By: Sophia Elmstrom

“Taylor’s Version” is a term that is used widely among people around the world. It is a term that you yourself have for sure heard at some point.

You might be asking yourself what it is, well here is the short answer: re-recorded albums. Taylor’s Version is when Taylor Swift re-records her albums that she has had released for a while and calls them Taylor’s Version.

This all started in 2019 when her producer, Scooter Braun, and the label he worked with sold all of Taylor’s music without her permission. Taylor had decided to fight back and gain all her music back, she re-recorded it and re-released it with the name of ‘Taylor’s Version’. Once Scooter sold all of her music that meant that all the income would come to him and the label instead of Taylor herself. Although Taylor surely does not need the money it is an ethical thing to do by streaming Taylor’s Version and showing support for her.

There were six albums that she would need to re-recorded once she made this decision; ‘Debut’, ‘Fearless’, ‘Speak Now’, ‘Red’, ‘1989’, and ‘Reputation’. Taylor first got the idea to record these when Kelly Clarkson, a talk show host and fellow pop star, suggested it. So far, Taylor has re-recorded 4 of the 6 albums and still has to release ‘Reputation’ and ‘Debut’.

Many Swifties have their own speculations about when these albums are coming out; they call them easter eggs. These Swifities will watch music videos, lyric videos, award shows, and concerts for clues about upcoming albums and songs. During the 2024 Grammys it was speculated that Taylor would announce ‘Reputation Taylor’s Version’ while she was winning the award. Instead the Swifties got something they never would have expected, a brand new album. This album is called ‘The Tortured Poets Department’.

Although every single one of these albums were a huge success and broke records, the one that broke the most records was ‘1989 Taylor’s Version’. ‘1989’ is an album many people grew up with and were very excited about, this caused it to break many impressive records such as the most single day streams ever for an album.

Included in the recordings of these albums there are some songs Taylor likes to call “vault tracks”. Vault tracks are songs that never made it on the original album; she has about 5 vault songs for each re-recording.

My favorite re-recording so far has been ‘Speak Now’, it is the most different to the original. Many Swifties think that is bad but I love that she was embracing her new voice and trying new things out. I also think that the vault songs for ‘Speak Now’ are the best: “Timeless”, “Electric Touch”, “When Emma Falls in Love”, “Castles Crumbling”, “Foolish One”, and “I Can See You”.

In my opinion, Taylor did a great job at claiming back her music and getting many people to support her.

By: Charlie St. Dennis

Picture it. Super Bowl Sunday, 2024. 123 million viewers are tuned in, and right after halftime, an ad for Verizon appears. The concept of the ad was for Beyonce to do stuff and see if she could “break the internet.” She was alongside actor Gary Hale who, after repeatedly telling Beyonce she didn’t break the internet, was instructed to “drop the new music.”

Along with my fellow BeyHive members, I was very excited to open Instagram to find that she did, indeed, drop new music, which was part of a trilogy (this part being “act ii”). What many were surprised to find out was that the two singles she dropped, TEXAS HOLD ‘EM and 16 CARRIAGES, were… country?

Yep, Beyonce released country music. To many this came as a surprise, but not to me. She just completed her ‘Renaissance World Tour’, which was heavily influenced by black queer musicians in three genres they originated: bounce, house, and disco. It only makes sense that she would follow suit with another genre originated by black musicians: country!

Considering that Beyonce has been my most listened artist for years, and I can confidently say I know all of her songs, it’s safe to say that I absorb a lot of speculations regarding what her next steps will be, and here are some of the most likely theories!

1. “act iii” will be Rock & Roll This is one of my favorite theories because it stems from Beyoncé’s British Vogue photo shoot from 2021, just months before the announcement of ‘Renaissance’. She shot with 3 different themes, one being disco (potentially ‘Renaissance’), one being at a rodeo (potentially “act ii”), and one being on a motorcycle with a Joan Jett-esque haircut (potentially “act iii”, and potentially Rock & Roll!)
2. What is the title of “act ii?” Many Beyonce fans believe that the title of “act ii” will be ‘Rodeo’, considering she announced the album just days before the start of the Houston Rodeo, which is where she was born. This would also, obviously, apply to the country theme. While many fans agree that this is the likely name, some have other ideas. Other name ideas include ‘Enlightenment’ or ‘Reflection’, in the spirit of learning new genres and reflecting on their history. Another prominent one is ‘Redemption’, which many people see as a way of Beyonce announcing she’s reclaiming these genres that were once originated by people of color.

