Gunna has proved that great music can outweigh the noise as he’s currently on pace to have a major first week for his fourth album A Gift & A Curse despite snitching claims.
According to DJ Akademiks, the Young Stoner Life affiliate’s new album is reportedly looking like it will sell around 78,000 equivalent album units its first week, after being released last Friday (June 16).
Gunna’s new album is the follow-up to 2022’s DS4EVER, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart shifting roughly 150,000 total equivalent units in its first week.
Check out DJ Akademiks’ tweet below:
Gunna ‘A Gift & A Curse’ is on pace to sell 78K first week.
— DJ Akademiks (@Akademiks) June 20, 2023
Although A Gift & A Curse is shaping up to push past the competition on the charts, many of Gunna’s rap contemporaries claimed that he snitched on Young Thug in his plea deal after he was released from jail last year.
In a recent Instagram Story post, YSL Mondo said that despite admiring the Atlanta rapper for his skills, none of that matters because he believes Gunna let the side down when he allegedly “folded” on Young Thug.
“I heard your album, lil buddy & like I always said, we can’t take the fact that you make good music away from you, but baby boy, you still folded on your man’s,” he wrote. “I can’t take you serious definitely can’t take you serious rapping about street shit lol might as well go gospel, my boy, you done in the streets.”
Back in May, Lil Durk also made similar claims regarding Gunna snitching on Thugga on DJ Akademiks’ Off The Record podcast. “That man told,” Durk told Ak. “You should’ve went in there and kept your mouth closed.”
Boosie Badazz also blasted Gunna in an interview with Vlad TV for the amount of respect he showed prosecutors while offering statements in court to finalize his plea agreement.
The court footage, which was released the day after Gunna accepted the plea deal and walked out of Fulton County Jail, shows the rapper responding as Deputy District Attorney Adrienne Love reads through the agreement.
“They should remix his shit, ‘Yes ma’am.’ I been waiting on a song,” Boosie said of Gunna’s tone during the previous hearing. “Man these n-ggas answering with respect! They rattin’ with respect! We don’t even tell our elders ‘Yes ma’am’ like that no more. You don’t hear people saying ‘Yes ma’am’ like they usually do. But you tell a fuckin’ prosecutor, ‘Yes ma’am.’ That made it even worse. You put mayonnaise on the fuckin’ sandwich.”
Boosie was one of the first rappers to brand Gunna a rat after he pleaded guilty to a racketeering conspiracy charge during the December hearing. He was sentenced to five years with one year served in prison where he had been since he was detained in May 2022 as part of the sweeping YSL indictment against Young Thug and his label.
But despite the all naysayers, Gunna himself said on his new album that he did not rat on Young Thug.
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Various songs on the new album find Gunna addressing the “snitch” allegations head-on. On the track “I Was Just Thinking,” he opens up about crying over Young Thug’s situation and the “lies” people are saying about him.
“That’s four walls talkin’ to you, tellin’ you you gone/ Only I done criеd, ’cause this feelin’ for my bro (King Slime)/ And you know my mind, you done watched that n-gga grow/ I know you hear the lies, it’s your lil’ brother, my folk/ Yeah, I had popped out, but don’t let ’em say I told,” he raps.
On “Rodeo Dr,” he also claims he’s been approaching those who have called him out for snitching — although it’s not clear exactly who he’s talking about.
“I know you heard I been pullin’ up pressin’ these n-ggas who claimin’ I ratted/ And been all on the yacht with my muthafuckin’ shirt off, look at it, my whole body tatted,” he spits.
According to Hip Hop By The Numbers, Gunna addresses the allegations 33 times, with 43.3 percent of his lyrics aimed toward people who doubted him. 25.1 percent of his bars allegedly speak on his vulnerability, with his lines about oral sex being at its lowest at 0.9 percent compared to previous projects.
