YG was supposed to be great. His second album, 2016’s ‘Still Brazy’, revealed a refreshing brand of G-Funk dispatched with talent and panache, and landed him supporting tour slots for some of rap’s biggest names, including Kendrick Lamar, Drake and Lil Wayne. So why is it that, 10 years later, he is content to put his name to ‘The Gentlemen’s Club’, a record that stakes a claim as one of 2026’s most disappointing and unpalatable releases?
Features from Tyler, the Creator, JID, Sasha Keable and Pusha T seem to point towards a solid outing that showcases the kind of pull YG still possesses, while the idea that it is an evolution of sorts sets up a new conceptual era for someone who once showed a lot of promise.
What we get instead is a confused and problematic slog of a record. Even though it comprises 15 tracks and clocks in at just under an hour, hopes are dashed within minutes.
On Intro, four bars after he claims to be trying to “leave this street shit alone”, he’s working double time to degrade women and making threats of violence.
The Pusha T collab OMG follows with one of the ugliest choruses of the year, while Kudos’ flip of Eminem’s Kill You is hideously off-kilter. The whispered verses of On The Low are indecipherable and plain creepy — even Tyler’s guest verse can’t rescue it — and Hollywood sounds like the kind of dross a 15-year-old would throw together on their laptop if their idol was J-Kwon.
Even when he tries to do something conceptual, as on Hitman, where the twist is that YG hired the titular hitman to kill YG, and then the later response track Ready To Die, it falls flat thanks to immature angst. All of this is reason enough to consign this to the bin, but the transphobic Tiffany should absolutely be a nail in the coffin of YG’s career.
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