Oct 12, 2026 · Album review · 9 min read

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EST Gee “Bigger Than The Devil” Review: Louisville, Survival and the Sound He Built

Seven years after surviving five gunshots, EST Gee returns with a dark, focused street album on CMG. Here is the story, the best songs, the charts, the tour and our verdict on BIGGER THAN THE DEVIL.

Seven years ago, in September 2019, EST Gee was shot five times in Louisville after a video shoot. Months later he lost his mother to leukemia and, a week after that, his brother to gun violence. Everything he has released since carries that weight, and his titles say it plainly: first Bigger Than Life or Death, now BIGGER THAN THE DEVIL.

Released on September 11, 2026 through Yo Gotti’s CMG and Interscope, it is a 17-track, roughly 40-minute album with almost no star guests: just YFN Lucci and his own EST crew. It does not reinvent his sound. It doubles down on it. Here is the story, the songs, the producers, the numbers and our verdict.

Who is EST Gee?

George Albert Stone III was born on May 11, 1994, in Louisville, Kentucky. He started taking rap seriously while on house arrest after a 2016 arrest, inspired by watching Lil Baby perform on TV. EST stands for “Everybody Shines Together”, the name of his crew.

After the 2019 shooting, his rise was fast. In January 2021 he signed with Yo Gotti’s Collective Music Group (CMG) and Interscope. That year he landed his first Hot 100 hit as a guest on Lil Baby’s “Real as It Gets” (No. 34, Platinum), and his mixtape Bigger Than Life or Death debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard 200. His 2022 debut album I Never Felt Nun reached No. 8, and Last Ones Left with 42 Dugg also hit the top 10.

Since then he has chosen quantity and loyalty to his sound over chasing radio. In 2025 he released I Ain’t Feeling You (with Lil Baby, Travis Scott, Veeze and Rylo Rodriguez) and the surprise summer project My World. In February 2026 he shared a joint album with Mozzy, Not a Chance in Hell. BIGGER THAN THE DEVIL is his second full-length release of the year.

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EST Gee – Bigger Than The Devil (Album Trailer)

The rollout

The album was built slowly. “SUPREME SANDERS” and “THUG CLUB” came out in 2025 and ended up on the tracklist. The real campaign started on July 10, 2026 with “CALL SPITTA”, a cold, simple beat and a video by his regular director Diesel Filmz. It became the album’s biggest song: the official video has passed 4 million views on YouTube.

“SOMETIMES” followed in early August, right after he announced a fall tour of Europe and the UK. In late August he dropped two crew records with videos, “YA DIGG” with EST SkiMike and “YOU KNOW IT” with 86Snot, EST Spit and EST4Nikk, and announced the album the week of release. On release day, three more videos arrived: “HALL OF FAME”, “SKRRT” and “BIRTH OF A ROYAL CHILD”.

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EST Gee – CALL SPITTA (Official Video)

The sound: dark, heavy and built for his voice

If you know EST Gee, you know the formula: a slow, slurred, gravel-heavy delivery that sounds like he is talking to you in a parked car, over dark, bass-heavy beats with lots of empty space. Ratings Game Music describes the production as dark and heavy, setting one consistent mood while leaving room for the bars. On The Scene says his voice keeps every guest inside his world, so the album never scatters.

The opener sets the tone. “I GOT IT LIT” samples the intro of Jeezy’s 2005 mixtape Trap or Die, a clear nod to the Southern street rap that shaped him. The title of the album, a step up from Bigger Than Life or Death, says the rest: survival, loyalty and the feeling of having already lived through the worst.

Production credits are not easy to find, but the clearest name is John Gotitt, a frequent collaborator who produced “CALL SPITTA” (with Payday and Yung Dza) and “SOMETIMES”, according to The Music Universe.

Track by track: the highlights

• “I GOT IT LIT”: under two minutes, a Jeezy sample and no hook needed. A short, confident door into the album.
• “WAY MORE”: one of the new songs, and the one radio picked: it reached the top of iHeartRadio’s Rap Rising playlist on release week. Ratings Game Music also names it a favorite.
• “CALL SPITTA”: the lead single and still the strongest pure EST Gee record here: minimal beat, menacing calm.
• “TRANQUILIZER” (feat. YFN Lucci & SKRT): the closest thing to a big-name feature, with YFN Lucci’s melodic edge as a change of color.
• “HALL OF FAME”: the release-day video, and the album’s clearest statement of status after a decade in the game.
• “BIRTH OF A ROYAL CHILD”: the shortest song on the album (1:39) and one of its most personal titles.
• “SUPREME SANDERS”: released back in 2025 and still one of the best songs here, picked by both Ratings Game Music and On The Scene.
• “YOU KNOW IT” (feat. 86Snot, EST Spit & EST4Nikk): a crew cut about loyalty and betrayal, with four rappers trading verses.
• “SLIDE”: the longest track (3:11), giving the beat a little more room to breathe before the closer, “BIGGER N LITTER”.

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EST Gee – HALL OF FAME (Official Video)

BIGGER THAN THE DEVIL tracklist

Listen to BIGGER THAN THE DEVIL

Spotify

Apple Music

What the critics say

• Ratings Game Music (4/5): cohesive, easy to absorb and best heard from start to finish. The slurred delivery may take new listeners time, but his controlled flows, vivid images and direct storytelling win them over. Early favorites: “WAY MORE”, “CALL SPITTA” and “SUPREME SANDERS”.
• On The Scene: less a victory lap than a hard-earned roll call of the Louisville world that made him, tense and focused on survival, loyalty and keeping a close circle.
• HotNewHipHop: he works best with understated bars and specific details; the album does not reinvent his sound, it leans further into it.

Big outlets like Pitchfork had not reviewed the album at the time of writing.

Charts and the tour

Commercially, BIGGER THAN THE DEVIL entered the Billboard 200 at No. 86 and the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart at No. 28. That is a small debut next to the top-10 runs of 2021 and 2022, but slightly above I Ain’t Feeling You (No. 97) and well above My World (No. 155). No official first-week unit count has been published.

The music now moves to the stage. The Bigger Than The Devil Tour runs through Europe and the UK: Amsterdam (Paradiso, Oct 14), Frankfurt (Oct 15), Berlin (Oct 16), Prague (Oct 18), Vienna (Oct 21), Paris (Oct 23), Cologne (Oct 24), Copenhagen (Oct 26), London (The Steel Yard, Oct 28), Southampton (Oct 29) and Manchester (Soupkitchen, Oct 30).

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EST Gee – BIRTH OF A ROYAL CHILD (Official Video)

A producer’s take

From the beatmaker’s chair, EST Gee albums are a lesson in leaving space. These beats are not busy: a dark loop or a few piano or synth notes, heavy 808s, simple drums and a lot of room in the middle of the mix, because his voice sits low and slow and needs that space. Most songs stay between two and two and a half minutes. If you make beats for street rappers with a heavy, conversational delivery, the takeaway is simple: cut elements, not add them, and let the vocal be the lead instrument. You can sketch this kind of beat on any sampler; our guide to the best Akai MPC covers the gear.

Verdict

BIGGER THAN THE DEVIL will not convert people who never liked EST Gee, and it is not trying to. It is a focused, consistent and very dark street album from a rapper who knows exactly what he does well. Its weakness is the same as its strength: 17 songs in one mood start to blend together in the second half.

Start with “CALL SPITTA”, “WAY MORE” and “SUPREME SANDERS”. If those land, play it front to back: this is an album, not a playlist. For another very different side of this fall’s rap releases, read our review of Quavo’s QRÖMELIFE.