G-Eazy, “Helium.”

Oakland-born rapper Gerald Earl Gillum, G-Eazy, rose to fame in the mid-2010s with hits like “Tumblr Girls” and Me, Myself, & I.” He stood out for his dark sound and moody ruminations on sex and wealth, plus some public romances and pop crossovers.

His most recent album, 2024’s Freak Show, however, didn’t touch his past commercial success. His bars about destructive lust missed the mark, perhaps a sign his peak is behind him. Less than one year later, he’s back with Helium, a step up with moments of clear potential for G-Eazy as a storyteller. But it mostly falls back on tropes of stiff vanity.

Single “KISS THE SKY” offers clean sampling and retro piano-backed beats that made for a solid refresh. It’s intriguing and comes across as authentic, even with the occasional forced line: “Just don’t overthink it, baby, let the rhythm touch your soul/ Then you start to trip, trust me, you wanna be high for this,” he raps. Still, the shift away from Freak Show’s heavy electronic trap is clearly the right move.

The title track, a love song that could’ve been released 10 years ago with pop-rock duo X Ambassadors, continues G-Eazy’s upward trajectory with a catchy chorus and more relaxed verses. “HOW CAN YOU SLEEP,” with a poppier production and guest artist Olivia O’Brien, also sounds straight from the summer 2015 of —sprinkled with nostalgia but limited by a lack of growth.

Opening track “GRWM” has heavier 808s, with boastful lyrics that lack freshness. The song includes a “hawk tuah” joke that would be cringy even without the seriousness of his delivery. The song’s concepts are contradicting at times: “Where’s my money? Fuck you, pay me,” he asks, despite the prior line: “I’m rich on rich on rich.” Approached with a sense of fun and self-deprecating humor, the song could’ve been entirely different. Instead, G-Eazy comes off self-important.

Contradictions continue throughout the album, with G-Eazy claiming to be “broke” on one song and that he’s in “Prada, Balenciaga” on another. Perhaps each song is a vignette from a different time in his life, or maybe he’s rapping from the perspective of an alter ego. But if these are creative decisions, they’re not clear or easy to follow. There’s no through line or sonic switch between these thoughts, and his vocal flow doesn’t have much variety, either.

“DREAM ABOUT ME” has some soft female vocals that contrast G-Eazy’s more heavy-handed verses and deepened vocals, a common effect throughout the project that sounds dated.

G-Eazy works in oft-sampled “Tom’s Diner” on “NADA” and models his chorus melody off of the original Suzanne Vega track’s iconic hook. But with not much more than bass-filled beats and his abrasive singing in the chorus, the sparse song isn’t alluring. Neither is the chorus’s boasting of designer brands and partying.

“AFTER DARK,” a retrospective on the journey he’s gone through with his fans, is far less superficial and a sign that G-Eazy does have storytelling talent—it’s just often not used to his advantage. Though he gets the themes of heartbreak across, his flux between melodramatic and overly casual makes for a confusing tone: “I’m like ‘where did you go?’/ I used to see you front row/ But you don’t love me no more,” he raps.

He’s becoming more self-aware, though, even referencing the commercial disappointment of his last record and how the shows he’s played have been in smaller rooms.

On “FIGHT & FUCK,” there’s another chorus feature and more awkward bars: “If you cry once more, I’mma press decline/ But if we gotta fight, can it please at least end in sex this time?” The blunt lyrics and cheap-sounding production combine with an overbearing delivery and make for an unappealing listen. It’s neither cool nor nor funny. The same goes for closer “VAMPIRES” (featuring Bahari) with the uncomfortable lyric, “When you get high, you’re all mine.”

While “KISS THE SKY” was a sign G-Eazy was taking a turn, and there are a few notable highlights on this album, many of the other songs revert to what made Freak Show unappealing.