If you were anywhere near the internet yesterday you then definitely caught wind of Taylor Gangs’ Chevy Woods and his newest tape ‘Gangland’3 dropping on Datpiff.com , and making some serious waves. Taking the time as an artist to make sure this release was everything it needed to be Chev made sure to include a number of banging producers from Pittsburgh stand out ID Labs(Champagne/In The Kitchen), Sonny Digital(Garfield) who for the last few years has slapped his name on some hits, ATL based pioneer trap producer Zaytoven(NOISEY: ATLANTA)did some work on this tape with Chev, and you know the homie Ricky Tan aka The Real Ricky P(Thug It Out) has a placement on this tape as well.
Making sure these beats we used to their fullest extent he also enlists some fellow Taylor Gang teamates Ty Dolla $ign, Juicy J, and Wiz Khalifa keeping the album a team effort while having the space to creatively take this tape to that level he did.
The opening track “Welcome To The Trap”(prod.Arthur MacArthur) has airy bell tones providing the melody jumping on top of a kicking 808 while Chev lyrically paints the listener a story about living in the struggles that are the trap. Describing the ideal life of wealth and riches that is overshadowed by the constant danger and fear of losing your life in the trap. With any music that is based on true life experiences of the artist the listener who may never have experienced a life-like finds a reason to feel connected to the stories the artist is telling. Each track whether it have that slapping 808 sound, or a 90’s flow feel to them there are undertones of just how real this life is for him. Having this element as a recurring theme throughout the whole mix tape while not over reaching his sincerity in these lyrics Chevy’s tape can also be a sign of hope for those stuck in the life he is rapping about.
Keeping in line with the Taylor Gang modus operandi Chevy enlists a line up of feature artist who in their own right have solidified their own names in the hip hop realm. Some would argue that using the right amount of feature artists is important to a mixtapes success, but in the past releases from Chev(Red Cup, GangLand 1 & 2) including “GangLand”3 have all seemed to use the feature artist to show Chevys talents as a collab artist. Working with more melodic artists on “GangLand” 3, Woods seamlessly blends his style of gritty lyrical delivery with a melodic aspect to it giving the tape a feeling of movement rather than a redundant style over the same beats having this variety truly makes it a great one to listen to.
