Gunna

Without raising his voice, Gunna is one of rap's most successful artists. Almost slurring and sometimes verging on a stutter, he nonetheless displayed the poise of a proven veteran from his entry on Young Thug's "Floyd Mayweather" (2016) through his early mixtapes and the Top Ten Lil Baby collaboration Drip Harder (2018). Gunna's high commercial standing has been affirmed with projects such as Drip or Drown 2 (2019), WUNNA (2020), and the compilation Slime Language 2 (2021), followed by DS4Ever (2022), A Gift & a Curse (2023), and One of Wun (2024). Each of those sets either topped or nearly topped the Billboard 200, boosted by hit singles like "Drip Too Hard," "Too Easy," and "FukUMean."

The College Park, Georgia-based rapper, born Sergio Kitchens, became interested in music and rapping as a hobby in his early teens. He got more serious about the possibility of a career in hip-hop around 2016, when he was introduced to Atlanta MC Young Thug by a mutual friend. Before long, Gunna was in the studio hopping on Young Thug's "Floyd Mayweather," where he lent a verse alongside superstars Gucci Mane and Travis Scott. A number 41 hit on Billboard's R&B/hip-hop chart, the single was enough to propel Gunna to relative fame. He was soon signed to Young Thug's YSL imprint. By late 2016, he'd released the Drip Season mixtape. Its sequel, Drip Season 2, came out in 2017, and an EP produced entirely by Wheezy, Drip or Drown, followed in 2019.

Gunna hit the Billboard 200 for the first time with early 2018's Drip Season 3, featuring guest appearances from Lil Yachty, Lil Uzi Vert, and Metro Boomin, which entered the chart at number 55. Within ten months, the rapper returned beside Lil Baby with Drip Harder, which went to number four, highlighted by "Drip Too Hard," his first platinum-certified recording. At this point, Gunna was fully primed for a debut album, and with a verse on Mariah Carey's "Stay Long Love You," he had even made his first big genre-crossover move. Long in the making, Drip or Drown 2 was released in February 2019 and duly trumped Gunna's previous placements by entering the Billboard 200 at number three. In April 2020, "Quarantine Clean," a collaborative single from Gunna, Young Thug, and Turbo, surfaced with a hook that referenced the global quarantines brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Gunna's sophomore set, WUNNA, arrived the next month. Previewed by woozy trap singles "Skybox" and "Wunna," the project featured collaborations with Travis Scott and Young Thug, among others, and entered the Billboard 200 at number one.

He scored his second chart-topper in 2021 with the Young Stoner Life compilation Slime Language 2. The set featured Travis Scott, Drake, Lil Uzi Vert, Big Sean, Skepta, Future, Kid Cudi, and over a dozen more famous friends. In 2022, the rapper returned with his third studio album DS4Ever, a spiritual continuation of the Drip Season series of tapes, which became Gunna's second solo number one-charting debut. The single "Bread & Butter" preceded the 2023 studio album A Gift & a Curse, which reached number three. After he was featured on Turbo's "Bachelor" and Sarz's "Happiness," Gunna began his 2024 solo campaign with "Bittersweet," and continued with One of Wun, a number two hit supported by the singles "PradaDem" and "WhatsApp (Wassam)." ~ Fred Thomas & Andy Kellman