GOD • The Gospel
Chicago rapper God (yes, God) has taken a controversial approach ever since stepping into the spotlight almost two years ago. The rapper released two projects in 2014, Before the Bible (an EP), and The Bible (a mixtape). While being named God and having a mixtape called The Bible makes it a bit difficult for a Google search, and while that combo is certain to scare away anyone slightly religious into pressing play, the two 2014 projects were outstanding as they managed to combine the daily street struggles of Chicago drill with soulful instrumentation and heavy sampling that you might hear from early Kanye.
I've made this comparison before, but God might be Chicago's version of Pusha T, with his newest release, The Gospel, doing nothing but making that statement more believable. God certainly has his own voice and originality, but the snarl and straight-faced approach to every song continues to make me think of King Push. In a good way. The fourteen song mixtape The Gospel is aggressive, witty, and stuck in dark alleys and street corners, inside trap houses and outside of strip clubs. This makes even more sense upon reading the liner notes and seeing that Juicy J executively produced the whole project (as well as providing a verse on the remix to "Broke"). You might want to hold off on this one until tomorrow when you can properly digest The Gospel on a Sunday. Project Pat even makes an appearance.