Gunna (rapper)

Sergio Giavanni Kitchens (born June 14, 1993), known professionally as Gunna, is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. Best known for his collaborations with Lil Baby and Young Thug, he is signed to the latter's record label, YSL Records, as well as 300 Entertainment and Atlantic Records.[3] He released his debut studio album, Drip or Drown 2 on February 22, 2019 and followed it up with his second studio album Wunna on May 22, 2020, which debuted atop the Billboard 200.[4]

Gunna
Kitchens performing in July 2019
Background information
Birth nameSergio Giavanni Kitchens[1]
Also known as
  • Wunna[2]
  • YSL Gunna
  • Yung Gunna
  • Gunna Gunna
Born (1993-06-14) June 14, 1993
College Park, Georgia, U.S.
OriginAtlanta, Georgia, U.S
Genres
Occupation(s)
  • Rapper
  • singer
  • songwriter
InstrumentsVocals
Years active2013–present
Labels
Associated acts
Websiteonly1gunna.com

Early life

Kitchens was born in College Park, Georgia. He was raised by his mother and has four older brothers.[1] He started making music at age fifteen.[5] He grew up listening to Cam'ron, Chingy and Outkast, among others.[6] Kitchens attended North Springs Charter School of Arts and Sciences and Langston Hughes High School. In 2013, Gunna released the mixtape Hard Body under the name Yung Gunna.[5]

Career

2016–2018: Career beginnings and Drip Season series

Gunna was introduced to American rapper Young Thug through Keith "King" Troup, a mutual friend and community figure who died in December 2015. He was later featured alongside American rappers Travis Scott and Gucci Mane on Thug's song, "Floyd Mayweather", from his commercial mixtape, Jeffery.[6][7]

On October 14, 2016, Gunna released his debut mixtape, Drip Season through YSL Records. It featured members from YSL, such as Young Thug, Lil Duke, and Nechie.[8] He released the mixtape Drip Season 2 on May 11, 2017. It featured many popular Atlanta and YSL artists such as Young Thug, Playboi Carti, and Offset. From the mixtape, "YSL" featuring American rapper Playboi Carti was on a "Grand Theft Auto" radio station.[9][10] On November 30, 2017, He released his debut extended play, Drip or Drown, in which his record producer and close friend Wheezy entirely produced it, with a sole guest appearance from Young Thug.[11]

2018: Drip Season 3 and Drip Harder

On February 2, 2018, he released the commercial mixtape, Drip Season 3. It featured notable guest appearances from Hoodrich Pablo Juan, Lil Durk, Nav, Metro Boomin, and Lil Yachty, while the deluxe edition featured additional appearances from Lil Uzi Vert, Young Jordan, Young Thug, and Lil Baby. The regular and deluxe editions were simultaneously released together.[12]

On April 17, 2018, Gunna released a single titled, "Sold Out Dates", featuring American rapper Lil Baby, a close friend and frequent collaborator. The song became one of his mainstream recordings and received millions of streams on platforms like YouTube and SoundCloud. It was eventually released as a non-album single after leaks. On August 3, Gunna also appeared alongside Canadian rapper Nav on American rapper and singer Travis Scott's single "Yosemite", a standout song from his third studio album, Astroworld, which happened to also be the highest-selling album of the year. The verse in the song, which was performed by Scott mimics Gunna's verse in "Sold Out Dates". The majority of the song's popularity went towards Gunna's appearance on the chorus.

On September 12, 2018, Gunna and Lil Baby released a collaborative single "Drip Too Hard," which would turn out as the lead single of their collaborative mixtape, Drip Harder. The mixtape was released on October 5. It featured guest appearances from Lil Durk, Nav, Young Thug, and Drake. The single and mixtape both peaked at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the Billboard 200, respectively.[8]

2019: Drip or Drown 2

On February 1, 2019, Gunna released the single, "One Call", which was certified platinum and serves as the lead single of his debut studio album, Drip or Drown 2. On February 11, he released the second and final single, "Speed it Up". The album was released on February 22, featuring guest appearances from fellow Atlanta rappers Lil Baby, Young Thug, and Playboi Carti, and charting at number three on the 200 Chart.[13]

On August 16, 2019, he was featured on American rapper Young Thug's single "Hot", from the latter's debut studio album, So Much Fun. The song peaked at the number-one spot on Apple Music. The song was given a remix with an extra feature on a verse from American rapper and singer Travis Scott on October 31 (Halloween), because of which the song eventually peaked at number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100.[14] Gunna is also featured on "Surf" from the album, as well as "Diamonds" from the deluxe version, the latter which was released in December 2019.

2020: Wunna

On the week of Friday, February 14, 2020, Gunna was featured on three songs. He was featured on the late Pop Smoke's "Dior" remix, released on February 12. He was also featured on Marlo's "My Hood" and alongside Roddy Ricch and London on da Track on A Boogie wit da Hoodie's song "Numbers", both released on February 14. Gunna later released a collaborative single with Nav, titled "Turks", featuring Travis Scott. The song was released on March 27, 2020, and serves as the lead single to Nav's third studio album, Good Intentions (Gunna is also featured on the track "Codeine" from the album). "Turks" marks the second time the three artists had collaborated on the same song following Scott's song "Yosemite". Six days later, on April 2, 2020, he released a collaborative track with producer Turbo and Young Thug, titled "Quarantine Clean", referencing the COVID-19 pandemic, an ongoing pandemic at the time of the song's release.

