Chronicles: Gunplay

Stream/Download: [wpaudio url=”https://truantsblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Kendrick_Lamar_-Cartoon__Cereal_ft._Gunplay.mp3″ text=”Kendrick Lamar ft. Gunplay – Cartoons & Cereal” dl=”1″] (160 kbps)

In a recent interview, Kendrick Lamar spoke about his recent collaboration with Don Logan alias Gunplay and the fact the people don’t understand him. The problem is less about people understanding him, and more to do with where to place him. He has the energy of Waka Flocka Flame but with a lot more lyrical content. It’s this balance of the two that sets Gunplay apart from most of his peers. He can carry a Lex Luger style banger, while still managing to sound comfortable on more laid back, “smaller” beats. There is also the fact that Gunplay isn’t afraid to get a little weird with his delivery and subject matter. Like on “Food Chain” where he compares other rappers and general lames to ants. Gunplay being an ape in this scenario, and hungering for actual chains. “Top of the food chain, your chain looking tasty….I gotta eat, I gotta eat.”

Stream/Download: [wpaudio url=”https://truantsblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/12-Gunplay-Herbalist.mp3″ text=”Gunplay – Herbalist” dl=”1″] (320 kbps)

Herbalist” is a great example of Gunplay going over something that isn’t a trap banger.

Stream/Download: [wpaudio url=”https://truantsblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/02.-Gunplay-Rollin-Feat.-Waka-Flocka.mp3″ text=”Gunplay ft. Waka Flocka Flame – Rollin'” dl=”1″] (160 kbps)

Back on the big, loud, banger front we can’t forget the track that’s largely responsible for most if not all of Gunplay’s solo buzz. The Waka Flocka Flame featured “Rollin’” was a minor hit last year with it’s distorted and stretched horns with a catchy anthem for the chorus. With a music video that features miami strippers doing giant pole drops (NSFW), it’s mind boggling why the song never reached a wider audience. Despite positive response for the mixtape “Inglorious Bastard”, the album it was meant to be a prequel for never materialized.

Stream/Download: [wpaudio url=”https://truantsblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/04-Gunplay-Food-Chain.mp3″ text=”Gunplay – Food Chain” dl=”1″] (320 kbps)

While he was mostly quiet for the rest of the year after “Rollin” and the mixtape it’s from, there seems to be a real fire under Gunplay in twenty-twelve. Transitoning into the year with the track/video Bogota, and following it up with the mixtape “Bogota Rich” in April. A short tape with mostly excellent freestyles and new tracks. “Tats On My Arm” being one of the big standouts. Gunplay beats the beat up in such a way that Rick Ross and Wale probably wish they had. In their defense, it’s hard to match the kind of energy and drug fueled gun raps that Gunplay delivers. While Gunplay is very much a serious rapper, he still seems to be having fun and it definitely comes across in his music. He’s never too serious (unless the track calls for it like on “Cartoons & Cereal”) and in interviews appear to be fully aware of how ridiculous his persona may seem to critics. We sincerely hope the momentum he’s generated with “Bogota Rich” keeps going and we don’t get anymore shelved tapes and albums in the future.

Download No DJ version of Bogota Rich in 320 Kbps and download Pure Baking Soda’s “Inside I’m Sufferin’ Outside I’m Stuntin’ Deluxe Edition” compilation here106 & Snort Coming Soon.