The West Coast Meets the Midwest on the Gotti Mob’s Debut Album “Don’t Be Stupid” (Album Review)

The Gotti Mob is a newly formed hip hop duo consisting of Kurupt & C-Mob. One is a Philly born albeit Los Angeles bred veteran notable for being 1/2 of Tha Dogg Pound alongside Daz Dillinger & the latter coming straight outta Marion, Indiana turning heads in the underground since 2005, particularly within the horrorcore scene. They’ve only crossed paths with each other on wax a few times over the years, but are linking together & putting their chemistry to the test with a full-length debut.

“Mid West” is a grim piano/boom bap opener produced by Tone Spliff to start off the album talking about being so much more than the images that both MCs have portrayed whereas “Want Smoke!” works in some melodic vocal chops & dusty drums courtesy of Johnny Slash acknowledging that people don’t wanna fuck with them. Too $hort tags along for “Dumb Shit (Delirious)” to talk about not dealing with stupidity over a syrupy sample just before “I Ain’t Even Know!” has a more spacious sound speaking on living their lives & not trying to do anyone wrong.

Moving on from there with “Player’s Ball”, we have Snoop Dogg joining the Gotti Mob over some production blending g-funk & boom bap referencing the titular gathering of pimps that takes place in Chicago every year leading into “Da Buzine$$” diving into trap territory talking about doing big business only. After the “Game Recognize Game” interlude, Sacramento veteran & the newest addition to the Strange Music roster X-Raided comes into the picture for the bell-infused “Often” advising to take caution prior to the bouncy “Take Me Away” showing a more romantic side lyrically.

“Medicine” with MC Eiht finds all 3 of them over a dark trap beat asking if one wants to do some gangsta shit or handle a certain situation like gentlemen while the song “Move Nice” pulls from hyphy music instrumentally recommending that one needs to be aware of all the tension surrounding them. The penultimate track “Wanna Be a Ho” returns to the trap sound 1 last time telling their significant others to be themselves around them, but then “Everywhere” with KXNG CROOKED & Spice 1 truly ends the album with a delirious ballad about being all over the place.

Now despite already being familiar with Kurupt at a young age due to his history with Death Row Records & the D.P.G.C. collective, I personally haven’t really heard much of C-Mob’s own material outside of some features he’s done for artists like Tech N9ne & Kung Fu Vampire throughout the last 3 years. All of that being said: the Gotti Mob gave us a pretty solid debut here & only time will tell if they plan on working with one another more down the road. The production from start to finish is trunk-rattling & the styles of both MCs gel with one another impressively.

Score: 8/10