Supreme Blientele – Westside Gunn – Album Review

It has been a bit more than a year since the news that Westside Gunn had signed with Shady Records. To the average music fan, people assumed that he was just a new, young talent that Eminem’s team had discovered. When in reality, it’s been a very long time coming for him.

Westside is the co-founder of the label “Griselda Records”, which includes rappers Conway the Machine (Westside’s brother), Benny the Butcher, and producer Daringer. The group is known for making raw, grimey rap music based on their lives in Buffalo, NY, one of the deadliest cities in the country. Their conglomerate has built up a big core fanbase since the label’s official start in 2012. With Daringer providing the team with dark, slow beat-per-minute beats, each rapper brings something different to the team. For Westside Gunn, his voice and flow is what pumps the blood through Griselda Records; and Supreme Blientele is the perfect example of what he does best.

Two years after his critically acclaimed debut album Flygod, Westside Gunn’s released his sophomore project on June 22nd, 2018. The project comes with three different titles; being Chris Benoit, God is the Greatest, and the official title: Supreme Blientele. Each of the three titles make sense for the project. Chris Benoit is addressed in skits of WWE audio throughout the project. The title God is The Greatest refers to Westside Gunn’s moniker Flygod, calling himself the greatest. The official title, though, is a clear homage to Ghostface Killah’s classic album “Supreme Clientele”. Gunn is definitely a product of Ghostface Killah’s influence, given that they share a very similar flow and delivery.

Supreme Blientele is likely the best showcasing of what Westside Gunn’s sound truly is. From rapping about fiends sniffing cocaine residue to buying his daughter a new pair of gucci shoes, Gunn is delivering elite gangster rap. Every verse he spits goes back and forth with wordplay on his luxurious lifestyle and designer clothing, to his life in the streets running with shooters and drug dealers. A prime example of that is on Brossface Brippler, he says:

“Ten thousand dollar sofas, plug loafers made from cobra

Handle rock like Villanova, gave him cold shoulders

But the neck colder for them TEC toter

Get the Lex chauffeur, yo (skr)”

Every few bars, he dances on the line between luxury and street. This makes the album’s cover all that much more interesting; with the picture being Westside Gunn holding an assault rifle wearing a rare Fendi (designer) ski mask, it shows the contrast between the two lifestyles.

The production throughout is perfect, especially for Gunn’s sound. A lot of slow, sample heavy beats of soul and jazz music definitely complimented his boom-bap rap style. The opening beat on the album is a clear example, with Daringer utilizing a near overwhelming soul sample to go with the bass and snare to provide a dark theme on GODS Don’t Bleed. To accompany Daringer, Westside was able to collaborate with some of hip hop’s legendary producers; including Alchemist, Pete Rock, Statik Selektah, and 9th Wonder.

“It may just be gangster rap, but it is gangster rap at its finest.”

Though the project is an enjoyable listen all the way through, Supreme Blientele is nothing new for Westside Gunn’s sound. For some years now, you can always count on Gunn for a dope street verse over a grimey Daringer beat. A lot of the tracks on this album are just what you would expect, there is little to no experimentation with his sound. However, though it may come across as one dimensional, it is great music that his core fans will enjoy and new fans can appreciate. To put it in layman’s terms: it may just be gangster rap, but it is gangster rap at its finest.

All in all, Westside Gunn really took his time to make this great project. Even with putting out a steady stream of music over the past 2 years, the mixtapes and EP’s pale in comparison to Supreme Blientele. Unlike Gunn’s Hitler Wears Hermes mixtape series, this project seems to stick to a theme and shows as you move from track to track. Features from not only Griselda’s team, but rap veterans like Jadakiss and Busta Rhymes, fit well into the project. The skits between tracks about Chris Benoit, to hearing his daughter Westside Pootie telling off her fathers haters, you can feel the energy that Westside Gunn is giving off.

This is Westside Gunn’s last major project releasing independently, with his next album being through Shady Records. To quote the hook from the beautiful track Wrestlemania 20, it is obvious that Westside Gunn’s mantra is “I didn’t come for jokes, I didn’t come for games, I didn’t come to play with you lames”.

Album Rating: 8.5 / 10

Best Tracks

Elizabeth [Prod. Alchemist]

I’m a firm believer that Alchemist only creates great beats and this song definitely helps my case. Westside utilizes a smooth saxophone jazz sample to name a few people he wishes could be with him to see him now like Machine Gun Black and Sly Green

Wrestlemania 20 ft. Anderson .Paak [Prod. 9th Wonder]

When grimey rap from Buffalo meets a singer / rapper from California, along with a legendary producer to facilitate it, you can’t go wrong. 9th Wonder laces this track with some incredible chopping of a few soul samples. Anderson .Paak and Westside Gunn did their thing, but you can tell that they let the beat rock for a few minutes since they knew it was great.