The 10 Best Gunplay Verses

Gunplay has spit with a lot more intensity, a lot more flare, and a lot more aggression, but on "Power Circle" he shows off some precision and manages to dominate the production without sounding like he's even putting in much effort. Even in the company of a team filled with big names, he opens this one with a strength that makes the guys who follow him sound kind of... well, you be the judge. Bonus points for the best sea bass reference in a rap song OF ALL TIME.

When some rappers jump on a song for a guest verse, they don't always bring their best. Gunplay is not one of those rappers. That's good news for In4Millz, because he brought his A-game on this one. It's also bad news, because he steals the show. Right from the start he's crass, in-your-face, talking about snapping necks in seconds, blowing a mill in minutes, and geeking off that nose treat. Yeah, "On Point" is basically a Gunplay song.

You know, Gunplay wouldn't have been all that out of place on Wu-Tang—besides the fact that he's from Florida. For this one, he takes over the "Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nuthin' Ta F' Wit" beat and mixes the perfect concoction of intelligence, raw energy, and recklessness. He calls this a "scrimmage," but drops gems like, "The ones with the least be the most jealous/Society tired of me, I'm so menace." Those aren't the kind of lines you drop during a scrimmage, but you get the idea that, unlike Iverson, nothing Gunplay does is "just practice."

Gunplay's penchant for occasional absurdity makes him one of mainstream rap's more unpredictable beasts; when most rappers would go for the obvious image or metaphor, Gunplay often takes things a step or two further. You've got woodgrain? Gunplay's getting splinters in his toes. You've got candy paint? Gunplay has a sperm gray Bugatti. You get woman? Gunplay's house is a brothel. And, to top it off, a little hyperbole, just for the sake of the stunt: "only n*gga out in Paris spittin out my calamari." Look ridiculous on paper? It's even more so in vese, but Gunplay's singular energy and a sense of humor that lurks just beneath the surface make even his most outlandish lines entertaining.

One of Gunplay's underrated gifts is his capacity to use internal rhymes and different rhyme schemes within a verse to add the sort of variety rarely seen in a rapper that so often gets labeled a sidekick. On "Rollin," his apocalyptic collaboration with fellow riot starter Waka Flocka, Gunplay's first verse stands out as an example of his rhyming imagination: He hammers home one rhyming sound, fitting the end of almost every bar and words in between into the formula, only to switch it up briefly towards the end before jumping back. Pack in plenty of patented recklessness, boasting, and menace, and the end result is a signature verse on one of the songs that first signaled the seriousness of Gunplay's rapping ability.

Though Lil Wayne may once have been able to comfortably claim the title of best rapper alive, the 2013 version of the emcee made the mistake of letting a fiery Gunplay bat lead off for his feature on I Am Not A Human Being II track "Beat the Shit." Once Gunplay explodes out of the gate with "I'm a knuckle throwin' knucklehead" and proceeds to pulverize the the buzzing, bass-y beat, his inhuman energy and knack for violence that walks the razor's edge between cartoonish and utterly menacing makes two solid Wayne verses seem utterly forgettable.

Rap has always been pretty open about drugs, but Gunplay takes it to another level. Okay, Wayne can't feel his face, but Gunplay can't even smell his own damn cologne. He can't even taste his ribs! And ribs are usually pretty flavorful, because of the sauce. Say no more, Gunplay, we get it, you're fucked up. But on "Take Dis," Gunplay does say more, including one of his most classic lines about losing five pounds in the past five hours (and also threatening to shoot a whole crowd up). He sounds like a loose cannon and it's not the kind of content that everybody wants to hear, but if you're not impressed with the vivid picture that Gunplay paints, you must be high.

Of all the gun-toting, fist-throwing verses in Gunplay's catalog, none summarizes his ability to stir shit up and stomp heads as succinctly and violently as the opening 16 bars of "Jump Out." With his wild man voice jumping all over the thunderous beat and the completely believable claim that he is, in fact, "a human LA Riot," Gunplay's opening salvo on "Jump Out" is a fine example of how style and substance (substance here not necessarily meaning depth, but rather simply content) can come together in perfect unison, his performance lifting a potentially ordinary verse to frighteningly manic proportions.

There are things you can't fake. You can't fake a verse like Gunplay's "Cartoon & Cereal." It makes you wonder what conversation was had before that verse, or what it took to get Gunpay—best known for his wild, uncontainable style—to focus in for some of the realest shit he ever spit in his life. A lot of artists have talked about pain and struggle, and a lot have done it very convincingly, but very few have ever made you feel it like Gunplay does on "Cartoon & Cereal."

If ever someone argues that Gunplay is not a technically impressive rapper, throw on the second verse of the emotionally raw "Bible On The Dash." With a syllabic avalanche that makes it difficult to even figure out how to divide bars when transcribing ("I asked the pastor what's the fastest way to heaven for a bastard/with a tarnished past give me an honest answer") and the sort of evocative imagery traditionally associated with the very best of gangsta rap, the verse reveals a depth and remorse some might not expect of Gunplay while also displaying his unique ability to dance across beats with ease.

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