G-Eazy - The Beautiful & Damned

Pitchfork 51

The new album from Oakland rapper G-Eazy is a boozy, minor-key, 74-minute slog, where he wonders if it’s possible to survive the corrupting influence of celebrity.

The Guardian 40

(RCA)

The title of G-Eazy’s The Beautiful & Damned – a reference to F Scott Fitzgerald’s jazz age novel – may hint at intellectual depth, but the California rapper’s fourth album turns out to be an exercise in dumb self-infatuation. G-Eazy (real name Gerald Gillum) clearly understands how to handle modern rap – his slightly reedy voice is either put to the service of Macklemore-esque overwrought emoting or the voguishly staccato, densely rhymed flow of latterday trap stars. But his take on rap’s current go-to themes of drug dependency, joyless sex and the double-edged sword of success feels stale and smug. His standardised boasts about wealth, fame and “bitches” are bereft of the genuine sense of struggle that provides rap with much of its appeal. Worst of all, however, is the tedious way he ascribes his entire personality to his star sign (Gillum is a Gemini, and bangs on about it relentlessly). Despite the glut of cutting-edge guests (Cardi B, Anna of the North), this feels like a rich cultural moment reduced to banality.