Gucci Mane - "Murder Was the Case"

[StevePulaski]

Murder Was the Case (2009)
By: Gucci Mane

Rating: ★★

By the late aughts, Atlanta-based Gucci Mane went from an underground rapper, spitting lyrics about drug-dealing, his trap house and trap persona, and "cooking chickens" to a rap star, plunged into the mainstream while still maintaining the ideologies and song-topics from the roots of his career. Murder Was the Case, released during this time period, comes at a time when he was making headlines for not just his music but his legal affairs, involving murder and subsequently followed by a trilogy of albums that chronicled this trial. What was the murder case? Over one of rapper Young Jeezy's affiliates, who was shot and killed by Gucci following a heated beef over their track "Icy," which Gucci prohibited Jeezy from using on his debut album.

Moving on from the drama and looking purely at the music, Murder Was the Case is a disappointing Gucci affair, too concerned and burdened with redundant hooks and average flows from a rapper who, time and time again, has proven himself to be anything but. Opening tracks like the groggy "Hot!" and the lackadaisical "Block Party" almost encapsulate Gucci in a disinterested state of mine, uncaring whether or not this particular album soars to the heights of Trap House or flounders like its sequel.

A handful of standouts, however, appear on the album, largely for their quirkiness. "Murder for Fun," (which also serves as a diss track for Jeezy) featuring a rapper named Ox, has a reggae/Jamaican influence to it, with Ox repeatedly spouting, "killin' a p****, we kill them for fun!" on the chorus to humorous, albeit darkly macabre, effect. In addition, the "Trap Money" remix featuring the likes of B.A. and Mook provides some humor, particularly in the final verse of the song, which has some delightfully off-kilter metaphors and circumstances one could only find in a Gucci song.

The remainder of the album, however, is a bland retread of Gucci hits that feel redundant and unworthy of the quick buck it's seeking. "Yella Diamonds" finds itself falling prey to listless boastfulness, "Say Damn" is a failure of a club chant if I've ever heard one, and "S******' Onum" feels like a series of previously uttered Gucci lines cut-and-pasted over generic 808s and released as a new song. The apathy is strong with Murder Was the Case when the artist at the helm, right from the album's artwork and current state at the time of its release, ordinarily spawns anything but.

Recommended tracks (in order): "Trap Money (Remix)," "Murder for Fun," and "Runnin' Back (Getting Fat)."