Westside Gunn – HEELS HAVE EYES 2
Westside Gunn always delivers what he promises. Back in his pushing days on the seedier sides of Buffalo, that was crack or another illicit substance. Throughout his steady rise to the top of the rap game, it’s been addicting gun impersonations, endless pro wrestling references, and depictions of high fashion items that you’ll never own yourself.
Throughout a decade of increasing notoriety, the Griselda member’s collaborative CV includes the likes of MF DOOM, Danny Brown, Tyler, the Creator, and Rick Ross alongside some of the greatest beatmakers we’ve had going (Alchemist and DJ Premier to name a couple). Gunn and Griselda’s status has grown, but their essence remains the same – Buffalo scenes and faces have graced the covers and lines of countless pieces from the group through the years, with at least one significant project dropping every single year since 2016.
Gunn’s high workrate continues through 2025, where he’s already dropped the first HEELS HAVE EYES and 12, both featuring local and national legends in the scene. HEELS’ follow-up, out this past month, sees continued reign from an artist who hasn’t let himself leave the booth even as other methods of content draw artists attention. The standouts of Heels Have Eyes 2 see Gunn keeping kayfabe – a wrestling term for accepting the terms of the story presented to you. And just like the best of wrestling, the parts that might be real life are the most captivating.
“HEEL CENA” rings to the opening bell – a laid back boom bap track the gives Gunn longitude to play with his one-liners, culminating with the hook “White bricks, sniffed it one time, turned into Heel Cena.” Lines menacing in another man’s rhyme seem like a quirky escapade on the mic of Gunn, so comfortable with the realities of the streets that life or death situations are just another challenge in wordplay. “My homie got shot 5 times, he said it tickled” and “My man just robbed my other man, I’m in a pickle.”
HEELS 2 proves itself to be comfort food for both Gunn and wrestling fans, but he let’s the ski mask slip on select tracks like “AMIRA KITCHEN,” where comforting keys and a trash can drum loop signify Gunn can drops the act for a little bit more personal songwriting. The one-liners will always be there, but here they’re countered with a reflective hook, paired with featured artists Brother Tom Sos and AA Rashid: “We’ve seen the rainstorms, we’ve seen sunshine. And on both days, we’d be alright / We’ve seen runways, we’ve seen gunfights. And on both days, we was alright”
“MANDELA” and “BRIKOLAI VOLKOFF” each prove to be quintessential Gunn in the center of the album sequencing – with them gun sounds carving out space in the runtime, and production built primarily on vocal samples. It’s my personal favorite production style to pair with Gunn – whose boisterous voice and bombastic gun noises sound especially standout in juxtaposition to. Syracuse rapper and I90 corridor compadre Stove God Cooks makes a nice appearance on “VOLKOFF” – his flow toeing the line between rapping and starting an argument and perfectly playing into the authenticity that’s lent a hand to the rise of Gunn and Griselda.
Gunn’s never been afraid to hop on unconventional production, and one of the highlights here is the MYLES-produced, MIKE-featured “BLOW HENDRY” paced by a bubbling bong hit. No matter how unconventional the beat may be, Gunn’s outlandish dealer claims, and smarky wrestling references are just waiting to emerge from underneath the ring. “POWERHOUSE HOBBS” has a nice run of lines highlighting the talents of WWE-rival AEW: “The bag flip like Will Ospreay” and “Desert Eagle so big I nicknamed it Powerhouse Hobbs.” If that’s too deep into the wrestling world for you, Gunn’s other two specialties are always a couple lines away: “I smell Folgers when I smell Yola” and “Threw him off the Rainbow Bridge, now he fish food.”
HEELS HAVE EYES 2 is a Hulking Up into a Dropkick. It’s the chokeslam that comes after Undertaker grabs his opponent by the throat. It’s the first couple of lines out of CM Punk’s mouth after a microphone is put into his hands. It’s what you hoped for, it’s what you expected, and it’s why you’re listening to it. It kicks ass.
Categorised in: Album of the Week
This post was written by Matt Moretti