Westside Gunn is gearing up to release his fifth studio album, And Then You Pray For Me – and apparently it’s also going to be his last.
Talking to Rolling Stone in an interview published on Monday (October 9), the Griselda MC revealed he’s hanging up the mic as it pertains to a full studio effort. Luckily for fans, EPs aren’t entirely out of the question.
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“[This is] going to be the last album where I take the time to say ‘this is an album,'” Gunn told the publication. “When I was doing the Hitler Wears Hermes series, I was doing all them projects like mixtapes. I was recording the whole shit in two, three days. I’m not saying I won’t come with a five-song EP with Madlib or I won’t do a seven-song EP with Alchemist or I won’t rap. I’ll do all of that, but making a studio album, I’m done with all that.
“It’s back to dumping until I don’t want to dump no more. I’m going to have fun now. It’s no more pressure. This album was pressure to me. I’m testing the waters on a few different things, but it’s all me. It’s not like I’m going out of the box with it or I’m not being me. I’m still me, it’s just kind of a different sound. But at the same time, I don’t know how long I want to ride for.”
He continued: “I got so much other things I got going on now in my life that’s different. And I have new artists that I also want to break that are super dope. And I know they need my attention because [they] the ones that need the development.”
Set to arrive on Friday (October 13), And Then You Pray For Me is slated to be a star-studded affair with contributions from the likes of RZA, Rick Ross, Jeezy, Conway The Machine, JID, DJ Drama, Giggs, Ty Dolla $ign, Denzel Curry, Stove God Cooks, Rome Streetz and more.
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Last week, Westside Gunn declared the LP an easy winner for the best album of 2023 – asserting that no other record this year comes even close to his.
“We already in October, we 10 months in, I heard everybody — it’s not even close … ’cause I got 21 tracks on here,” he said. “Just the first 10 is better than everybody album of the year.”
The project’s cover art was designed by the late Virgil Abloh. You can view it here.
