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Key Glock has yet to allow a full calendar year to escape him without delivering a new project to the world since his 2017 breakout tape, Glock Season. Five months after Dum And Dummer, his 2019 joint tape with fellow Memphis rapper Young Dolph, Key Glock returned at the top of 2020 with yet another boastful project, Yellow Tape. Just four months later, Glock flies through with yet another confident collection of tracks thanks to Son Of A Gun.
For the second time in his career — the last in 2018 with Glock Bond and Glockoma — Key Glock graces his audience with a second project in a twelve-month span. While the blaze set by Yellow Tape and standout efforts like “Dough” and “Word On The Street” is still alive, Key Glock adds fuel to the fire with Son Of A Gun. While the term is often used towards a child with an absent father, Glock embraces the term as part of his identity and uses it as the reason to unapologetically flex his blessings and accomplishments following a grim childhood.
Deciding against a slow and steady build-up towards the action, Key Glock arrives with the force of a car accident in a four-way intersection on the album’s intro track, “Son Of A Gun.” Led by erratic swipes on a violin and a thumping bass, Glock mentions the hardships of his youth and promises he made to his mother growing up, “Yeah, b*tch, I’m the sh*t and I came from nothin’ / Told my mama that a change gon’ come / Yeah, yeah, straight out the slums.” Two tracks later, Key Glock glides with confidence and charm on “FYTB” while refuting the credibility of the competition with anecdotes that date back to his pre-rap days. “Yeah, young n**** came from sh*t, but I didn’t tap out, uh / Have you ever spent a night up in the traphouse?” he asks.
Presenting a rags-to-riches story with plenty of riches still left to be made, Key Glock makes it clear that his confidence and authority are nailed gunned into himself and his music. “Money Talks” finds him silencing the competition and the suggestion that the talking should only be done by the dead presidents they all claim to have all by asking, “Money talk, what the f*ck is you talkin’ ’bout?” The celebration of a prosperous life continues as Glock gets lost in his braggadocious bag on “Flexxxin” and “Go Get It.” Both tracks present the Memphis rapper in a proud pile of materialist earnings, with the former being a near-obnoxious celebration of money, cars, fame, and more, while the latter features much of the same tied into a message of relentless hustling and a tunnel-visioned approach to getting money. “Why they hatin’ on me? I’m curious, I’m gettin’ paid and they envious,” he ponders on “Go Get It.”
Yellow Tape and Son Of A Gun are both similar in varying ways. They both present Key Glock with an unblemished armor, diamonds that require a pair of sunglasses to truly appreciate, and the authority to make you second guess an attack whether it be lyrical or physical. However, Son Of A Gun drizzles Glock’s personality across its fifteen tracks, giving us a young man with no desire to alter his upbringing as it is precisely the reason he became the confident being he is today.
Glock refuses to be sorry for himself, and we as listeners shouldn’t be either. “Rich Blessed N Savage” finds him simultaneously aware and accepting of how his childhood has affected him today as he raps, “If you don’t like me, blame my parents.” Son Of A Gun is the boastful proclamation that, as unorthodox as his upbringing was, it’s part of his DNA and the very reason he shines as bright as the string of diamonds that dangle from his neck.
Son Of A Gun is out now via Paper Route EMPIRE. Get it here.