Lil Mouse - "In Gunna I Trust"

[StevePulaski]

In Gunna I Trust (2015)
By: Lil Mouse

Rating: ★★

Lil Mouse has been having an uphill battle in an attempt to be taken seriously by the mainstream public, not only for making music under the divisive genre known as drill, but also trying to overcome those who look down at his young age to prove to all he can be a capable rapper. Anybody doubtful of his abilities should listen to the variety of songs he put on his debut mixtape Mouse Trap, which included the ballady "Clear the Crowd" and the zealous "100 Bars" freestyle.

Lil Mouse's latest mixtape, In Gunna I Trust, however, simply doesn't cut it and won't help him merit a reputation amongst devoted hip-hop heads. This is as generic as drill gets, with disappointingly simple production, as the eight-track mixtape doesn't utilize a wide variety of producers, and a hodgepodge of flows that sometimes work for the track and sometimes don't, making for a very scattershot mixtape. The tape's opener "Animals" is downright awful, as Mouse cannot seem to keep up with the simple beat, which doesn't help him nor Saint the Good Boy's production. "Rob Who" is a rip-off of the classic Soulja Boy line from his collaboration with 50 Cent on the song "Mean Mug," and, to be fair, doesn't fare much better to that song.

"Save Me" is Lil Mouse's saving grace here, which goes from a potentially interchangeable song to a more-or-less adequate one, with lyrics sung very honestly and sympathetically as Mouse begs for himself to be saved by the pressure and the forces around him. Following that, the album ends on a quietly positive note with songs like "Bloody" and "All White" (as if he's taking influence from Lil Durk, with two of eight songs bearing the same name as Durk's songs on his mixtape Life Ain't No Joke) showing Mouse at his most lyrically capable and the production at its satisfying in a better late than never fashion. However, by then, In Gunna I Trust has disappointed with its lackluster lyricism and generic drill beats that don't inspire much but tedium.

Recommended tracks (in order): "Save Me" and "All White."