guitar strings and maniacal adlibs that turn this song into the definitive meaning of ‘controller chaos’.
And the features on this thing?
-Benny The Butcher
-Conway The Machine
-Keisha Plum
-Hologram
-Meyhem Lauren
-Tiona Deniece
-Sauce Walka
They all help bring this album to its cinematic heights of glory that no one else could have. You can tell WSG planned this album out perfectly and made sure each element was finely tuned and executed to absolute precision, and it shows!
LONG LIFE WESTSIDE GUNN. The man who changed the face of the culture, the man doing the most for the culture, the man who lives it! And at least for me, THIS is where it all started. If you haven’t yet, peep below!
https://open.spotify.com/album/2JUpGYRkV6ymlDOX7UFTL7?si=6oYTmjOVRTe70cuIflbymg
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