3. Guest Artists! One of the writers of “Texas Hold ‘Em”, producer Killah B, was asked if there would be any guest artists on the new album, including perhaps another music industry icon Taylor Swift, and his response was “Let’s just say, she’s (Beyoncé) on the approach of shocking the world. I’ll let your imagination decide what that means”.

Another theory about guest artists is Lady Gaga. 15 years ago, Gaga and Beyonce released the music video for their hit joint single, “Telephone,” which ends with the two stars driving on an old country road with a banner saying “To Be Continued.” Many believe that they will, finally after all these years, come together to make a new song, after the promo video for the album featured a car driving on a beaten country road.

Stay tuned for “act ii” on streaming on March 29th! We got “Texas Hold ‘Em” to number one, let’s get the whole album!

By: Fletcher Pike

Red Velvet is a popular K-pop girl group that was formed in 2014 with five girls, Irene, Wendy, Seulgi, Joy, and Yeri. Since then, they have released 3 full albums along with numerous EP’s, or extended plays, which are also called mini albums. One of these mini albums, named ‘Russian Roulette’, was released on September 7th, 2016. This mini album is their third ever mini album and includes 7 songs in total.

Track 1: Russian Roulette

This song is definitely the most popular song from this album, possibly even one of the most popular Red Velvet songs in general, having reached second on billboards. This song features a bright and joyful melody and was a big hit when the album was released. 

The music video that accompanies this song is colorful and bright but holds a bit of a darker meaning, as all the girls in the video are doing dangerous actions hence the name of the song “Russian Roulette”. This is a great song and I would rate it a 10/10.

Track 2: Lucky Girl

“Lucky Girl” is personally one of my favorite songs on this album. It starts off with a catchy brass sample that evolves into a vibrant beat. Sections of this song seem to have different kinds of styles or genres, as some parts are slower while other parts are faster, which was pretty interesting to hear. I think this has to be one of my favorite songs by Red Velvet, so I rate it a 10/10.

Track 3: Bad Dracula

“Bad Dracula” is also a very good song from this album. Like “Lucky Girl”, it starts off with a brass sample that reminds me a lot of old jazz music. It also includes a glitchy electronic melody over that and topped with some great vocals. I really liked this song and I will rate it a 10/10.

Track 4: Sunny Afternoon

“Sunny Afternoon” pretty much lives up to its title when it comes to the instruments included in the song. It’s bright and reminds me a lot of summer. This is a very good song with its stunning vocals. I rate this song a 10/10.

Track 5: Fool

I thought that “Fool” was pretty good, but it seemed a bit out of place on this album. The reason I think it is unique to the other songs on this album is the simplicity of the song. 

Most of the songs have a bit more instruments added but this song does not have that many. It is a cheerful song with a sunny guitar melody accompanied along with a glockenspiel. I will have to give this song an 8/10.

Track 6: Some Love

I’ll be completely honest with my opinion, but this is not my favorite song on this album, but it is still alright. It features an airy and echoey melody paired with a pop style beat. I will have to give this song a 7/10.

Track 7: My Dear

I really enjoyed this song and I think it is a good way to end an album. “My Dear” is upbeat with an electric piano bass along with some brass elements. I liked this song a lot and I would rate it a 10/10.

Overall, this album is an amazing creation made by Red Velvet that includes some of my favorite songs by them. I would have to rate this album a 9.5/10 and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who’s a fan of K-Pop.

By: Calla Fragassi

The Grammys is an awards show that takes place once a year in the United States. It is hosted by The Recording Academy and recognizes the achievements of artists in the music industry. They are one of the four EGOT awards in the performing arts industry (Emmys, Grammys, Oscars, and Tonys) and were first presented on May 4, 1959. 

There are at least five nominees for each of the awards, and the big four Grammy categories are: Record of the Year (awarded to singer, producer, mixer, recording engineer, etc), Album of the Year (awarded to singer, producer, recording engineer, etc), Song of the Year (awarded to songwriter and singer of the song), and Best New Artist (awarded to a new artist who released music in the last year that established their spot in the music industry).

The Recording Academy also announced three new Grammy categories this year: Best African Music Performance, Best Alternative Jazz Album, and Best Pop Dance Recording. 

