After a tumultuous period leading up to and after the release of his third album, Trial By Fire, in the Fall of 2017, Yelawolf is back with some long-promised new music. The Slumerican Records CEO teased the arrival of TM3 (Trunk Music 3) for most of last year, but judging by his latest offering, “Gangsta Walk (Get Buck Freestyle),” the sequel may finally see the light of day this year.

While the Gadsden, Alabama native caught flack from some Hip-Hop Heads for transitioning into a more Rock & Roll / Country-heavy sound on 2015’s Love Story and Trial By Fire, it seems he’s looking to reclaim his spot as a lethal lyricist with a double-time delivery. Over the beat for collaborator Gangsta Boo’s “Gangsta Walk,” Catfish Billy lets loose, “I’m a still that motherf*cka, ain’t nothing new to this / Been that Country Cousin way before I even knew K.R.I.T. / Seven-hundred-dollar glass of whiskey and I shoots it / Using my gold teeth to take an olive off a toothpick.” The vibe of the production and the MC’s presentation hearken back to his pre-Shady Records mixtapes. The mere mention of the Country Cousins project (which never happened, despite significant anticipation) suggests exactly who Yela’ wants to speak to among his onetime fan-base.

Yelawolf Tells A Haunting Tale Of What Really Lives Beyond The Shadows (Video)

Next, the MC addresses some of the rumors swirling around him, as well as issues he’s been dealing with. He does so with compound rhymes: “That A.D.D.’s like S.A.T.s, I never took nothing for it / Dazed and confused, major league, dude,  I never took nothing for it / I was just bored / I was just stuck in my trailer walking back and forth / Became a rapper just so I could sing and lose every fan I had before.” While the lines may be tongue-in-cheek, they are also honest and self-reflective. It flashes back to the artist who was so devastating on early mixtapes and in those days trading bars with Em and Slaughterhouse. “Forget about the old me, kinda sorta / Put on a pair of boots and jump the border / But what’s a border to a native quarter / But a way to make Trump create a new order? / I’m a rebel, b*tch, I don’t wait at the shore for / A wave to crash, I go and make the water.” Yela’ combines multi-syllabic lines about his tattoos and fashion changes to show that he is not in favor of the White House campaign. It accomplishes an agenda to reintroduce one of the most exciting MCs from the early 2010s.

He ends the freestyle by defining his and Slumerican’s vibe and sound in 2019, “See if Johnny Cash and Jim Morrison / Became B-Boys with Eminem / And Pink Floyd and forged a group with Hank III, of course, then / Slumerican would be the emporium.”

Yelawolf Turns The Keys To The Pickup Truck In Box Chevy V (Video)

Last year, Yelawolf re-joined Royce 5’9 on PRhyme 2.