The Beautiful & Damned

*The Beautiful & Damned* finds the Oakland rapper striving for balance in a rapidly changing world. G-Eazy examines cause and effect, angels and devils, late nights and blurry mornings with his low-key flow. Rearview glances are many, addressing addiction (“Sober”) and the ills of the world (“Love Is Gone”). Halsey assists on “Him & I,” which conjures up deep “’03 Bonnie & Clyde” vibes. Despite the dark outlook, he makes sure to celebrate the wins, jumping aboard a gold tank with Cardi B and A$AP Rocky on “No Limit,” a tribute to good times and the empire that Master P built. Most of all, G-Eazy puts his life under a microscope for all to see. You get a solid sense of his focus and growth as a pinpoint storyteller.

The new album from Oakland rapper G-Eazy is a boozy, minor-key, 74-minute slog, where he wonders if it’s possible to survive the corrupting influence of celebrity.

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The title of G-Eazy’s The Beautiful & Damned – a reference to F Scott Fitzgerald’s jazz age novel – may hint at intellectual depth, but the California rapper’s fourth album turns out to be an exercise in dumb self-infatuation.