The Grammys this year took place Sunday, February 4, 2024 and there were many memorable moments at the show. There were 94 different categories for Grammy Awards, and this is a list of the winners and nominees of each of the 4 main awards:

Record of The Year

Winner: ““Flowers“ – Miley Cyrus

Nominees: “What Was I Made For?” – Billie Eilish

      “On My Mama” – Victoria Monét

      “Vampire” – Olivia Rodrigo

      “Anti-Hero” – Taylor Swift

      “Kill Bill” – SZA

     ” Worship” – Jon Batiste

      “Not Strong Enough” – boygenius

“Flowers” by Miley Cyrus was written as a response to Bruno Mars’ “When I Was Your Man,” and reached 1 billion plays after 112 days of being released.

Personally, I think the song is great and it was fun to compare it to “When I Was Your Man,” but I do think it became very overplayed in a short amount of time. The message behind the song promoted individuality and that you should put yourself first but after a couple of listens, it became very repetitive. I think it deserves the recognition, but not Record of The Year”over a song like “Kill Bill”. 

Album of The Year

Winner: ‘Midnights’ – Taylor Swift

Nominees: ‘World Music Radio’ – Jon Batiste

      ‘Guts’ – Olivia Rodrigo

      ‘The record’ – boygenius

      ‘SOS’ – SZA

      ‘The Age of Pleasure’ – Janella Monáe

      ‘Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd’ – Lana Del Ray

      ‘Endless Summer Vacation’ – Miley Cyrus

‘Midnights’ is Taylor Swift’s most recent new album, which was released in October of 2022.

I really enjoyed the album, specifically songs like “Lavender Haze”, and “Snow on the Beach”, and even though I preferred SZA’s album ‘SOS’, I definitely think she deserved the spot for Album of The Year because of how big the album was when it first came out, and the anticipation of her new music that came with it. 

Song of The Year

Winner: “What Was I Made For?” – Billie Eilish

Nominees: “Vampire” – Olivia Rodrigo

     “Kill Bill “- SZA

      “Flowers” – Miley Cyrus

      “Dance The Night Away” – Dua Lipa

     ” Butterfly” – Jon Batiste

      “Anti-Hero” – Taylor Swift

      “A&W” – Lana Del Ray

“What Was I Made For?” was first released in the ‘Barbie’ movie that came out this past summer.

The lyrics and meaning behind the song is very heartfelt and I believe it is a song many people can relate to. Out of all of the songs that were nominated for this award, I would say I think it definitely deserves the spot and the title of Song of The Year. It was the one song that stuck with me the most after watching the ‘Barbie’ movie with 45.6 million streams on Spotify. 

Best New Artist

Winner: Victoria Monét

Nominees: Jelly Roll

    The War And Treaty

    Noah Kahan

    Coco Jones

    Ice Spice

    Fred again

    Gracie Abrams

As for the Best New Artist category, I hadn’t heard of Victoria Monét until after the Grammys. This could have happened for multiple reasons, but I have heard and listened to music from every other artist except her.

I personally think Noah Kahan should have won the Best New Artist award. He released multiple different songs that took over social media and the radio like “Stick Season”, “Dial Drunk,” and other songs with features like Post Malone, Mumford and Sons and more. I’m sure Victoria Monét is deserving of the award, but I would have loved to see Noah Kahan win as well. 

The Grammys this year were a hit, and there were many highlights and a big record was set. This year, Taylor Swift became the artist with the most Album of The Year Grammys with previous wins from her albums ‘Fearless’ (2010), ‘1989’ (2016), ‘Folklore’ (2021) and ‘Midnights’ (2024). Miley Cyrus also won her first Grammy this year after being in the music industry since 2006.

The Grammys had multiple different performances by popular artists like Olivia Rodrigo, SZA, Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, Travis Scott, Tracy Chapman, Luke Combs and more. The Grammys were extremely successful this year, and we can’t wait to see who will win awards next year!

By: Judah Gregory

Daniel Collins, also known as Dthang Gz, is a Dominican American rapper from the Bronx, New York and is 20. He would make his first studio track in 2020 with his single “Caution” and has released 12 official songs. Until now, with him getting over 10 million views on just one video, he is one of the biggest rappers from New York and I’ll be ranking his official studio songs 1 through 10 from worst to best.

