Released on May 9, 2025,
on OTR Records, 50million, Futuristic Music Group, and EMPIRE.
Lefty Gunplay is living the biggest moment of his life. Released from a lengthy prison sentence in 2023, he has been putting out albums ever since – four of them in 2024 alone. And above all, he was among the Los Angeles rappers summoned by Kendrick Lamar on GNX, where he made a major impression with his appearance on the single “TV Off.” As a result, Franklin Holladay – son of a Guatemalan mother and a white American father, raised in a trailer in Baldwin Park – is operating on an entirely different level when his first truly big album drops, on the label and with the backing of Jason Martin.
Kendrick’s latest record was largely devoted to the rapper’s Californian roots, celebrating them. With Can’t Get Right, we find ourselves on the same familiar ground. This album is pure old-school Los Angeles rap: heavy bouncing bass lines (“Grey Goose Freestyle”), a handful of smooth, funky, instrument-rich tracks (“Menace”), and a laid-back, melodic sound – carried by syrupy female choruses (“Heavens Above,” “Me, My Gun And You”), male hooks (“One Day At A Time”), and Nate Dogg-style singing (“Scary Movie”).
The guests are all local. Alongside the former Problem, there’s Ty Dolla $ign, RJmrLA, The Game, and another artist introduced on GNX, Wallie the Sensei. Scott Storch also shows up, taking us back to the 2001 – the album – with the piano on “Lord Forgive Me.” West Coast classics are referenced too, notably MC Eiht’s “Streiht Up Menace,” echoed on “Menace.”
The themes follow the same line. Lefty Gunplay deals in unapologetic street life (“Can’t Get Right,” “Grey Goose Freestyle”), gun culture (“Lord Forgive Me”), and revenge on traitors (“Menace”). He parties in clubs with his shady crew (the middling “Hotel Party”). And for good measure, there’s some sentimental romance (“Heavens Above”) and bad-boy blues (“Gangsters Get Scared,” “One Day At A Time,” “Cracks In The Ceiling”).
In short, it’s a pleasant routine – well-worn territory. And despite the very compact runtime (barely over half an hour), Lefty Gunplay fails to make something cohesive out of this first post-GNX album. Can’t Get Right, indeed. He hasn’t yet lived up to the attention he’s been given. Though gems do surface occasionally – most notably “Me, My Gun And You,” a three-way love song between the rapper, his girlfriend (voiced by Storm Debarge), and his gun. A few more moments like that, and Lefty Gunplay might just fulfill the ambition underlying this album – the one spelled out in its closing track, “Through The Fire”: succeeding after prison.
