Gunna, who had an unexpectedly great 2023, is back with another new single, suggesting he has no plans of resting on his laurels this year. After promising new music would be coming “soon,” he has delivered with “Bittersweet,” an introspective hymn that expresses his paranoia and the stress that comes along with success. Over a slow-simmering guitar riff from producers Dystinkt Beats and 1SRAEL, Gunna laments the bumps in the road he’s experienced and warns listeners of the pitfalls that face anyone pursuing similar goals.
“Fans say when I rap, they hear the pain in my rhythm,” he intones. “Keeping them far back until I know they agenda / All these n****s capping like the man in the middle / They gon’ mеntion Wunna cause the views’ll bе bigger.”
Gunna’s had a fair amount of experience with friends and fans turning on him in the past year as well. After pleading guilty to a racketeering charge at the end of 2022, he was released from jail after over six months of being repeatedly denied bond to a hostile climate of hip-hop commentary declaring him a snitch. But that didn’t derail him from releasing one of the best rap albums of the year, A Gift And A Curse, slowly winning over skeptics with the increasing quality of his songwriting. It looks like that’s a trend that will continue in 2024, even if his relationships with former collaborators have soured.
Gunna is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.