ALREADY LEGEND.

In the nearly five years since *Wish Me Well 3* dropped, YFN Lucci found himself stuck in a veritable morass of legal woes, not the least of which being a high-profile RICO case. These are the sorts of circumstances that derail rap careers, sometimes irreversibly. Thankfully, the Atlanta hitmaker behind “Everyday We Lit” and “Wet” emerged at the start of 2025 as a free man, culminating in a homecoming arena concert that summer and, now, a long-awaited new album. *ALREADY LEGEND.*—note the definitive period—proves that he’s as capable as he ever was at making melodic, street-level hip-hop, a now ubiquitous style he undeniably helped to popularize in the 2010s. With opener “PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH./ROBOCOP.,” Lucci slips right back in where he’s long fit in, addressing his situation without dwelling too deeply on it. He repeatedly resurfaces the topic of imprisonment throughout the album, bewildered at being so rich while stuck inside a cell on “LOOK WHAT I DID.” He’s returned to life on the outside with a reflective perspectlve, one conveyed well on “COSTLY.” and the previously released “JAN. 31st (MY TRUTH).” Beyond his own struggles, navigating the carceral system also means losing connections to friends and loved ones caught up in it, something he illustrates with sorrow and righteous frustration on “UNDENIABLE.” Considering Lucci’s preexisting penchant for turn-up anthems, he makes sure that *ALREADY LEGEND.* doesn’t stay exclusively in the pain-rap space. Luxury and lust make for obvious bedfellows on “BIRTHDAY.” and “USED TO IT.,” for instance. Still, it’s hard not to notice how the past half decade has reshaped him as a lyricist, his tribulations now meaningful fodder for his art.