Five days before releasing The Appeal, Gucci Mane teamed up with DJ Holiday for a fifth straight hype mixtape whose title - Buy My Album - voices a request surprisingly reasonable for the bizarre rapper. The man's been working hard since his July release from prison, especially considering The Appeal's stunning contents, which often match his mixtape gems and frequently surpass them - the now-iconic title track doesn't even make the cut in favor of bombastic Jewelery Selection sleeper "Trap Talk." As the recent mixtapes foreshadowed, Gucci's never sounded so good lyrically, casually firing off bombs like "Ferrari with the yellow forgiatos, Gucci tripping / I hit the button in my Scaglietti and get missing" alongside tremendous productions from pricey hit makers the likes of Swizz Beatz and The Neptunes. On the opener alone Gucci hilariously imitates Scarface with enough stuffy freshness to invalidate Jay-Z's American Gangster attempt, towers over Bun B's always-golden guest spot, and effortlessly raps
"I got 60 racks laying on the floor in magic city / Like Samuel L. Jackson, I think it's time for killing / I touched his wife titty and the nigga start tripping / That ain't proper etiquette to see the bitch stripping / AR-15 whipped his ass into pieces / Don't get it twisted, think it's all about the pieces / And all about the bracelets / I'm still fighting cases / 10 thousand for the glasses, diamonds in their faces"
with a potent combination of spine-chilling conviction and his trademark nasal mumble. Perhaps The Appeal's most interesting facet is this total rejection of Gucci's unlikely pop-crossover appeal, despite its equally unlikely guest spots (namely, Wyclef Jean); the album instead leans heavily on Gucci's unique gangster charisma, with come-up crime raps more convincing than any contemporary's and vivid backing tracks crafted for dirty-money Escalades by traditional collaborators Zaytoven and Drumma Boy. But Georgia's Most Wanted is far from one-sided; at times brilliant, dark, hilarious or frighting (and not unusually all at once), Gucci Mane's long-awaited third (thirtieth?) effort is every bit the masterpiece he promised us.
Bump this: Little Friend, Gucci Time, Haterade
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