Grant JonesThere’s a whole subsection of the music industry – specifically the Hip-Hop side of it – that remains off of my radar, despite it being incredibly popular. You see, I’d never heard of G-Eazy outside of his brief beef with Eminem in 2019. Except, that wasn’t G-Eazy, it was Machine Gun Kelly. My mind groups these white rappers into some subconsciously stored subcategory. It’s an unremarkable shade of beige; an overarching blandness to rappers with success belying their skillset. Youtubers have demonstrated a better way of explaining this phenomenon – the results of a paradox that came about off the back of Eminem’s success two decades ago. Millions of Americans are lapping up these rappers, but their success seems more mixed around the globe. Their output, particularly G-Eazy’s, relies on collaborations with trending artists and isn’t confined to just Hip-Hop. The type of readers browsing this website isn’t likely to be the target audience for G-Eazy, as his popularity appears to stem from an audience that’s outside of the culture. Songs sound and feel like Pop tailored to include rap verses, and he often avoids the traditional sixteen-bar structure with his verses to cater to this.
The single for his latest album, “Anxiety”, is an interesting concept that certainly benefits from a visually striking video. Still, despite trying to demonstrate an internal conversation with himself, he manages to sound completely ordinary. When this publication last covered G-Eazy in 2018, writer Matthew St. Cyr labelled him “boring. Nothing about the album is memorable”, with the best moments coming from guest vocalists lending G a catchy hook. I have similar thoughts in 2024.
He comes across as a moody Macklemore on “Showbiz”, as he riffs on Cypress Hill’s “Rap Superstar”. This insistence on sampling massive pop songs is a recurring theme on “Freak Show” – “In My Head” relies on t.A.t.U’s 2002 smash “All the Thing’s She Said”. “Femme Fatale” utilizes a 20th Century Steel Band sample familiar to many as the start of Jennifer Lopez’s “Jenny From the Block”.
He masks his voice on “WTFDIK”, emulating British grime icon Skepta with a deep tone, and even compares himself to legendary singers of the past:
“Back-to-back Suburbans, we moving presidentially
This Rollie is a Prezi and I run shit evidently
And this shit could get deadly, all the jealousy and envy
When you winning and you up, the hatred comes around eventually
If you ain’t in my circle, can’t call me, you can’t text me
You can’t get to my directly, you gon’ have to go through Jesse
And most of y’all are fake, so it’s no wonder I’m not friendly
This generation’s Johnny Cash, I’m hip-hop’s Elvis Presley
So you could say I’m different, you could say I switched
You could say I changed, but I ain’t nevеr been no—, yeah”
The problem here is that Hip-Hop doesn’t just have its example of Elvis Presley already (Eminem) but saying that proudly, given Elvis’ legacy has a complicated history with Black music, feels both tone-deaf and misguided. G-Eazy then goes on to say he’s Hip-Hop’s James Dean AND Hip-Hop’s Jack Nicholson on “Lady Killers III”. The leather jacket bit I get, but considering Nicholson is one of the most charismatic screen actors of the last sixty years, there is nothing about G-Eazy that evokes one of Hollywood’s best. G-Eazy is an average emcee at best, and appears to be convinced that his reputation is much bigger than it really is.
It’s not all redundant. I liked “One Day” with Leon Bridges, as he uses his conversational delivery to great effect, This is the style of rap that feels most effective for a man with little to say, and few ways to say it. Straightforward stories with enough of a Hip-Hop feel to it all.
“Freak Show” panders to a mainstream listener at every opportunity, but I left this album no clearer on who G-Eazy is as a person. He’s certainly more ordinary than freak and he’s frequently a side-dish when the guest features are serving up tasty hooks, but there’s something about him that makes his success not completely unwarranted. It just lacks inspiration.