Westside Gunn, the Buffalo rapper known for his unique style of drug rap and love for pro wrestling and fashion, closes out his “HEELS HAVE EYES” trilogy with the series’ best and most well‑rounded album of the three. It feels above average compared to his previous work, blending both relaxed songs and the classic upbeat rap style, giving listeners a little bit of everything. What started back in April with a five song EP and then grew in August with a full length second album now comes to a close with “HEELS HAVE EYES 3,” an 11‑track album that brings all the previous ideas together and completes the “HEELS HAVE EYES” series.
Gunn begins the album with “JOSH BISHOP INTRO,” which plays a snippet of a journalist’s report on the Louvre heist that occurred just weeks before. Next, he raps on “FREE ROLEYS,” a very upbeat track featuring Benny The Butcher, an artist with a very similar style to Gunn, but with a slightly different tone, both delivering their expected Grisielda sound for a solid beginning of the album.
While listeners can hear Gunn’s typical aggressive tone and unique beats in his songs like “FREE ROLEYS,” they can also identify a more relaxed and laid back energy. In songs like “MANKIND,” Gunn includes a slower beat that works well with his high pitched voice. Throughout the album, Gunn raps about his passions outside of making music with lines like, “When I come through, lights out like Undertaker,” talking about his love for the WWE.
For me, the highlights of the album is “MANKIND” (feat. Stove God Cooks) and “TITO SANTANA” (feat. Rome Streetz). Both songs take a more calm approach than the rest of Gunn’s album. Stove God Cooks, and Rome Streetz perform very well, matching Gunn’s style and tone, improving both songs.
The rest of the album is very solid, with “TIFFANY BLUE” and “GUS SMACKER” (feat. Brother Tom Sos) being the other standout songs for me. Gunn sticks to his typical style and succeeds, the featured artists were picked perfectly and all meshed well with Gunn’s raps. A favorite for me was Brother Tom Sos, who was recently signed to the same label as Gunn, Grisielda. He was featured in the song “GUS SMACKER”, another relaxed beat where he combines well with Gunn and shines toward the end of the song, flowing well with the beat with solid lyrics. On the other side of things, there are still downsides to the album including some of the long outros to the songs like “R TRUTH” where he adds snippets of WWE announcers to the end which adds nothing to the song and are seemingly pointless.
Overall, the album is just above average for Gunn. He takes a more relaxed approach for some of the songs which ends out creating a good feel to the album. We still get the typical upbeat Westside Gunn, but also get to experience his calmness and relaxed nature. “HEELS HAVE EYES 3” is arguably the best project of the trilogy. Most Westside Gunn fans will be able to find something they like in this album. It is a decent addition to Gunn’s collection of music.
