On occasion, a faceless “they” are out to ruin all he’s worked for: “They had their hand out but I ain’t submissive/You tryin’ to extort a nigga, I’m from Memphis.” These betrayals open the door for deeply personal “reality raps” about small-time coke trafficking, life on the other side of dealing dope, and trying to balance hometown responsibility with world-conquering aspirations. The primary perpetrator is Gotti’s ex, but at different points on the album, he feels betrayed by close confidants, colleagues, snitches, and to a certain extent, God. “Struggle” is a word that best describes most Gotti songs (sometimes as much in execution as in subject matter), but I Still Am has a more pointed focus on betrayal.
There is a sense of tension in his raps, but there is rarely the activity necessary to make them gripping. He doesn’t have a particularly compelling point of view some songs move in circles. He’s either talking passed unidentified subjects, or thinking out loud about dealing, flexing, or defending his territory, or in the act of doing those things. His raps get right to the point-usually at the expense of scene-setting with very little exposition. Gotti is a competent rapper who allows his voice to do much of the work, pressing into beats with repetitive phrases and rhyme schemes, single syllable rapping, and tottering slow flows. Yo Gotti is basically a Gucci Mane understudy, and his albums play out as if he’s been forced to replace the star last minute. Inside their productions, he tackles all of the trap tropes. The album also reunites Gotti with Miami producer and “Down in the DM” architect Ben Billion$. He puts his scene on by emulating outsiders: He works mostly with Atlanta beatmakers like Mike WiLL Made-It, Southside, Zaytoven, and Drumma Boy, all of whom appear on I Still Am. But still, there is very little separating him from his peers. He buoys his more trap-angling deep cuts with surprise hits like “Down in the DM,” and his willingness to play ball has earned him national exposure and gold and platinum plaques. Gotti, who sounds unquestionably local in his language but panders more broadly to the sounds of the moment stylistically, has become the latest (and unlikeliest) flagship star in Memphis since the late Aughts. As he expands his horizons, the enduring cracks in his writing resurface.įor years in Memphis rap, the buck stopped with Three 6 Mafia and Eightball & MJG, each act a tangent of the Memphis rap club culture. This time the self-proclaimed reality rapper takes his Memphis pride global-from hometown shoutouts inside the Ridgecrest Apartments to jet-setting across Europe and Asia. The album’s unofficial sequel, I Still Am, Gotti’s ninth, finds him digging deeper into roles as struggler, hustler, and city spokesman. “I am the struggle/I am the hustle/I am the city,” he rapped on I Am’s title track. Gotti has emerged in recent years as the Memphis mouthpiece, a blue-collar MC channeling that same darkness.
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