He is a classic example of a rapper succeeding as much for how he sounds when saying something as opposed to what he says, but his lyrics have a striking directness that has allowed him to build the type of grassroots fanbase that can serve as a livelihood, even if they don't show up to retail stores.

It is that consistency that is Gotti's calling card, and he carries it over to Live From the Kitchen with ease. On the other, the updates are very slight, and any of these songs could be dropped into an installment of Gotti's Cocaine Music mixtape series without anyone being the wiser- it's hard to expect many people to pay for something that they've routinely been given for free over the course of a few years. On the one hand, Gotti stays in his lane, repeating the textbook trap music that he's been pumping out for years with slight updates from producers du jour like Lil Lody and Mike Will.

Live From the Kitchen sounds like a professionally mastered mixtape, which explains why it succeeds artistically while failing commercially.

New yo gotti 2012