10# LIKE to start the list off “Like” is the number ten on this list; the reason being that this wouldn’t really be the high energy track he’s used to producing. With the changes in him rapping fast how he usually is, and it slowing down in this song , it isn’t bad. And the addition of Bando to the song was good, but not what I’m used to from him, so it’s placed here.

9# Wilding 4 Respect I liked the song but the reason it would be placed so low is because of Dthang only getting a few lines that I think were overshadowed by the other collaborators on the song. Face mob and Kay hound with their parts in the song having a better sound to them and just fit with their style more than his on the track.

8# Smooth Criminal this song would just be bad considering that it wasn’t a Dthang original song, but still being posted under his singles still makes it count. But Ace0 the collaborating rapper would use a lot of auto tune in the song that made his voice sound robotic and it just didn’t sound good in the song. But for Dthang, he would do fine just because he was on for the last 20 seconds, so him barely being in it and it just being bad is why it’s low.

7# Opponent The track opponent would be produced by ShoBeatz who would remix a popular beat which is a trend in New York rap. I liked in this song that he would come on the song matching the flow of it well, and even though it’s considered to be one of his lower songs in the general view, I think it’s a good track only being this low because of its 1:46 run time.

6# Bunny Hop This song would have a very high energy beat and would gain Dthang someTik Tok attention with his Bunny Hop dance that he does in the music video; hence the title “Bunny Hop”. In this song he would also collaborate with the Drillys once. The song was added to its ranking and it also being his first million view video.

5# Scene Now to start the top 5, I chose “Scene” because of the sound of the song and I just like it in general. There’s not too much to say about it because it’s simple and still is a good song overall.

4# Play It Back Dthang would come to this track with him rapping on a melodic drill beat which shouldn’t go good together and sound weird but Dthang rapping on this song would actually be a good balance between the two. With his more child voice it would fit well with the song because of his flow on this song and it would highlight his rapping abilities good.

3# Caution This song being ranked at my number three, with this being his first single ever released is great. His rapping on the song would sound like he knew what he was doing on the beat and it would bring a new sound to the New York scene, with his new take on drill starting with this song so it’s all the way up here.

2# GGZ Box My second favorite, and favorite single single, from Dthang is this song he would freestyle over a great beat and it was produced by DameE who is a good producer in general. So, this was set up to be a favorite and is all the way up here.

1# Talk Facts The number one single for me has to be this song. He collabs with Bando and Tdot who both go hard on the song, and the beat would fit perfect with the song, and just hearing it is obvious that this is his best single. And it’s one of the most popular out because of the contents in it.

By: Ricky Perez Cardoza

Kanye West for the past few years has been in controversy after controversy and has gone completely silent on most platforms because of his comments on Jewish people. This affected Kanye a lot and caused him to lose a lot of his fans and people in his life. He also lost multiple companies working with him, including his bank; all departed from him and he even had his art diploma taken away over the Jewish comments. He lost brands like Adidas, Gap, and Balenciaga and had a documentary about him canceled. This was back in late 2022 and now there hasn’t been much on Kanye because he chose to go completely silent for most of 2023.

This has left Kanye radio silent for the past 3 years in terms of music up until recently when we had big news for his upcoming album titled ‘Vultures’ which was originally ‘¥$’. This album rollout has been calmer than his last album rollout for ‘Donda’.

Ye and his best friend right now, Ty Dolla $ign, have been working on this album for approximately 5 months and even if that sounds like not enough time for a good-sounding Ye album, from what’s been previewed recently at his multiple listening parties, it’s all sounding really good and most importantly more finished than his last album ‘Donda 2’.

The album rollout started back in November when pictures of him surfaced it showed Ye working on the album in the desert with a unique environment and architecture. 6 days later, on November 22nd, he dropped his newest song under the name ¥$ called “Vultures”. The song wasn’t that well received and even had a questionable bar by Ye.

After this, Ye had multiple private listening parties where we imagined he previewed music from the album. Later, on December 8th, Ty Dolla $ign dropped the track list for the album and this is also when we knew the title wouldn’t be ‘¥$’ and instead was changed, or was always ‘Vultures’.

On the same day, a video of Ye was posted of him previewing the song “Everybody” which had a sample from the Backstreet Boys and showed the amazing production on it.

One day before the listening party he performed at a club and said that the album was gonna come out that Friday, December 15th, which never happened.

