Gunna rules, and here’s the proof

The FADER's weekly column What Rules highlights one of our office's new obsessions.

For me, the latter half of May was soundtracked by Gunna’s Drip Season 2 tape — which really rules. Hailing from College Park, Georgia, Gunna is the newest signee to Young Thug’s YSL Records imprint; you may have heard him alongside Thug and Gucci Mane on the Jeffery cut “Floyd Mayweather.” His second solo tape was quietly released on Apple Music on May 11, including some notable features from Playboi Carti, Offset, and others. Still, despite the bankable starpower, the rapper holds his own.

Gunna’s straightforward, steady-cadenced sing-rap hits you in the gut as he alternately soars over and digs deep into melancholic, sometimes-booming, night-ride-ready production from the likes of Wheezy, Zaytoven, and Cassius Jay. It's awesome, no-frills Atlanta rap, and it’s evident from his sound that he’s a student of Future and Thug — in an interview from earlier this year, he declared his fandom and admiration for both, citing Thugger’s 2012 I Came From Nothing 3 tape as an important one for him.

Drip Season 2 highlights include “Phase,” “Shopping,” “Highschool,” and “Japan,” plus my current favorite, the grind-til-you’re-on-top anthem “Get It If You Want It.” And don’t sleep on the first Drip Season — its inaugural track “Outta Sight Outta Mind” might be Gunna's hardest song to date. Watch the video for it above.