If you’ve ever had the opportunity to unplug, plug in to some high-fidelity hip-hop through some high-tech headphones, zone out, and focus in while walking around an art gallery, you know that the juxtaposing forces at play are much more attuned to one another than one might expect. It’s the constant transfer of energy between the two mediums. Each piece on the wall, a different track. Each track beaming through your headphones, a different framed painting – some playing complex and poetic, others posing a more conceptual aesthetic – but all of it amalgamating to curate a story, build a cohesive energy, and put forth an immersive glimpse into the mind of an artist.

Thank you for the introduction, Angela Bussie, because The Art Gallery is a function that no one should be missing – even if the $25 admission runs controversial through its comedic intermission. Poetry in motion from beginning to end, Greg Bussie’s first project since 2020’s Infamously Famous, and third project since his 2017 debut, is a dynamic self-reinvention of his art, projected through the concept of gallery, by way of the framework of an oh, so Southside album.

His sound is inescapably Southern. At first glance – rather, first listen – its deep, gritty, but enticingly clear, propelling poetry through the sound waves with an unmistakable precision. There are certainly lines to be drawn to Bun B’s pitch depth and Southern draw – especially in the chorus for Him (Weekends In Memphis) though neither are as dramatic in the voice of Greg Bussie. Instead, his sound and his flow confluence as something more representable of a Southern Larry June. Carefree energy and an effortlessness central to his sound often give way to a vibrant tumbling of lyricism and a dynamic knack to switch up his cadence mid-verse. An unfaltering stranglehold on his sound fits neatly into a sense of bravado that never seems to leave his side. In other words, Greg Bussie talks a big game, but never gives us a reason to doubt him.

Welcome To The Art Gallery is a pointedly perfect welcome to The Art Gallery, not because of its on-the-nose title, but because through just two minutes, Greg Bussie introduces listeners to the vibrance of his range at all its reaches. With the first flow-switch of the album, just 40-seconds in, he confidentially refers to his gallery space as something new, refined, and self-sufficient. It’s an emotional stance he’ll keep up through the project’s entirety.

‘I’m the one who be driving this bitch, these beautiful pieces of art. You’re seeing that I’m bringing life to this shit, yeah, I’m the one writing this shit.’

And the flow switch is the conceptual signature he placards on the album at every precise moment when it feels just right. In fact, just 20 seconds after the first switch-up, he does it again, flexing his pliable delivery and keeping fans engaged on not just his penmanship, but also his seamless ability to shape a single song with an endless barrage of stylistic molds. Beyond that, he uses it to restructure his vision for hip-hop at large, stripping most of the songs on the project of the ceremonious frills that are hooks and choruses, and replacing them with flow-switches galore, keeping tracks short and sweet, and keeping all of us on our toes.

'This that make your boat rock, just wait ‘til the flow stop. Living my life by green lights, taking chances with no stops. Momma this just don’t seem right. How I’m catching the seams to prove the means that I really got the game sewed up.'

Intermission, My Turn Freestyle, Timeless Playa Shit, Simple, Just An Interlude, and Revolution all boast a similar construct to Welcome, flow switching and nixing choruses to exhibit a grip on his flow and lyricism that give the project an identity as a re-structured take on new-age a Southern sound. And then there are the other tracks. Him (Weekends In Memphis) and How Does It Feel run a more traditional song structure, but both are absolutely upturnt anthems for the Southern soundscape, beaming with energy and the omnipresence of Greg Bussie’s signature cadence changes, hard hitting lyricism, and deep register. Fellow Huntsville artists, Sincere Hunte - check out his 2021 album SO FAR SO GOOD - opens Honor Roll with a display of his own unique grip on belaying penmanship, as Bussie follows. And Master Coffee is both hilarious and an absolute bop.

The Art Gallery is a collection of stylistically differentiated representations of Greg Bussie’s new sound, new art, tethered by his signature. With a complete confidence in his sound and an undeniable grip on what makes it unique, he maneuvers through his new project with the swagger of a mixtape and the refined edge of an album the way that all of us should navigate our next visit to a gallery with our headphones on.

CHECK OUT OUR COVERAGE OF GREG BUSSIE AT HIDDEN GEMS FEST, HERE: