Though his music typically transcended the “disposable” mixtape medium in the late ’00s, those tapes were strategic efforts at pushing to a higher level. But it’s not that era, and Gucci is no longer that artist. *Everybody Looking *is a tribute to that era. Yet at his recorded peak in the late 2000s, Gucci gained such creative momentum he drowned out carefully-crafted releases by seemingly “bigger” artists. Notionally, a mixtape is different than an album in that it’s faster to put together, and perhaps a bit less consequential song-for-song, its best ideas spread out over multiple releases. If albums are carefully selected, heavily A&Red projects designed to maximize an artist’s potential and impact, mixtapes have been a method for under-funded artists to perform a flanking maneuver. It’s also become, just in the past year, less true single “All My Children,” a reference to his aesthetic offspring, might have better been titled “All My Grandchildren,” as the new generation shows a closer debt to Guwop's spiritual heir Chief Keef. While interesting to consider-in a wonkish sense-this is less than fascinating as the subject of music. The most unique and interesting aspects of Gucci’s life right now involve his three-year sentence, new healthy lifestyle, and flowering lovelife they are occasionally alluded to throughout, but for the most part this project is unified by frequent references to his looming influence. It’s a long-running songwriting archetype for him, but one with which we’re familiar at this point without new details or a fresh approach, it’s more like hitting the requisite checkboxes than creating. This is blatant on “Richest N**** In the Room,” where he peddles a familiar autobiographical tale he’s been spinning since the beginning. The space between those moments find Gucci sliding into a frozen approximation of earlier formulas.
And bonus track “Multi Millionaire Laflare” is the moment his rapping sounds its most inspired: “Wrist so rocky got your bitch jockin' ASAP/Every nigga tote a yopper, nigga we a K-Camp.” None of these records push too far into new terrain, but they do make the case that there’s gas in the tank. “Gucci Please” features hypnotic songwriting and a flow pattern that’s yet to suffer from overexposure. The gritty Mike WiLL-produced “Pop Music” is a dark double-entendre that recalls the clever urgency of Gucci’s earlier work without falling into caricature. While Zaytoven’s “Out Do Ya” feels like a by-numbers 2009 pastiche, his turn on “Waybach” sounds fresh. But most of all, it just feels unfinished, rushed-halfway between a tribute to the improvisational tapes of his classic era and a fully-rendered album statement, it’s best considered a stopgap to tide over fans.Ī few records on Everybody Looking stand apart, suggesting the seeds of a better, unrealized project. His vocals, no doubt out of practice, sound a bit rusty. Certain songs fall into familiar-now six- or seven-year-old-formulas. Everyone else will likely find it a bit spotty. It will please fans looking for Another Gucci Mane mixtape.
For the most part, *Everybody Looking *is a Gucci Mane mixtape in the most familiar sense. (It’s also a reference to his 2010 track of the same name, which would be the best song on this compilation by some miles were it included.) For several years, everybody-at least in the realm of underground street rap-really was looking to Gucci for where to go next. The title of the first project since his release, Everybody Looking, could as easily describe this influence as it does his status as a trending topic.