GNX Review

Dropped without warning at the end of a year he spent winning a very public argument, and it sounds like a man who has stopped caring about being profound. The palette is Los Angeles: rolling bass, mariachi voices used as texture rather than novelty, and a producer who understands that a beat can simply knock. Squabble Up is three minutes of pure momentum. Luther is a duet that will outlive most of his singles. TV Off has the year's best drop and a producer's name bellowed over it.

Peekaboo and Dodger Blue hand the record to younger local rappers and it is better for it. He is not reaching here. The writing is competitive rather than searching, a lot of it is victory lap boasting and regional pride, and there is no thesis anywhere. That is precisely why it works. After a decade of albums built as arguments, this one is built to be played loud in a car, and it is. It is also the slightest record he has made, and that is no complaint: the parts are among the best built things in his catalogue, and the whole never asks for more than the drive.