10 – Westside Gunn ★★★½

Year	Album	Artist	Stars	Score	Genre
2022	10	Westside Gunn	★★★½	79	Hip-Hop

With how many albums and mixtapes Westside Gunn and the rest of Griselda put out each year, it’s hard to keep up with them at times or to figure out ways to differentiate one from the next. Westside Gunn’s 2022 mixtape 10 I think is my favorite of his projects to date, because it strives to be a bit bigger than the others, while Westside’s able to maintain what makes him, him. 

Always a master curator who knows how to bring the right people together on a track, the features here come with prestige. Bringing esteemed, old-school lyricists like Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Busta Rhymes and Raekwon gives Westside credibility. Mixing them with modern acts like A$AP Rocky and Run The Jewels gives him some modern, commercial appeal. And having his frequent contemporaries present like Stove God Cooks, Rome Streetz, Benny the Butcher and Conway the Machine keeps him grounded and authentic. 

A few songs feel a bit long, and the package isn’t as consistent as Westside’s projects usually are, but the extra firepower and some of the more detailed production work elevates it to a level that feels special. Almost every track is good, and the middle stretch from “Shoutouts in Soho” to “Switches on Everything” in particular really purrs.