Gunna’s return is beginning to loom closer and closer.
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On Tuesday (May 30), a preview of a new Gunna song was posted to Instagram by BeldonDidThat, a producer he worked with on his 2018 hit song “Oh Okay (feat. Young Thug & Lil Baby).” The song sees Gunna rap about how his friends have taken the blame for him at times when he commits crimes, as well as people being upset that he got released from jail in December.
I been dancing with the devil, know what I’m talkin’ ’bout
The way it’s been going, shit, why not?
Three bodyguards every time I pop out
Killers in murder cars every time I pop out
Homies will take the charge if I gotta cop out
Take a look again, n***a, mine shot out
Forgive me for my sins and they mad I got out
Beldon also confirmed in the caption of his post that BabyWave helped him produce the song. BabyWave is an instrumentalist that worked on 2021 Gunna songs like “Ski” with Young Thug and “Came Out.”
Gunna has been a free man since December 2022, when he entered an Alford plea of guilt for his involvement with the Young Stoner Life record label, which Fulton County in Georgia considered to be a gang when they arrested its members for racketeering last year. After being in jail since May 2022, the Alford plea landed him with a sentence of solely community service.
While Gunna has been out of jail, though, his mentor and YSL founder Young Thug is still awaiting trial for these related racketeering charges. In the time he’s been free, many in the hip-hop community have condemned Gunna for “snitching” and cooperating with authorities in his case, although he insisted that his statement of guilt did not incriminate his fellow YSL labelmates.
“While I have agreed to always be truthful, I want to make it perfectly clear that I have NOT made any statements, have NOT been interviewed, have NOT cooperated, have NOT agreed to testify or be a witness for or against any party in the case and have absolutely NO intention of being involved in the trial process in any way,” he said in a statement to Atlanta’s WSB-TV news station.
Former friend and collaborator Lil Durk was not buying this, though. Durk, who worked with Gunna on their joint 2022 single “What Happened to Virgil?” that went No. 22 on the Hot 100, spoke about this in an interview with DJ Akademiks last week ahead of the release of his eighth album Almost Healed (May 26).
“That man told. You should’ve went in there and kept your mouth closed… If you a rat, I fuckin’ hate you. Cause I love Thug,” he said.
Regardless, Gunna’s recent song preview could see the light of day soon and would be his first release since being sent to jail around this time last year. In an Instagram live session from Wednesday (May 31), Gunna’s close friend and reported assistant Brittany Reshun proclaimed that he was releasing a single this Friday (June 2) at midnight ET, although she did not confirm that it would be the song Beldon previewed.
This is the second time Reshun has provided an update on Gunna music. In March, she posted a snippet of an unreleased Gunna song to her Instagram story, where he also seemingly references the YSL case.
Ultimately, Gunna’s possible return on Friday would undoubtedly be a polarizing moment for the hip-hop community, as some would embrace the long-awaited return of one of the genre’s most talented emcees, while others would shun a man who they believe betrayed his close friend.
Photo by Kevin Mazur/MG22/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue
