The world is going through it right now. It's no better time for Gunna to formally introduce us to his Wunna alter-ego, someone whose entire ethos is about living a stress-free life, so it would seem. The rapper sat down with us virtually for our brand new digital cover, to coincide with the anticipated release of his WUNNA deluxe edition album. In the conversation helmed by Alex Zidel, the two dive deeper into the changes Gunna has made, some quarantine-provoked and some a simple matter of forward-thinking. While Gunna's new personality still requires some fleshing out, we learn the foundations of what makes up Wunna, and we come to understand the thoughtfulness that was poured into his album of the same name.
Image by Spike Jordan & Maxime Quoilin for HNHH
This careful curation on the album was immediate when the original dropped, back in May during a period of extreme chaos. WUNNA dropped on May 22nd and on May 25th, George Floyd was killed. We were already reeling collectively from the effects of the pandemic and the sequestering that it entailed. Now, we had another battle unfolding before us, as the world came to unite under the mantle of fighting racism. All this to say, WUNNA provided a much-needed auditory escape. Pressing play on WUNNA was like a foreign vacation, and incidentally, that's exactly how the album came to be. Interestingly enough, Gunna explains in our story how he headed to Jamaica with no certain expectations of what he would do there, album or otherwise. This organic nature of WUNNA peaks through at every turn, the smooth and vibrant soundscapes equally mellow in nature. Now that we have a deluxe edition, with an updated and refreshed tracklist, we have another go at detaching and disconnecting from the hectic world that surrounds us. And while Gunna himself has yet to explore the benefits of meditation, this album essentially feels like one long meditative session.
Enough rambling, we're excited to present a brand new editorial piece with Gunna, his first solo cover it's worth noting-- when he and Lil Baby were first breaking out together in tandem, we had them link up together for a digital cover, that you can still check out right here.
Click the link below to visit our new digital cover story, and leave a comment with your feedback.
Words By: Alex Zidel
Photos By: Spike Jordan & Maxime Quoilin