On December 12th, he held a public listening party with tickets costing $2000 in Miami where he previewed a lot of new music. He played a total of 7 songs at this listing party and gave us a lot of information on who would be on the album.

On December 15th, when the album was supposed to be released according to Ye himself, he also revealed that he still hasn’t cleared a verse by Nicki Minaj. She said on an Instagram livestream that she won’t have the verse cleared on the song “New Body” that was a song from way back in 2018 for his unreleased album ‘Yanhdi’. This tweet had everybody sure the album wasn’t gonna drop that night.

On December 16th, he held another listening party that was shut down quickly by authorities because Ye didn’t have the required licenses and permits to have the listening party at the arena. This quickly became a disaster for the people who paid $2000 and waited hours to hear Ye when he was late to the arena. He then had them go to his apartment and that’s where he held the listening party for a short time, and we got 2 new songs and extended snippets of other songs.

The most recent news we’ve had for his album was when his agent said that the album is gonna come out on New Year’s Eve, and also a new rant Ye had on Instagram where he took shots at a lot of people, and is too long to dissect, but responded to a lot of critics including Drake and of news outlets.

As of this time, the album is still not out.

By: Judah Gregory

‘Pink Tape’ is Lil Uzi Verts most recent album released in 2023 and was Lil Uzis first album in three years. The album had mix reviews on release and his attempt at rock on this album is what gets the most critique, but with all the hype surrounding it, it would make it to 1# on Billboard’s Hot Two Hundred. The album has 10 tracks so I’ll be giving my short review on them and rank the album overall.

“Flooded the Face” is the opening track and has a cosmic sounding beat and sounds fine with vocals since this is him rapping and not attempting rock on this song. I think this is why it got good reviews, but overall the track was okay.

“Doors” this song is Uzis first attempt at rock on this album and it sucked overall in my opinion. His voice doesn’t really sound hard metal like anyways and this is his first try, so for it it’s not the worst attempt he could have made at this point in the album, but it gets worse.

“Aye” this song would feature the rapper Travis Scott and this would be a pretty good song on the album; I think because of the Travis feature. Uzi would actually play this song in concerts and Travis would want to make a verse on the song once he heard it. Overall, this track is pretty good for the album.

“Crush Em” previously known as “Own Age” through the series of snippets, is the 4th track on ‘Pink Tape’. The song had a really weird beat to follow it up like a futuristic retro beat, and sorta felt like a 90’s song, and with Uzis more high pitched voice it kinda fit with it. The song isn’t it for me but I could see how some people would like it

“Amped” is the fifth track from Lil Uzi Vert; the track was briefly previewed at the beginning of the album’s trailer. On this song, Uzi keeps it simple which I like since it’s not him trying to mix beats. This song I liked for its overall feel and can put you in a good mood.

“X2” is the 6th track on ‘Pink Tape’ by Lil Uzi Vert. It’s upbeat and bouncy and was produced by Ken Carson and Clif Shayne, two Opium signees under Uzi, This song had a lot of hype since he made it on an Instagram Live that I was on too, so it was cool to listen to this song. The feature of Ken Carson, I think, made this song better.

“Died and Came Back” this song is just weird and bad in my opinion. Here he was yelling about his money and things and with the rock music mixed with other beats, it just didn’t sound good. This song was bad, with just too much in it.

“Spin Again” this song would have a chaotic beat but would fit with Uzi, and the vocals in the song would also feature an Ice Spice lyric which would get him in trouble with his own girlfriend. Overall, the song is one of the best of the album in my opinion, and it is one of the most popular.

“I Gotta” this track was teased by Uzi in an Insta Live as usual. This song would be produced by Ken Carson again so this would have a good beat and would flow well with the song lyrics. This would speak on Uzi’s need to still make music after taking a long break.

“Shardai” the last track on this album would be produced by John Ross, and the vocals that Uzi used that weren’t rock were good for this song. In this song he would talk about another girl that he was in love with and his feelings for her at that time. For a closing song it was a strong way to end the album.

Overall, this album is a 6 out of 10 with it having some strong songs like “Shardai” and “X2” but its rock songs bring down the album to that 6.

