And Then You Pray For Me Review: The Fly God’s Final Full-Length Flight

And Then You Pray For Me Review: The Fly God’s Final Full-Length Flight 

By Dylan Barbee

Image provided by @westsidegunn on Instagram 

Release Date: 10/13/2023

Westside Gunn treats his music like a luxury in the illest way. The Griselda kingpin is well known to use his keen sharp voice to talk about selling drugs and being in shootouts while also boasting about his expansive wardrobe. This is all done over a production style that he has carefully curated to sound prosperous. The juxtaposed musical style is responsible for the success of the Griselda empire as many of the label’s artists like Rome Streetz, Boldly James, and Stove God Cooks have applied it to their own discography. As a result, Westside Gunn has become well respected in the music industry for his original sound and for what he has made out of himself and others coming out of Buffalo, New York. 

Gunn’s recent album release And Then You Pray For Me is a sequel to his critically acclaimed 2020 album Pray for Paris. And Then You Pray For Me has 21 songs that span across a dragged out hour and fifteen minutes. While Pray for Paris was just 13 songs and strictly stuck to the notorious Griselda grunge style in hopes to broaden Griselda’s recognition past the underground, And Then You Pray For Me is an album where Westside Gunn switches back and forth from the Griselda sound he helped pioneer to the early 2000s sound of Atlanta trap. Although I do respect Westside Gunn’s efforts in experimenting with the trap sound and making it his own, And Then You Pray does not surpass its predecessor in terms of being a memorably polished work of art. 

The album starts off very strong with “Mamas Primetime,” which contains a typical gritty Griselda beat that leaves a menacing effect on the listener. This ominous boom-bap production scheme allows Westside Gunn to creatively flow into impressive cadences while also setting up the features for success later on in the song. The fact that Westside Gunn recruited Atlanta native, JID to be on this track is respectable and immediately establishes the initiative of And Then You Pray For Me experimenting with the Atlanta trap sound. Conway The Machine supplies listeners with a lyrical verse, demonstrating his expert penmanship as usual. “Ex-street n****, but now I’m corporate, yeah yeah, Walk in that record label office, they start applaudin’,” Conway raps on the burnished song “Mamas Primetime.”

Gunn’s attempt at putting himself at the center of the Atlanta trap genre proceeds throughout the album and at times it sounds messy but is still tolerable. On the song “Kostas,” the Griselda core; Westside Gunn, Conway The Machine and Benny The Butcher all rap over a Tay Keith beat which feels strange and may take a long time for listeners to get used to. On songs like “Dunnhill,” and “MR EVERYTHING,” Gunn is rapping alongside prominent trap artists like Rick Ross and Jeezy which make for some head-nodding listens. Although some people may dislike how unexpected this approach may have felt at first when it came to Westside Gunn experimenting with the raw Atlanta trap mixtape sounds of the early 2000s, I admire how the Griselda pioneer was self aware. It’s not always the most polished end product in songs like “Disgusting,” and “JD Wrist,” but And Then You Pray For Me is an album that feels like Gunn is realizing it's time to switch it up after a whole discography of the same buffalo boom-bap rap style that he was at the forefront of. 

Not only is And Then You Pray For Me a cross-genre album blending boom-bap and trap together to make his own work of art, but it is also a cross-generational album. JID and Denzel Curry, who are both popular artists when it comes to the younger demographic of music listeners, show up on this project. No matter what, Westside Gunn always knows how to put other artists on a pedestal within his songs. The mix between Denzel Curry showing up on “Ultra GriZelda,” and Griselda artists like Boldy James, Rome Streetz and Stove God Cooks having verses throughout the album’s track list felt like two worlds of music were colliding into one another to form an innovative sound of the recently dying trap genre. I also can’t forget about the overwhelmingly euphoric outro song “AND THEN YOU PRAY FOR ME,” where Westside Gunn gives the 26 year-old rapper KayCyy a whole song to make his own which ultimately results in an emotional reminiscing experience for the artist. “Take it way further back than apartments, Family feud over pettiest arguments, Love is pain and most people can't handle it,” KayCyy raps. 

While Westside Gunn does an excellent job at allowing his peers to shine on his songs, the best part of And Then You Pray For Me is when the buffalo rapper taps back into Griselda’s roots. The trap approach is respectable but it cannot compare to the style that Griselda has influenced the music world with. Songs like “Suicide in Selfridges,” and “The Revenge of Flips Leg,” featuring Rome Streetz both do an incredible job at sticking to the Griselda formula of sounding grimy but impressively raw, filled with verses regarding the street life. On “Chloe,” featuring Ty Dolla $ign and “Kitchen Lights,” featuring Stove God Cooks, the production sounds grand and marvelous. Speaking of Stove God Cooks, he needs to drop an album soon with all of his impressive contributions on And Then You Pray For Me. The Griselda artist is bound for greatness with catchy choruses and vivid verses in his work. Personally, I think the best song is either “Babylon Bis,” featuring Stove God Cooks, or “FLYGOD 2X.” The chemistry between Gunn and Stove God over a boom-bap beat that contains a playful piano loop makes for a memorable listen on “Babylon Bis.” The song “FLYGOD 2X” is short but memorable where Westside Gunn proves himself to be the flyest rapper in the game by panning off his voice and notorious adlibs from left to right over another impressive boom-bap beat with a luxurious sounding piano rift accompanying it. “Venata Iows, see me, I’m the model type, Balenciaga tall tee with the piranha bites, Ace rosé over ice, Hit you broad day, f*ck you and the police,” Westside Gunn boasts on “FLYGOD 2X.”

With trap dying in recent memory, Westside Gunn tries to mix his boom-bap roots with the Atlanta genre resulting in And Then You Pray For Me being a unique but mostly messy portrait displaying the buffalo rapper’s lavish five-star lifestyle for his last studio LP. However, this is probably not the last time we will hear Westside Gunn on a project as he has already confirmed to be making future EPs, like GunnLib with producer Madlib and showing up as a feature and curator on Griselda artists’ projects. With up and coming Griselda artists alongside him, the future for Westside Gunn’s grimy label is only bright. Although the Fly God may be landing after an incredible run, his label has just begun take off. 

Rating: 7.5/10