Gucci Mane Transitions To A Gleeful Elder Statesman 'Breath Of Fresh Air'

Remember “Stilettos”? It’s okay if you don’t, and if you do, there’s at least a small chance you know about it because Erica Banks interpolated the 2004 Crime Mob song for her 2021 single “Designer.” The OG was solid, but obviously, it was completely overshadowed by the Georgia group’s actual breakout song, “Knuck If U Buck.” 

But that’s not the point. If you’re an early ’90s baby, the real zinger is this: One of your favorite crunk deep cuts is officially old enough to be sampled. Like, in the same way that Dr. Dre reimagined ’70s soul records. The music you grew up on is the old school. You are old. And Gucci Mane is even older. And he’s proud of it. 

That’s a point he makes on his latest album, Breath of Fresh Air. Cruising over a deeply soulful opener, “Must Be Me,” he explains that he was trapping at exactly the same time Crime Mob dropped their debut album, and despite that, by his own estimation, you can’t touch him. His latest release is further proof that he’s mostly right. 

Filled with shapeshifting flows, dense autobiographical details and self-assured confidence, the album showcases Gucci still in command of his powers, even if it stretches on about 10 minutes too long. He remembers his past and embraces his present while flaunting the dexterity to outrap the relative new schoolers. His flows are sprawling; he raps diagonally, vertically and horizontally.

On “Must Be Me,” he goes slow and deliberate as he stitches together a mosaic of trap aspirations, subtle tragedies and self-actualization. He speaks of guidance that fell on deaf ears and an associate who never learned how to read. His connection to the streets that raised him is everlasting, a blood oath. But he recognizes circumstances have changed, living in a crib that’s so big that if he shouts, it will sound like he’s repeated himself. It’s vivid, delivered in a way that’s both precise and unpretentious — a marker of a skilled wordsmith. 

Gucci speeds things up just a song later. On the Lil Baby-assisted “Bluffin,” GuWop laces fluttering keys with a lucid glimpse into the old days and the new ones, juxtaposing the time periods with pinpoint details that put you in his jail cell. Skittering over a stern piano loop for “Stomach Growlin,” Gucci serves up a triple-time flow. He gets bonus points for merging writers’ advocacy with a hefty dose of self-mythology: “Writers on strike and I know why they did it, Hollywood moguls be paying ’em pennies/AI can’t write the song Gucci would write —‘cause AI didn’t stay up all night in the trenches.” 

Bars like the one above are braggadocious, but they’re also layered with perspective; Gucci Mane’s done a lot of growing up since being released from prison over seven years ago. Tracks like the slightly heavy handed “Hurt People,” wherein he advises young folks to put the guns down, emanate a paternal sincerity that can only come with growing older. It’s advice ’06 Gucci wouldn’t listen to. 

Gucci keeps things reflective on a lot of the project, but he still makes time to have some unadulterated fun. “Thank Me” is a playful, Young Dolph-assisted anthem that’s loose, mischievous and petty. “06 Gucci Mane” is a self-referential anthem with standout stanzas from DaBaby (!), 21 Savage and Wop himself, and the J. Cole-featured “There I Go” is a slap. “Woppenheimer” has some solid bars, and the blatant opportunism behind the title makes it all the more enjoyable. 

Any project that stretches an hour-and-fifteen minutes can get monotonous, butGucci’s versatile flows go a long way to prevent his. There aren’t many duds on Breath of Fresh Air, but “Married With Millions” can go when there’s already the far superior “Mr. and Ms. Perfect,” and of the two Kodak Black features, “King Snipe” is the one that’s worth keeping. As much as we miss Dolph, having two of the tracks on the same album probably wasn’t necessary. 

Still, Gucci’s latest LP is a collage of impressive raps and spurts of memorable anthems from a man who sounds more than at peace with himself and the life he leads. Breath of Fresh Air is the sound of someone aging gleefully.