By: Ricky Perez Cardoza

‘And Then You Pray For Me’ is Westside Gunn’s 20th studio album released on October 13th, of 2023. Westside Gunn is enjoyed by mainly people who like boom bap or listen to mainly underground music. He isn’t well known but is praised for his continuation of releasing a lot of music and especially for having a distinct sound from every other mainstream artist. This album is no different from his others but is one of his most messy and less linear albums to date giving a lot of people mixed opinions on it.

“Mamas PrimeTime” starts the album with the unique and iconic boom bap instrumental Westside Gunn is known for. The song gets a lot of people who are into this sound hooked immediately, especially with Westside Gunn’s great verse on the song that adds to its dark and grimness. JID is an artist who just recently released one of the best rap albums in the 2020s and delivers an amazing verse on this type of instrumental which shows his great versatility. Conway the Machine also delivers a great verse and is someone who we see a lot of in the album.

“Kostas” is one of the many trap songs/instrumentals we see on the album. Its production is something Westside Gunn rarely has rapped on, and he still holds his own for most of his verse but goes in a weird route of not switching up his flow at all on a beat where he would’ve benefited from rapping faster and more smoothly. Conway the Machine has such a nice verse for this type of beat; he’s easily the one who carries the song even when Benny The Butcher also has a great part as well. This trio is something we see in a lot of Westside Gunn’s music and it works once again on this song.

“1989” (feat. Stove God Cooks) starts with a weird decision from Westside Gunn to have his whole verse in a lower tone which goes with the dark beat that they have, but Westside Gunn’s voice doesn’t really work with this and it just sounds way too dark and not good. Stove God Cooks also doesn’t have a great verse or chorus. His vocals aren’t good at all and are made worse by the grimy beat. It’s a song that most people skip because it doesn’t have much to offer but if Westside Gunn didn’t do the low pitch voice this song would be way better.

“S*ucide in Selfridges” goes back to the amazing boom bap and is even produced by the Conductor Williams who does such an amazing job at recreating the sound Westside has made for himself with his spin on it. Westside Gunn has a great verse that flows so nicely and is lyrical. He talks mainly about his life before rapping and even the current one. The one bad thing about his song is that it’s super short at only 2:51 of runtime but a minute of it is just a random person talking about himself.

“KITCHEN LIGHTS” is easily the best on the album mostly because of its classical, heavenly sound. Westside Gunn also has such an amazing verse with his flow, adlibs, and lyrics. He talks about his childhood and all the problems he faced as a kid living in the hood, and having an abusive father and the things he had to sell to get through most days and have food for him and his siblings. Stove God Cooks also has an amazing verse and this is where his vocals do help the song and are fitting.

“FLYGOD 2x” is a song people don’t talk about enough. It doesn’t necessarily stand out but has a nice boom bap sound where it’s only Westside Gunn on this song and it’s also one of the shortest songs on the album, but it doesn’t take away the fact it sounds like the normal Westside Gunn song. The verse from Westside should be talked about more and I wished it could’ve been longer. It also has a little clip of Tyler The Creator condemning Westside for making him want to rap again.

“DunnHill” (feat. Rick Ross) This would’ve been a great opportunity to have Rick Ross rap and deliver his verse on boom bap instrumental but instead Westside decides to have him rap on a trap beat that doesn’t go well together. Westside Gunn himself doesn’t do that well on these types of beats and Rick Ross doesn’t either. It’s one of the many songs that makes this album messy.

“House of GLORY” (feat. Stove God Cooks) is another song that is almost a left hook completely in its production and sound from both Westside Gunn and Stove God Cooks, and something that isn’t ruined by anything at all. Having these songs of just hitting you with a lot of different sounds is something that doesn’t help even when it has nothing wrong at all just a sound people only hear for this song, and it also doesn’t stand out either.

“JD Wrist” (feat. Stove God Cooks) is another great trap song that still goes with Westside Gunn’s sound and even has some of the founders of good trap music like the legendary Trap-A-Hoilics and verse from Estee Nack that has such a nice string of bars. He then takes a left turn and starts whispering his verse midway through. Westside Gunn does really well on this song and flows nicely on this instrumental.

“Disgusting” is another trap song that has Westside Gunn make a great decision production-wise and also how he delivers his verse with it getting broken up by adlibs. The Feature by Giggs who is a UK Drill Rapper doesn’t go well on this song. It’s a verse that would’ve been cut after a final draft from the album and would’ve had Conway or any other Griselda member on the track, but it ultimately leaves us with a mediocre verse from Giggs that doesn’t belong on that song.

