And when the beat goes melodramatic (or dramatically mellow)—the aching violin-laced Speakerbomb-produced flip of Sade's "Fear" on "Crushed Glass", molasses-creeping to billowy new age keyboards on "Homesick", satiny vocal-harmony R&B on "Andrea"—each syllable feels like a knuckle busting your eyebrow open.

Club said that You Only Live 2wice "functions as an absolute firehose of dazzlingly dense verses—it's hard to imagine him going for much longer than its 30 minutes, though you know he could—as well as a showcase for some of the strange new ground he's charting", also adding that "much of the rest of this operates in the same mold as his last record, 2015's solid Shadow of a Doubt.

"[9] Samantha O'Connor of The 405 commented on the emotive nature of the album, stating "You Only Live 2wice is a reflection of past mistakes, a declaration of dreams for his family’s future and a time stamp for the strenuous reality of an artist who nearly lost it all on his way to gaining it all.

Despite adamantly denying the claims against him, his self-aware bars admit guilt in allowing the game to get the best of him as he details the price he's paid for rash decisions over personally cinematic beats from the likes of Kaytranada, BADBADNOTGOOD and League of Starz.

And in true lyrical Gibbs fashion, his pen paints a peephole into his time behind bars - from his inability to read the jail's German library books to Erica's decision to fly overseas to comfort him leading up to trial.