{"id":748020,"date":"2026-08-24T09:04:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T09:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/748020\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T09:04:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T09:04:11","slug":"pooh-shiesty-all-eyes-on-shiest-album-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/748020\/","title":{"rendered":"Pooh Shiesty: All Eyes on Shiest Album Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even the most brazen so-called gangster rapper wants us to believe in their ruthlessness as a concept, not a reality. Perhaps that\u2019s why Memphis rapper Pooh Shiesty<\/a> placed a disclaimer at the outset of his recent studio debut, All Eyes on Shiest. Shiesty is facing potential life imprisonment on kidnapping and armed robbery charges<\/a> for allegedly strong-arming his 1017 Records boss, Gucci Mane<\/a>, on camera\u2014he was seeking a release from the very label that dropped this album. As humorous as some may find the disclaimer, it could very well be a court exhibit during pretrial motions. When he was charged for the robbery, he had been home for just six months after serving more than three years on a previous firearms conspiracy conviction.<\/p>\n

Pooh Shiesty deserves his artistic license. But even with him censoring certain names, it\u2019s impossible to hear these 16 tracks without contemplating which of his steely missives could end up in a courtroom. And you wonder if the self-described \u201ckillionaire\u201d cares: Outside the disclaimer, his raps (and multiple monologues) feel intent on averring his embodiment of the street code and jail codes. The body of work amounts to a Gangster\u2019s Digest that, depending on how much one knows about the nature of patriarchy and systemic oppression, is either thrilling or depressing.<\/p>\n

No score yet, be the first to add.<\/p>\n

Shiesty, like fellow Memphians Key Glock<\/a> and Moneybagg Yo<\/a>, knows his sound, his audience, and their expectations. There are no stunt samples or \u201clabel made me do it\u201d pop collaborations here. All Eyes on Shiest is grim scripture from the streets of Memphis, scribed by a wayward native son. The most romantic bar on the album is, \u201cBae, I love you like my Micro Drac\u2019.\u201d Even on the would-be strip club anthem \u201cBooty Club,\u201d with Sexyy Red<\/a>, it only takes four bars for him to shift from ogling a Rubi Rose lookalike to threatening to shoot up the club. And the warning isn\u2019t even about defending her honor; it\u2019s a reflexive reminder that he\u2019ll pull the trigger.<\/p>\n

Atop a front-to-back collection of pensive pianos and bulbous 808s, his calm, matter-of-fact vocals feel like a chilling resignation to nihilism. His production choices excel when another instrument overshadows the keys, such as the flute on \u201cTrip\u201d or synths on \u201cCMO Freestyle.\u201d Shiesty imbues the classic Memphis sound with a stolidness, but also has some darkly funny barbs: On \u201cI\u2019m Back,\u201d he raps, \u201cOnce that that hot shit runnin\u2019 through \u2019em they get to screamin\u2019 like Ric Flair,\u201d while on \u201cFederal Reality,\u201d he laments, \u201cCame home, niggas still broke, I wasn\u2019t even missin\u2019 shit.\u201d It\u2019s \u201cfunny while being dead serious\u201d humor, but you\u2019d nevertheless like more of those moments.<\/p>\n

The latter track, a reference to Lil Durk<\/a>\u2019s \u201cFederal Nightmares,\u201d is one of the few moments Shiesty drops the veneer to reflect on mastering patience in jail, unsupportive friends, and dodging a RICO plot. But the second half of the song pivots back to standard smash-the-opps fare. Toward the end of his stream of consciousness on \u201cReckless Living,\u201d he pauses rapping to plainly state how losing a friend \u201ccrushed his soul.\u201d His grief is so immense that it bursts through the verse, revealing a sliver of humanity amid the violence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Even the most brazen so-called gangster rapper wants us to believe in their ruthlessness as a concept, not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":748021,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[375,96,128,56,54,55,307],"class_list":["post-748020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-albums","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-web"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=748020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/748021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=748020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=748020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=748020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}