Atlanta’s legendary rapper and Young Thug’s close affiliate Gunna, born Sergio Giavanni Kitchens, finally performed live at The Barclays Center, in Brooklyn, New York marking his first performance after he was released from prison last year.
For the rapper, whose flagrant rap career was mired by controversies after he reportedly took the Alford plea in the ongoing RICO trial against Hip-Hop collective Young Stoner Life, the Brooklyn concert served as a crucial avenue to test his influence over rap music.
During his packed concert, which was reportedly attended by over 20,000 people, Gunna performed his 4th rap LP “a Gift & a Curse” including “fukumean” & “rodeo dr” from the LP and his massive collaborative efforts with Thugger including “Pushin’ P”, “Hot” and “Ski”. Further, the ATL rapstar remembered Young Thug and expressed his concerns over the YSL bossman’s controversial indictment.
Across his triumphant comeback performance, titled “The Gift”, Gunna performed against a massive “Free Jeffrey” billboard and did a live rendition of some of Thug’s most influential ATL rap records.
Besides remembering Thug, Gunna showed love to his fans for attending perhaps the most important live set of his rap career yet. “I love the f*ck out of y’all, I swear to God,” he said. “This sh*t is crazy,” Gunna told the crowd.
GUNNA PERFORMING “FUKUMEAN” FOR THE FIRST TIME ⛽️ pic.twitter.com/IMX0gjJemn
— Complex Music (@ComplexMusic) September 10, 2023
Gunna performs Young Thug’s verse on “Hot”
— THUGGERDAILY ひ (@ThuggerDaily) September 10, 2023
” FREE JEFFERY ” pic.twitter.com/pa6q7qTOch
Gunna is further slated to perform another live set in Los Angeles, California on September 28. The show, which will serve as the follow-up to Gunna’s triumphant return to live rap music, is titled “The Curse”.
Reportedly, the show has been sold out and is slated to go down at the YouTube theatre. Notably, Gunna has partnered up with the nonprofit organization Goodr for The Gift. For every ticket sold, $1 was put toward The Goodr Foundation, which helps combat world hunger.
The Gift. The Curse. See u soon https://t.co/r6UkHpwXrW pic.twitter.com/JdFzaCRTYD
— WUNNA (@1GunnaGunna) July 17, 2023
Gunna was one of the 28 members of the Atlanta-based Hip-Hop collective and record label Young Stoner Life. The iconic consortium of artists was arrested in May amidst a series of infamous RICO charges levelled against them.
The indictment against YSL references “colors, clothing, tattoos, hand signs as well as verbal and written identifiers” that YSL allegedly uses, including wearing red or green bandanas, saying and writing the words “BLATT” meaning “Blood Love All the Time” or “SLATT” meaning “Slime Love All the Time.”
The far-reaching 56-count indictment seeks to portray YSL as a criminal gang responsible for various crimes including additional gun and drug charges.
However, even at the time of his prison release, Gunna asserted that he “did not consider YSL a gang; more like a group of people from metro Atlanta who had common interests and artistic aspirations.”
“My focus of YSL was entertainment — rap artists who wrote and performed music that exaggerated and ‘glorified’ urban life in the Black community,” Gunna said at the time.
Young Thug and the remaining artists associated with YSL are yet to be freed from prison.
Read More: Young Thug Releases “Business is Business” LP From Prison
Stream ‘a Gift & a Curse’ LP by Gunna via Spotify.
