On 'One of Wun,' Gunna can't flaunt his way out of the YSL trial's shadow

Everything was looking up for the Atlanta rapper when he released "," the cult hit from his 2022 album . His third LP to go No. 1 on the 200 in as many years seemed to establish him as a budding rap star, and "pushin P" felt like a sort of baton pass, featuring his maverick mentor and his autotuned forebear . Gunna had already been installed as Thug's heir apparent, with a series of drip-themed projects teasing out a soothed style, and here his extravagant music of muted overindulgence was nearing its shining apex. Produced by Wheezy at Art Basel in Miami, the song sounds like trying to ride the Vogue-wrapped, candy-painted hydraulic whips of "Still Tippin' " through a snowstorm of Swarovski crystal. Gunna sets the purchasing power from the jump: "Pointers in the Patek and my piece, I'm pushin' P," he states matter-of-factly, eyeballing the diamonds in a bust-down Swiss timepiece. The phrase, open to interpretation, , and Gunna opened his debut performing the song with Future at his side. Listening now, it is one of the last times he really sounded like himself. By October 2022, "pushin P" was platinum, and both Gunna and Thug had been.