In his first single since his chart-topping fourth studio album A Gift & a Curse, Gunna lays his latest hopes and fears bare. “Bittersweet” is pensive and stripped back, with the Atlanta MC laying stream-of-consciousness raps down over sentimental guitar and subtle percussion from producers Dystinkt Beats and 1SRAEL, the latter of the the popular Philadelphia beat-smiths Working on Dying.
Gunna runs through concerns about women, former friends, and drug use throughout the song, but also notes some recent highlights, like the massive success of his last album, released after a year-long stint in jail, and his noticeable new fitness. “Praying more on my knees at night, I’m tryna get right,” he raps on the hook. “Times it don’t feel even, but I still gotta stride / Living through the seasons ’til the day that we die.”
The song’s music video finds him working out and dripped up in a serene, snowy mansion, matching its icy tone. After Gunna entered an Alford plea in Fulton County’s case against him as an alleged member of a criminal gang led by Young Thug under the auspices of their rap label, Young Stoner Life, Rolling Stone’s Andre Gee pondered if the rapper was being shunned by peers in the rap scene though his choice could not be legally held against Thug or the dozens of other people accused.
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In his plea, Gunna affirmed that he “had personal knowledge of members of YSL committing crimes in furtherance of a gang” and agreed that “YSL as a gang must end.” The plea allowed him to maintain innocence while accepting the repercussions of a guilty verdict, sentencing him to five years, with four suspended and one commuted to time served for the time he was held awaiting trial.
On “Bittersweet,” Gunna seems to address love lost with hope it can be rekindled, with bars like “Shit been rough, but I ain’t too tough to say I love and I miss you/ You my dawg, I don’t care if we fall out, nigga, I never could diss you,” and “My fans coming through for me, you think they entitled / Thinkin’ ’bout the crew again, could we reunite ’em? / Shit done been slow motion, but the peace steady climbing.”