Categorizing Westside Gunn albums is a tricky task. The Griselda multi-hyphenate has multiple highly revered projects in his discography. They are regularly star-studded cross-generational features like A$AP Rocky, DJ Premier, Tyler, The Creator, MF DOOM, and many more. As a student of hip-hop, Gunn takes pride in having these names attached to his projects, alongside budding talent that he’s taken under his wing.
His album from 2020, Pray For Paris brought multiple new ears to his music. This project’s critical success ensured its 2023 sequel would become his best-selling album so far. And Then You Pray For Me, which dropped on October 13th, sold 20,000 units in the first week. Meanwhile, Pray for Paris moved over 10,000 units in its first week. It also reached #29 on the Billboard 200 while Pray for Paris reached #67 and his previous release 10, reached #183.
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Westside Gunn Is Intentional With His Promo
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Westside Gunn albums are always highly anticipated. However, Gunn’s also gained a reputation for delaying projects or not dropping them altogether. This is what happened with And Then You Pray For Me, the sequel to his critically acclaimed album, Pray for Paris. The original release date – according to him – was June 23rd to coincide with Paris Fashion Week. However, the album ended up actually being released on Friday, October 13th. The album rollout was on brand for him, too. He posted a video of tap dancer Cartier Williams performing in New York and then the camera panned up to show one of the album’s covers. He also started a new YouTube channel with a 4 episode docuseries that details his creative process. However, his posts on social media with the featured artists and producers created the most anticipation.
Westside Gunn Predicted People’s Reactions
Westside Gunn albums – and the whole Griselda movement – are known for their dusty, gritty, boom-bap production. Westside dived into this across the album but the inclusion of trap production seemingly caught many off-guard. He predicted apprehension about this decision. “You gone have the core underground fans that only listen to boom bap hate it, ’cause they gonna say ‘this n*gga changed,’” he said in his docuseries. “Then you gonna have the new fans who know me from Travis album gone be like ‘Oh this sh*t hard.‘” Ultimately, the album reached #1 on the Billboard Emerging Artists chart. Ironically, Westside himself would be proud to say he’s anything but “emerging” – he’s even called this project his last album.
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Westside Gunn Has A Plethora Of Features
And Then You Pray For Me is a unique Westside Gunn album. Its length of 21 tracks is nearly twice as long as its predecessor. Gunn works with pretty much anyone he wants at this point in his career but he truly pulled some unexpected names for this project. Ty Dolla $ign, Rick Ross, JID, Denzel Curry and more appear across the tracklist, as well as his usual cohorts like Conway, Benny The Butcher and Stove God Cooks. For the most part, the addition of artists like Giggs, EST Gee, Jeezy, and Peezy left fans curious about how these collabs would turn out. Although there was criticism towards the Ty Dolla $ign assisted, “Chloe,” “KITCHEN LIGHTS,” with a show-stealing performance from Stove God Cooks, has been called the song of the year.
Westside Gunn Is Not Done
This is the best-selling Westside Gunn album as a result of his growing fame and reputation for quality. In the past few years, he’s appeared on albums from The Free Nationals, Mary J Blige, Kanye West, and Travis Scott, among others. Westside Gunn continued the legacy he’s built with And Then You Pray For Me.
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