Malmöpågen Guleed made his debut in 2016 and quickly became a name.

Not least because he is one of all Swedish stars with Somali roots who have excelled in recent years with poetry and production at the forefront (Cherrie, Yasin, Imenella, Dree Low are a few others). 

And, of course,

because he put his hometown on the map in collaboration with his friend Ozzy and their collective Malmö New Wave.

On the sequel to Guleed's debut album, the theme is games.

I guess why ... 

Guleed grew up among high-rise buildings and demons on Möllevången where I myself also lived.

In cafés, clubs and restaurants, the safety distance to the stakes is few.

Ball, dice and cards are thrown in the hope of luck and profit.  

But "LUCKY 20" is

not a gamble.

The album is not composed according to the mathematics of the game.

Here we instead meet a player with a trump card in hand.

A confident Guleed who seems to know exactly what he wants.

One that has grown further from the much more gambling debut. 

At "50 degrees in February", Guleed erected a statue of himself in the middle of Möllevångstorget.

The full-length was bursting with evidence from a great talent. 

Guleed wanted to show

everything he could - from singing, rapping and screaming passionately with lovely phrasings.

He wanted the whole of Söderslätt to know that he walks carefree between styles and temperaments.

With texts about life and the street.  

The album was rightly hailed.

Maybe the enthusiasm made it a little unsorted?

Maybe that's why "LUCKY 20" became the exact opposite?  

Here we get a 15-track full-length that is elegant and completely composed in every way, from sound image to lyrics.

Guleed gives us tones that are dull and rather sad.

He frees his unromantic stories from the street in different languages ​​with his voice tightly glued to the beats.

Sometimes it feels like one of the instruments.  

He has poured pasta sauce

into it as well.

On several of the tracks ("Gran Torino", "Omerta", "Forza Ragazzi") is a pizza wallpaper of tender guitar that makes them ready to be played in some mafia drama.  

"LUCKY 20" is not as eagerly immediate as the debut, but is an impressive and well-created step forward for an artist who shows that he still belongs to the top.

Not least because Guleed with his rumbling, perhaps unintentionally, also wraps us in a mouth guard.

Because does life and the world in a time of pandemic feel more than ever like just a game?