Longtime Memphis rap emissary Yo Gotti is on a quest to become the next Birdman. And since the days before Juvenile’s 400 Degreez turned Cash Money into a behemoth, the New Orleans-bred bossman has believed in the power of the rap duo: from the Big Tymers to Like Father, Like Son, from Drake and Wayne to Young Thug and Rich Homie Quan as Rich Gang. Birdman’s philosophy seems to be, if you have two hot artists on the same label, put them together and they’ll get even hotter. Yo Gotti appears to have adopted that ideology on his CMG imprint’s latest release Last Ones Left, an occasionally exciting joint album between two fast-rising rappers in Detroit’s 42 Dugg and Louisville’s EST Gee.
Dugg and Gee complement each other well enough: They’re both hugely influenced by rap scenes in the South and Midwest, and they both tell hardened drug-dealing stories that blur the lines between reality and myth. Specifically what works about them as a pair is the way their voices clash, as Dugg’s brash high-pitched delivery, which slightly brings to mind Webbie, ricochets off Gee sounding like a ghost whispering through the walls. The highlights are the tracks where their verses weave together to the point that they feel like one. On “Ice Talk,” Dugg and Gee are in complete sync, building off each other’s last lines every time they pass the mic. I particularly like “Free the Shiners,” when Gee ends on a meditative note about love and Dugg follows with an unhinged and considerably less heartfelt mood change.
The chemistry wanes a bit when the two take on a more traditional verse one, verse two structure. Sometimes, the tonal shifts are off-putting: I tend not to always take Dugg that seriously, meanwhile Gee sounds like he has maybe laughed once in his life and it was at a kid falling off his bike. On the piano-driven “Skcretch Sum,” Dugg’s skittering chirps feel inconsequential while Gee is rattling off cold-blooded nightmares: “We gon’ send him back holding his hat with decompressed lungs/God helped me relax, I throw two back, help my depression.” On “Thump Shit,” Dugg brags about being able to sell literally anything you typically need a prescription for (like the Wolf of Wall Street “sell me this pen” scene but for drugs), but it fits oddly next to Gee rapping about violence with a level of cruelty that is borderline horrorcore. It works on “Everybody Shooters Too,” though. Over one of the best, pummeling Enrgy beats since AK Bandamont’s 2021 tape Soul Controller, Dugg and Gee are in full heat-check mode, culminating in the moment when they rap “They say it’s all for nothing, but I’m going for it, fuck it” in unison. It’s maybe two seconds, but it’s an amazing two seconds.
As the tape goes on, it veers off course from a Dugg and Gee joint album into promotion for the new artists that Gee and Dugg are pushing. I get it, but it feels about as underwhelming as when you’re watching a TV show and they sneak in a backdoor pilot. Still, Last Ones Left holds together despite its inconsistencies. Even if 42 Dugg and EST Gee aren’t the most organic duo, it’s hard not to have fun with two scorching-hot rappers going toe-to-toe.
