Gunna In Concert

Gunna has built an undeniable buzz for the past few years, consistently turning stages to ooze with his smooth, singsong bars and fondness for the word "drip." The liquid-voiced Atlanta native supported Playboi Carti on his 2017 summer tour, appearing alongside Young Nudy and Pi'erre Bourne (with the occasional surprise cameo from Gunna's mentor, Young Thug, to perform their "Floyd Mayweather" collab). Thug ultimately returned the favor, bringing out Gunna for a hometown performance of "Oh Okay" in Atlanta. Gunna also took the stage at 2018's Made in America Festival, rapping hits from his Drip Season mixtapes to a massive Philadelphia crowd. And at the BET Hip Hop Awards the same year, he donned suspenders and a flashy tropical shirt to perform "Drip Too Hard," the breakthrough hit from he and Lil Baby's Drip Harder tape. In early 2019, Gunna will join the spectacular circus of Travis Scott's Astroworld: Wish You Were Here Tour (literally - the show is modeled after an amusement park, with a ferris wheel and roller coaster); he'll open for the Houston rapper alongside Sheck Wes and Trippie Redd, a who's who of the biggest new names in hip-hop.

Gunna Background

You can't talk about modern Atlanta rap without talking about Gunna - one of the city's brightest rising stars. Born Sergio Kitchens in College Park (home of many an OutKast shout-out), the rapper was introduced to fellow trap warbler Young Thug at a video shoot, and ultimately signed to his Young Slime Life label. The connection made sense: Gunna's voice often evokes Thug's, and the two share a knack for melody; but where Thug tends toward the weird and wild, Gunna's delivery is subtler, occasionally even meditative, with a sharp ear for beats from the likes of producers Metro Boomin and Wheezy. Since 2016, he's dropped three installments of his Drip Season mixtape series. And he's an intensely prolific collaborator - in 2018 alone, he shared tracks with Future, Juice WRLD, Travis Scott, Playboi Carti, Tory Lanez, and none other than Mariah Carey on her latest album, Caution. But the Gunna's most buzzed-about release has been Drip Harder, his full-length 2018 collaboration with fellow Atlanta upstart Lil Baby, featuring guest spots from Drake and Young Thug. Its lead single, "Drip Too Hard," has even peaked at No. 4 on the Hot 100 charts, marking Gunna's official arrival - a rapper on the vanguard of what Atlanta sounds like right now.