“Chloe” is a great and honest attempt at a slow jam from Westside Gunn that definitely works with its sound and the great background vocals by Ty Dolla $ign, but when you really pay attention to the lyrics it becomes a slow but dark and dirty song with real explicit lyrics and Ty Dolla $ign has an alright verse but most importantly has amazing vocals.

“LL BOOL GUNN” is easily the worst song on the album. It has no redeeming qualities other than its title being funny to some Griselda fans. It’s lazy, embarrassing, and should’ve had a feature or even cut completely from the album.

“Babylon Bis” (feat. Stove God Cooks) is a longer song which for Westside Gunn is a good indication of a good song and that’s exactly what this song is. Westside Gunn goes back to the boom bap with a great verse, but also an amazing verse from Stove God Cooks that people would’ve been tired of hearing by now, but holds his own with amazing verses like the one he delivers on this song. We also get an unknown woman rapping/talking on the song who isn’t credited at all but does bring a good vibe to the song.

“Ultra GriZelda” (feat. Denzel Curry) is another amazing song attempt at a trap song and it works well on this song. Westside Gunn makes the best decision on this album to feature Denzel Curry on this song who destroys the song with an amazing verse and chorus. Westside himself also does well on the song which is expected because of how this instrumental was produced with both artists in mind.

“Jalen Rose” is the worst version of the previous song in every way. The song is produced similarly to “Ultra GriZelda” by incorporating piano into a trap beat but the Boldy James feature doesn’t help the messy and dirty-sounding instrumental that even Westside doesn’t perform well on where he talks again about his rough childhood.

“Steve and Jony” sounds way too similar to the song “Kostas” but this time instead of having the Griselda members on the whole we get a place feature from EST Gee who might have the worst feature on the album, tied with Giggs on the song “Disgusting”. The song is a worse and lazier version of the song “Kostas” and should’ve been cut out.

“MR EVERYTHING” (feat. Jeezy) Another attempt at a trap song. This one isn’t the worst of all the other trap songs on the album and might even be one of the best, but the random 2013 trap sound effects are really weird and outdated and were probably DJ Swamps Izoo’s idea. Jeezy who is also on a legendary status of being a founder of trap music is featured on this song and does well, but Westside Gunn still has the better verse even with it being explicit with its lyrics.

“Freddy Js” is the worst trap song on the album. The dirty and distorted mixing of the bass and other instruments is too unruly and undefined. The song would be way better if it didn’t do too much to be a rage/trap song in one that didn’t work out at all. Perez and Westside both have great verses that could’ve been amplified if the instrumental wasn’t so bad.

“The Revenge of Flips Leg” brings back the amazing producer Conductor Williams and he delivers a great instrumental. It’s also unruly like the previous song but also not as distorted or a trap instrumental. It has a great break/chorus from a slowed-down church choir that makes the transition from Rome Streetz to Westside Gunn amazing. They both perform well on this song but Rome Streetz goes all out on his verse mostly because of his rhyme and lyricism.

“AND THEN YOU PRAY FOR ME” is the final song of this long and messy album and giving the whole outro to KayCyy was not the best decision. His singing is not the best and also is slow. His verse on the other hand is good and having the beat simple and not messy like the rest of the album is such a genius move by Westside, but the song overall is forgettable.

‘And Then You Pray For Me’ is one of the very last full-length LPs that we’ll get by Westside Gunn who said himself that he wants to retire after this album. He’ll still be putting out music but won’t be releasing 2 to 3 projects in one year like he’s done for the past decade.

The album can’t be defined as a trap, boom bap, and is nothing like the ‘Pray For Paris’ which this album is a sequel to. It’s also one of his longer albums twice the length of ‘Pray For Paris’ which most people say is still the better album from those two and there’s a big reason why. ‘Pray For Paris’ is more centered on a sound; it doesn’t hit you with different sounds every song like this album does.

‘And Then You Pray For Me’ is an album that only gets better after every listen but is also bloated with some trash. You also might miss some of the best moments on the album because of how it’s organized. ‘And Then You Pray For Me’ is another example of Westside Gunn’s raw and artsy approach to rap and has some moments where it’s not well executed, but the good stuff on this album makes it an overall great addition to the massive discography Westside Gunn has.