Gucci Mane-The Appeal: Georgia’s Most Wanted

Before his most recent stretch in prison, Gucci Mane made a name for himself with his blase twist on gangsta rap. And although Gucci promises new beginnings in The Appeal: Georgia’s Most Wanted, his first album since his release, the 15 tracks are gratifying in an all-too-familiar way.

Fans of Gucci’s earlier albums and mixtapes should be pleased to find his signature lilt intact. But cliche lyrics, such as “We go together like hamburgers and French fries,” and safe beats do little to showcase the artist’s voice. Not to mention, the record is riddled with his inexplicable “Burr!” exclamations, which were made laughable in the Internet sensation “Shawt Bus Shawty.” These tired staples are magnified in the most hyped song on the album, “Gucci Time,” in which record-skipping effects, background yelling and those incessant “Burrs!” are piled onto a siren-like techno beat, creating a sonic strobe light effect that overwhelms.

Not only is Gucci’s style the same, but much of his content has also remained unchanged since his last time behind bars. After opening the album with the refrain, “Wave bye to the bad guy/Gucci is the bad guy,” he slips easily into the second track, “Trap Talk,” with no new angle on his rhymes about drug dealing.

But The Appeal has its redemptive elements. Among its featured artists are Pharrell and Nicki Minaj, who on “Haterade” lend the album that icy “Lemonade” cool not recaptured elsewhere. The guitar riffs and chorus line in “ODog” (featuring Wyclef) provide the perfect harmonic backdrop for meaningful lyrics like, “If you come from the ghetto and you feel like a champion/Let me see you put your hands up.”

Not until the closing track, “Grown Man,” does it become clear that there is a new side to Gucci after all. In a word-spinning technique that is at once clever and revealing, the rapper tells us, “My best friend probably gonna die in jail... Probably cry like hell/ If I dwell/On him, ‘cause he got 80 years.” Estelle’s soulful chorus intensifies the song’s message of atonement.

Here’s hoping Gucci can tap into this matured outlook for his next record and avoid another case of deja vu.