Album review: Westside Gunn has bright spots amid needless filler on ‘Hitler Wears Hermes 8: Side B’

Joey Perkins
Tue, 28 Sep 2021 00:30:25 +0000
Arts & Life, Music, reviews, arts and life, b-side, benny the butcher, best dressed demons, billie essco, conway the machine, forest lawn, free kutter, hell on earth, hitler wears hermes, instrumentals, jay electronica, mach-hommy, mixtape, music, musician, opinion, project, rap, rap musician, rapper, review, stove god cooks, the devil wears prada, tyler the creator, westside gunn, why i do em like that

With a controversial name loosely based on “The Devil Wears Prada,” “Hitler Wears Hermes 8: Side B” concluded Westside Gunn’s eight-album series. Credit: Christian Harsa | Special Projects Director

Westside Gunn, the founder of Griselda Records, released the long-awaited conclusion to his rap series: “Hitler Wears Hermes.”

Coming a month after the first half of his new project, Alvin Lamar Worthy, professionally known as Westside Gunn, finally released “Hitler Wears Hermes 8: Side B” Friday. Both the first and second halves of the project are loaded with features over dark instrumentals. However, the placement of features throughout the tracklist creates a stark difference between the two sides.?

The first installment of Gunn’s “Hitler Wears Hermes” series was published in 2012 as a singular mixtape. The title of the series, while controversial, is meant to be both a spin-off of the popular 2006 movie, “The Devil Wears Prada,” and an ode to Gunn’s own blend of grime and style within his music.

The A-side features familiar Gunn-affiliated names such as Stove God Cooks, Mach-Hommy, Conway the Machine and Benny the Butcher. The B-side has shared features, but the seemingly strategic placement of them makes the project much more coherent.

The B-side, although supposedly just one half of an album, is 20 tracks and over an hour long. After two intro tracks comes “Hell on Earth, Pt. 2” with fellow Griselda members Benny the Butcher and Conway the Machine. This track, like many others the three artists collaborate on, is energetic and full of top-notch verses.

“Free Kutter,” the following track, features a weak verse from Gunn, but Jay Electronica glides with ease over the nonchalant, jazzy instrumental. After this song comes a few unenthused tracks with bland verses and repetitive instrumentals, something Gunn seems used to doing.

This project, like most of Gunn’s, has its inconsistencies, especially when it comes to Gunn himself. His flow can become monotonous over underwhelming beats. This album could easily be top-tier if it were cut in half, though the features throughout manage to keep it alive regardless.

Mach-Hommy on “Best Dressed Demons” has an effortless flow, and 2 Chainz goes head-to-head with a hungry-sounding Gunn on “Forest Lawn.”

An album with inconsistencies such as this one has low points, but it also has extreme highs. “Why I do em Like that” is a slow, gloomy track that features composed, confident verses from Gunn and Billie Essco. Mach-Hommy returns on “RIP Bergdorf,” a near-acapella track as the instrumental is solely composed of a vocal loop and almost nonexistent drums.

“99 Avirex” has a catchy, melodic hook from Stove God Cooks, but Gunn sounds uninspired. That is not the same energy he carries into the next track, however, as he and Tyler, The Creator share incredible, lively verses on the sub-two-minute track, “The Fly who couldn’t Fly straight.”

“Big AL,” the final track on the B-side, is a rare, emotionally-driven ballad from Gunn and Rome Streetz. The instrumental is melancholy, leading the way for heartfelt and descriptive verses from both artists.

While this album is packed with tons of tracks and impressive features, it leaves more — or less — to be desired. The project, while solid at times, is plagued with filler tracks and forgettable verses from Gunn.

The recent trend of artists flooding their albums with tracks or putting out deluxe editions for popular albums has been very hit or miss. For Gunn, it missed. This album features plenty of bright spots from both Gunn and friends, but they barely outweigh the amount of repetition in “Hitler Wears Hermes 8: Side B.”

Rating: 3/5