''Drip or Drown 2'' is the debut studio album by American rapper
Gunna, released on February 22, 2019, by
YSL Records
YSL Records (also known as Young Stoner Life Records) is an American record label based in Atlanta, Georgia. It was founded in 2016 by the Atlanta-based rapper Young Thug. The company is a label imprint of 300 Entertainment. Its artists include ...
and
300 Entertainment
Theory Entertainment LLC, doing business as 300 Entertainment, is an American record label founded by Lyor Cohen, Kevin Liles, Todd Moscowitz, and Roger Gold. The label's roster includes acts across multiple genres such as hip hop, rock, pop, e ...
. It serves as the sequel to his 2017 EP ''Drip or Drown'' with American producer
Wheezy
Wesley Tyler Glass (born October 26, 1992), known professionally as Wheezy, is an American record producer and songwriter. He has worked with artists such as Lil Uzi Vert, Young Thug, Lil Baby, Future, King Von, 21 Savage, Gunna (rapper), Gunna ...
. The album features
guest appearance
In show business, a guest appearance is the participation of an outsider performer (such as a musician or actor) in an event such as a music record or concert, show, etc., when the performer does not belong to the regular band, cast, or other ...
s from
Lil Baby
Dominique Armani Jones (born December 3, 1994), known professionally as Lil Baby, is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. He rose to mainstream fame in 2017 following the release of his mixtape ''Perfect Timing''. *Alt URL* * His deb ...
,
Young Thug
Jeffery Lamar Williams (born August 16, 1991), known professionally as Young Thug, is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. He is considered to be an influential figure of his generation, with his music impacting the modern sound of hip ...
, and
Playboi Carti
Jordan Terrell Carter (born September 13, 1996), known professionally as Playboi Carti, is an American rapper. Carter was initially signed to local underground label Awful Records prior to signing with ASAP Mob's AWGE Label under Interscope ...
. It also features production by Wheezy and
Turbo
In an internal combustion engine, a turbocharger (often called a turbo) is a forced induction device that is powered by the flow of exhaust gases. It uses this energy to compress the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to pr ...
, among others.
Singles
The album's first single, "
One Call", was released on February 1, 2019, as well an accompanying music video. The single peaked at number 56 on the US
''Billboard'' Hot 100.
The album's second single, "Speed It Up", was released on February 11, 2019. The single peaked at number 91 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100.
Critical reception
''Drip or Drown 2'' was met with generally positive reviews. At
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, which assigns a
normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an
average
In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7 ...
score of 76, based on six reviews.
Riley Wallace of ''
Exclaim!'' gave a positive review, stating, "Ultimately, Gunna sticks to his guns and delivers a solid effort that lives up to all the hype. He may not be the most innovative MC, but he continues to craft great bodies of work, which is what will cement his career, at the end of the day".
Ben Beaumont-Thomas of ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' said, "The result is a gentle, poised record: the perfect rap album for a bruised America".
Jon Caramanica
Jon Caramanica (born 1975) is an American journalist and pop music critic who writes for ''The New York Times''. He is also known for writing about hip hop music.
Biography
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Caramanica received his bachelor's degree ...
from ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' enjoyed the album, saying, "Gunna has a penchant for rapping over beats that include guitar, like on "Richard Millie Plain", but he doesn't use them for rock scabrousness. Instead, they're caressing, soft-edged beds, elegant accompaniment for a rapper who makes his points with textures more than words. That said, there is a tenderness that peeks through here, not just in the gentleness of the sing-rapping, but also in some of the lyrics". ''
HipHopDX
''HipHopDX'' is an online magazine of hip hop music criticism and news. The website's current president and publisher is Sharath Cherian and the Head Of Content is Jerry L. Barrow. ''HipHopDX'' is the flagship publication of Cheri Media Group.
...
'' critic Scott Glaysher said, "This album is a big win for Gunna, an even bigger win for executive producers Wheezy and Turbo but a championship win for contemporary rap as a whole that should be appreciated by all".
Sheldon Pearce of ''
Pitchfork
A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves.
The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...
'' wrote, "His bars vary from the goofy ("She made me bust a nut, that's a starburst") to the confusingly profound ("Time is poured on me when I ride that Maybach"), but it's his ability to apply his signature inflection to just about any rhythm he conjures up that can make ''Drip or Drown 2'' nearly hypnotizing".
In a mixed review, ''
Highsnobiety'' critic Mike Vinti wrote the following: "Though it sags in places with materialism and Gunna's melancholy flow, at its best, his charm shines through. Stronger than any of his mixtapes or EPs, ''Drip or Drown 2'' is a promising debut album filled with hints of talent yet to be fully realized on record."
Commercial performance
''Drip or Drown 2'' debuted at number three on the US
''Billboard'' 200 with 90,000
album-equivalent unit
The album-equivalent unit, or album equivalent, is a measurement unit in music industry to define the consumption of music that equals the purchase of one album copy. This consumption includes streaming and song downloads in addition to traditio ...
s (including 7,000 in pure album sales) in its first week. This became Gunna's second US top ten debut.
In its second week, the album dropped to number eight on the chart, earning an additional 42,000 units that week. In its third week, the album remained at number eight on the chart, earning another 31,000 units that week. In its fourth week, the album dropped to number 10 on the chart, earning 27,000 units, bringing its four-week total to 190,000 units. On November 13, 2019, the album was certified
gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...
by the
Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), for combined sales and album-equivalent units of 500,000 total units.
By May 2019, it had sold 10,000 copies in pure album sales in the United States.
Track listing
Notes
* signifies an uncredited co-producer
Personnel
Credits adapted from
Tidal
Tidal is the adjectival form of tide.
Tidal may also refer to:
* ''Tidal'' (album), a 1996 album by Fiona Apple
* Tidal (king), a king involved in the Battle of the Vale of Siddim
* TidalCycles, a live coding environment for music
* Tidal (servic ...
.
Performers
* Gunna – primary artist
*
Lil Baby
Dominique Armani Jones (born December 3, 1994), known professionally as Lil Baby, is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. He rose to mainstream fame in 2017 following the release of his mixtape ''Perfect Timing''. *Alt URL* * His deb ...
– featured artist
*
Young Thug
Jeffery Lamar Williams (born August 16, 1991), known professionally as Young Thug, is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. He is considered to be an influential figure of his generation, with his music impacting the modern sound of hip ...
– featured artist
*
Playboi Carti
Jordan Terrell Carter (born September 13, 1996), known professionally as Playboi Carti, is an American rapper. Carter was initially signed to local underground label Awful Records prior to signing with ASAP Mob's AWGE Label under Interscope ...
– featured artist
Technical
*
Turbo
In an internal combustion engine, a turbocharger (often called a turbo) is a forced induction device that is powered by the flow of exhaust gases. It uses this energy to compress the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to pr ...
– engineer , mixer
* Arin "DJ AJ" Fields – engineer
* Fabian Maraciullo – mixer
* Alex Tumay – mixer
* Bainzz – engineer
* Nia "Ivy" Mills – assistant engineer
* Colin Leonard – mastering enginneer
Miscellaneous
* Young Thug – executive producer
* Turbo – executive producer
*
Wheezy
Wesley Tyler Glass (born October 26, 1992), known professionally as Wheezy, is an American record producer and songwriter. He has worked with artists such as Lil Uzi Vert, Young Thug, Lil Baby, Future, King Von, 21 Savage, Gunna (rapper), Gunna ...
– executive producer
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
References
{{Authority control
2019 debut albums
Gunna (rapper) albums
YSL Records albums
Sequel albums