SoundCloud
SoundCloud
loading...

In recent years, the state of Florida has emerged as one of the more flourishing locales in music in terms of its rap talent, with veterans like Rick Ross and DJ Khaled, as well as fresher faces such as Kodak Black and Denzel Curry keeping the Sunshine State in the mix of things. In spite of his marginal amount of mainstream success, Carol City rep and MMG wildcard Gunplay remains favored in the streets and beyond due to his high-octane brand of savagery delivered over menacing soundscapes, a combination that makes for quality trap music that is equally raw as it is enthralling. With the focus on his native land, Gunplay shoots to kill with his latest release, The Plug, a long player that finds the rapper attempting to avoid the sophomore jinx following the positive reception to his 2015 debut, Living Legend.

Coming a week after the release of Dreadlocks & Headshots, his collaborative project with West Coast rapper Mozzy, The Plug serves as a glimpse into the life and times of the controversial rapper, who once beat a life sentence after robbing his accountant at gunpoint on camera. The project comes complete with additional commentary from Gunplay, lifted from interviews and candid conversations concerning his checkered past. With a lifestyle centered around money, women and drugs, Gunplay opens The Plug on an appropriate note with "D-Boy Fresh," detailing the daily operation of a drug dealer and the spoils that comes with the profession. "Ya'll niggas so vagina/My coke is so Madonna/My fishscale so Parana/Put Chrome on Yokohamas," Gunplay drawls, quickly getting into his groove as he sets the tone for his sophomore set with a tune that finds him fully in his element.

"Too many hittas, war is all they want/Murder's all they know, ain't no negotiating nothing," Gunplay warns on "Call Log," a ghastly soundbed powered by frantic 808 drums, over which he notes his affiliation to merchants of death, while boasting of his own homicidal tendencies. An admitted abuser of narcotics, Gunplay speaks on the benefits and joys that a little nose candy can bring on the aptly titled "Cocaine." "Cocaine got me out of jail, cocaine paid my bail," he delivers, while continuing to touch on the toll that his transgressions has taken on his mother throughout the years.

The Plug is primarily a showcase of Gunplay, with the dreaded goon shunning a feature-heavy project and accounting for a majority of the vocals, but one track that finds him collaborating with positive results is "Ain't Gon Do Shit," which features MMG spitter Tracy T. Following up a standout appearance on Meek Mill's DC4 cut "Way Up," as well as his own project, Millionaire Nightmares, Tracy T adds to his bevy of standout showings while rocking alongside his label mate on one of the stronger offerings from The Plug.

Much of Gunplay's sophomore release revolves around murder and mayhem, but a change of pace comes via "Hoeing on the Low," a silky, laid-back affair on which Don Logan expounds on the mindstate and mentality of pimps and prostitutes, before keeping it business as usual on the album's title-track. Of the firepower included on The Plug, a selection that captures Gunplay at his zenith is "Patience," as he gets trigger-happy while seeing red in his eyes, delivering a string of threats over cinematic production that makes for one of the more riveting compositions on the album.

Staying true to his core fan base, Gunplay serves up an album geared towards the rougher side of the tracks and its inhabitants with The Plug, a continuation of his campaign to service the streets with unabashed musings revolving around criminality and the pursuit of wealth by any means. While the topical range is limited in scope, Gunplay plays to his strengths on The Plug, an album that is sure to cement his standing as one of the more noteworthy, if unsung scribes of the trap variety.

See 33 Rappers With Neck Tattoos

More From XXL