Cities Aviv, an American producer and rapper from Memphis, Tennessee, known for his sampled based beats and the cloudy atmospheres he builds in his music. He gained traction with Black Pleasure, which is regarded as one of his best projects (and for good reason).

GUM is a complete departure from Black Pleasure in all aspects. Black Pleasure was quite short, colorful, and had a very open atmosphere. GUM is colorless, drab, lethargic, and "boring". But he makes it work. Despite there being a few six minute songs, a nine minutes, and a forty five minute song... He still made it work.

None of this should work, but it does anyways. He makes something so boring so engaging. The depressive, lonely atmosphere enhances the listening experience.

GUM is nothing short of genius. Despite it mostly relying on droney old school R&B, jazz, and soul samples. At times, it just turns into ambient noise. It's hypnotizing and makes me want to continue listening despite its length and how drab it is. I don't associate this album with any sort of color, it's just so lifeless.

This album should be bad by a lot of standards. There's not an ounce of life to it. It's lethargic / boring. It's devoid of color or any emotion. It feels so one note. Which are all typically negative thoughts if have for an album. But that's the point of GUM.

This is easily one of my favorite experimental hip-hop records of all time. It takes the genre and flips it on its head entirely. It's incredibly groundbreaking.

1. (I Seen You) Shine

The intro track is mostly just this low tone, looping noise for the first two minutes. After that, we get this hypnotic, cloudy beat where he drags out his raspy voice and slowly delivers some lines that feel devoid of any meaning. The drums are so quiet and take away any structure from the song.

It feels sickening and woozy to listen to. It's awfully drowzy as well. It's easy to fall asleep to this song.

2. Over

The only semblance of emotion we get across the record. The sample is bouncy, energetic. And his rapping perfectly matches it. It really was the only time I felt something while listening to this album.

3. World Made of Marble

This is easily one of my favorite songs. It's a dreamy, piano heavy track that spans a little over six minutes. It feels so empty, like there's nothing of value. His voice remains raspy, and his voice sounds lethargic on its own. Dragging words and entire lines. His rapping is sporadic and doesn't follow a flow. It feels kinda random.

It's eerie, floaty, and is definitely a great representation of this album.

4. Suddenly Evaporate

Despite the happy sounding sample, his voice sounds despondent and strained. The happy sample as a result starts to sound just as hopeless as him.

The complete lack of drums take away any comfort this song could've provided. It's unnerving to say the least...

5. Call Tower

The overly joyous piano seriously contrasts his heavy, deadpan tone. He sounds exhausted. His voice cracks, and it makes this somehow better. Voice cracks typically ruin a song for me (some can be pulled off beautifully though), and this works on his favor though. It adds to this sickly feeling.

This song sounds like what it feels like to be sick.

6. Mobo

A purely instrumental track. Feels woozy. Not much else to say, really.

7. Standing By The 260

One of my favorite songs off the album. Great sample flip as well. The atmosphere feels cramped. His tone sounds drier than ever, and his delivery is off and has no set flow. He just kinda... Pops in?

It feels like a further descent into nothingness. There's nothing of substance to this song. This song had me questioning to myself why I kept listening and why I was actually enjoying this. By all means, this would be something I absolutely despise, yet I love it. The repitive nature of this song makes it... Well, good. Normally a repitive song gets boring and makes me want to die on the inside. Something about this keeps me coming back to listen to it, despite its six minute length and it being mostly the same thing during that time span. No variation or anything.

8. Gestures

Back to back, some of my favorite songs. People hate on this song, and I just don't get it.

Across its nine minutes runtime, it stretches out these eerie, cloudy, jazzy samples to create such a hypnotic environment. Perfect late night song. It's eerie, hypnotic, and such an underrated song.

9. Tamika

Not much to this song. It feels like an interlude for what's to come very soon. Cool though.

10 (final song). Power Approaches

I say this with no hesitation, this is one of the greatest rap songs to ever exist. The fact I even get the privilege to hear something like this is absurd.

45 minutes... Definitely not the longest song I've ever heard, but for an album like this, that sure as hell feels absurd.

It's like a bunch of songs put into one. My favorite part being the first, obviously. There's tons of beat switches, but none of them will compare to that very first part.

It's another bit of emotion showing itself. It feels happy, like we're getting closure. Like something is finally ending.

A song this beautiful feels rewarding after being tortured with nothingness and facing the most drab and colorless music you could ever experience. This is the best song on the album. This is the best song Cities Aviv has made and will make. This is one of the best songs from 2020. This is one of the best songs of the decade. This is one of the greatest songs of the century. And this is one of the greatest songs ever made in general, including any genre. This is a masterpiece in hip-hop/rap music, sampling ability, and so much more. Truly a breathtaking song that words simply can't describe.

Final thoughts

GUM is an absolutely groundbreaking album that tears apart music theory and spits on it, pisses on it, and shits on it. It breaks traditional song structures to fit his vision for this world he was building. A colorless, meaningless, empty world at that.

GUM is a masterpiece that people seriously didn't understand on release. But now people understand it and its worth.

If I could recommend this behemoth of an album, I'd recommend it to my good friend of the site @Rav-in-the-pantry

Amazing person, go follow them if you follow me. One of the sweetest and kindest people on here. When you have the time to, give this thing a listen. Go into it with an open mind, however.

That's all, thanks if you took the time out of your day to actually read this. I spent a lot of time on (even if I know no one really looks at this stuff). Good night, I need sleep for school, I've got a lot of tests (and high school tests suck ass).

Also, here's my top five tracks

1. Power Approaches

2. World Made Of Marble

3. Standing By The 260

4. Gestures

5. Over

HM. (I Seen You) Shine