On March 6, 2020, he released a single, "Skybox", the lead single of his second studio album, Wunna. It was released with an accompanying music video.[15] On May 18, 2020, Gunna released the title track of the album, which was the second single. Four days later, on May 22, Gunna released the album[16] It features guest appearances from Young Thug, Nechie, Lil Baby, Roddy Ricch, and Travis Scott. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, becoming his first number one album.[17] On July 24, 2020, he released the deluxe edition, with eight more songs, featuring additional guest appearances from Yak Gotti, Future, Nav, and Lil Uzi Vert.

On August 14, 2020, Gunna and hip-hop collective and record label Internet Money released the highly anticipated single, "Lemonade", featuring American singer Don Toliver and Nav.

Controversies

On December 29, 2019, Baton Rouge rapper Tec claimed Gunna was on an episode of Crimestoppers the day before and was working with the police and "snitching on criminals". Gunna denied the accusations by Tec and commented "you better do the history" to prove it was not him. Tec also claimed that Young Thug's clothing brand, SPIDER, copied his clothing brand, Spider Nation. Tec believed that it was "stealing his image".[18] People claimed that the person who said "it was him, Officer" on Crimestoppers was Gunna.[19]

On June 8, 2020, gunshots were fired during the filming of the official music video for fellow labelmate Lil Keed's song "Fox 5", in which Gunna was featured. The song was released four days later, on June 12, and appears on the former's second studio album, Trapped on Cleveland 3 (2020).[20] The shooting resulted in two people with non-life-threatening injuries.[21] The following day, Gunna and Young Thug confirmed that they were the ones shooting to make a scene for the video, and that nobody needed to worry about it.

On June 3, 2018, Gunna and one of his record producers and DJ, Taurus, were en route to Jonesboro, Arkansas to perform at the Diamond Grill. They were lost on the way, and asked a police officer for directions. When the officer went by their grey SUV, he smelled marijuana. He immediately searched the car and found on them an edible marijuana box. Both Gunna and his DJ were arrested. They were released on bond for $2,500 the next day and were due back in court on July 27, 2018.[22][23]

Discography
Main article: Gunna discography

References
  1. Kochhar, Nazuk (October 25, 2017). "Gunna wants you to go out and get it". The Fader. Retrieved February 1, 2019.
  2. https://twitter.com/1gunnagunna/status/1239808976742645760?s=21
  3. Bundy, Will (November 16, 2016). "Young Thug Has Apparently Launched His Own Label, YSL Records. Some of Gunna's top Billboard hits include "Drip Too Hard", "Never Recover" and "Space Cadet"". The Fader. Retrieved February 1, 2019.
  4. Johnson, Patrick (May 12, 2020). "Gunna Announces 'WUNNA' Album Release Date With New Documentary Trailer". HypeBeast. Retrieved May 14, 2020.
  5. Lee, Christina (October 22, 2018). "Gunna Speaks His Success Into Existence". XXL. Retrieved February 7, 2019.
  6. Coe, Kairi (February 16, 2018). "The Break Presents: Gunna". XXL. Retrieved February 5, 2019.
  7. Hussein, Wandera (February 14, 2018). "Buzzing Atlanta Rapper Gunna Talks 'Drip Season 3,' Working With Young Thug & Meeting Wyclef Jean". Billboard. Retrieved February 5, 2019.
  8. Peisner, David (December 12, 2018). "Chartbreaker: How Gunna Went From 'Only Knowing Struggle' to Having Nine Hot 100 Hits". Billboard. Retrieved February 7, 2019.
  9. Evan Minsker (2017-12-12). "Frank Ocean Launches "Grand Theft Auto" Radio Station: JAY-Z, Panda Bear, Aphex Twin, More". Pitchfork.com. Retrieved 2020-04-10.
  10. Kochhar, Nazuk (June 1, 2017). "Gunna rules, and here's the proof". The Fader. Retrieved February 7, 2019.
  11. "Gunna & Wheezy's "Drip Or Drown" EP Has Arrived". HotNewHipHop. Retrieved 2019-11-25.
  12. Renshaw, David (February 2, 2018). "Listen to Gunna's Drip Season 3 project". The Fader. Retrieved February 7, 2019.
  13. Saponara, Michael. "Gunna Announces 'Drip or Drown II' Release Date". Billboard. Retrieved 26 February 2019.
  14. "Young Thug". Billboard. Retrieved 2020-06-08.
  15. "Watch Gunna's Balloon Voyage Video for New Song "SKYBOX"". Pitchfork. Retrieved 2020-03-06.
  16. "Stream Gunna New Album 'WUNNA' Here". Siachen Studios. 2020-05-22. Retrieved 2020-05-23.
  17. Caulfield, Keith (May 31, 2020). "'Wunna' Wins: Gunna Earns First No. 1 Album on Billboard 200 Chart". Billboard. Retrieved July 14, 2020.
  18. "Gunna Called A Snitch After Footage Of Him On 'Crimestoppers' Surfaces + He Responds". HOT 97 | #1 For Hip Hop. December 29, 2019. Retrieved 2019-12-31.
  19. "Gunna "Crime Stoppers" Video Surfaces Causing Division Among Fans". HotNewHipHop. December 30, 2019. Retrieved 2019-12-31.
  20. "Young Thug & Gunna Reacts To Shots Fired On "Fox 5" Video Set In Atlanta". Urban Islandz. 2020-06-09. Retrieved 2020-06-21.
  21. Zachary Hansen, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "Police: 2 injured after gunfire erupts during filming of music video in South Fulton". ajc. Retrieved 2020-06-21.
  22. "Gunna Arrested With Ecstasy And Pills After Asking Cops For Directions". AllHipHop.com. Retrieved 2018-06-05.
  23. "Gunna Reportedly Arrested For Possession Of A Controlled Substance". HotNewHipHop. Retrieved 2020-01-04.
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