The hook is two words, repeated until it sticks: pop it. Around it, Gunna works through a verse about which car to take and whether to bother with a chauffeur. “pop it” arrived on 9 October as his first solo single of the year, and it came with something bigger than a new song. The same day, Gunna launched SB The Label, his own imprint in partnership with Atlantic Music Group, with himself as chief executive.
The video makes the point loudly. Directed by Spike Jordan, it puts tennis star Coco Gauff on a court opposite Gunna, then cuts to helicopter shots over California and a mansion lined with sports cars. The three artists he has signed to SB The Label appear in it too. This is a single, a label launch and the start of a new album campaign, all in one drop.
A Two-Word Hook and a Tennis Court
On the record itself, “pop it” is a lifestyle song in the classic Gunna mould. HotNewHipHop described it as “a fun new track that teases the lavish lifestyle that Gunna lives, as he decides which whip to ride versus taking a chauffeur.” The bars are about cars, money and ease, and the hook is built to be chanted back. It is not a reinvention; it is Gunna doing what his audience already knows him for.
The visual carries the ambition. According to the label announcement, Spike Jordan, Gunna’s creative director and a frequent collaborator, shot it as a story that moves from a tennis court to a helicopter flight above California. Bleacher Report noted that Gauff is “featured prominently”, playing with Gunna on court before the action moves to a gathering at a mansion surrounded by sports cars.
The single is also the first look at Splurge, Gunna’s next album and his seventh studio record. No release date has been set yet, but the title fits the song: a record about spending, enjoying it and making it look easy.
What SB The Label Is
SB The Label is a partnership between Gunna and Atlantic Music Group, with Gunna as CEO. The announcement calls it “a hub for hip-hop’s next vanguard”, which in practice means a home for artists he picks himself.
It is also a change of role inside a familiar system. Gunna previously released music through YSL Records, 300 Entertainment and Atlantic Records, and his relationship with Warner Music Group’s labels runs back to that original deal. SB The Label keeps him inside the same corporate family, but moves him from signed artist to label head with his own roster.
Gunna framed it as a fresh start. “SB THE LABEL represents the beginning of a new chapter for me. It only felt right to start that chapter alongside my brothers Casper Bluff, Nechie, and Dracc,” he said. Atlantic’s leadership was just as warm. Elliot Grainge, Atlantic Music Group’s chairman and chief executive, said it was impossible to overstate Gunna’s influence on this generation of hip-hop, and the co-presidents of the group’s hip-hop and R&B division, Rayna Bass and Selim Bouab, described watching him grow into a leader as an entrepreneur and executive as well as an artist.
The Three Signees
The first roster is small and close to home. Casper Bluff is an Atlanta-based artist. Nechie is a melodic rapper and a previous Gunna collaborator, which makes him the most natural fit for the label’s sound. Dracc is best known for the underground hit “P Star”.
Three artists is a sensible start for a new imprint. It gives each signee room to be developed rather than lost on a crowded roster, and it ties the label’s identity directly to Gunna’s own taste. Having all three appear in the “pop it” video is the first piece of that development: the biggest audience Gunna can offer them, on the day the label goes public.
For listeners, the test will come with the signees’ own releases. A label launched off the back of a star’s single gets attention on day one. It earns a reputation when its artists start landing records of their own.
How Launch Day Was Staged
Everything landed on the same Friday. The label announcement, the single and the video all went out on 9 October, so the first headline anyone saw about SB The Label already came with a song to play and a star-studded clip to share. That is a deliberate choice. A label announcement on its own is a business story that hip-hop fans can scroll past; a new Gunna single with Coco Gauff in the video is something they click.
Stacking the three also means each part promotes the others. Sports outlets covered Gauff’s cameo, while music outlets covered the label and pointed readers to the video. And the three signees got their first exposure inside the launch video itself, rather than in a separate announcement of their own.
Why Coco Gauff Fits the Campaign
Casting Gauff was not a random cameo. At 22, she has already won the U.S. Open in 2023 and the French Open in 2025, and Bleacher Report described her as having “already reached the top of the tennis world.” Her presence pulls the video into sports coverage that a rap single would rarely reach on its own, which is exactly the kind of crossover a new label wants on launch day.
The timing is notable too. The video arrived during the autumn tennis swing, and Bleacher Report noted that her latest result was a fourth-round loss to Elise Mertens at the China Open. The release lands while she is still competing, so the video reaches tennis fans while her name is in the draw sheets as well as the music press.
The Numbers Behind the Move
Gunna is launching a label from a position of strength. His most recent album, The Last Wun in 2025, was his sixth consecutive top-three debut on the Billboard 200, spent five consecutive weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and stayed in the Billboard 200 top ten for six straight weeks. It was supported by the Wun World Tour, his biggest international run.
The run before that was just as steady. One of Wun in 2024 was his fifth top-three debut on the Billboard 200 and his fifth No. 1 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, and he took it on the road with the Bittersweet Tour, a sold-out headline run across the United States.
Before that, Wunna in 2020 and DS4Ever in 2022 both debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. “Drip Too Hard” with Lil Baby was certified Diamond by the RIAA and reached the top five of the Hot 100, and “Pushin P” earned Grammy nominations for Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song. Off the mic, the announcement lists co-ownership of Flerish Hydration and House of Athletics, an investment in Cymbiotika, and Gunna’s Great Giveaway, a non-profit that has worked with Goodr on a grocery and clothing initiative at Ronald E. McNair Middle School.
Put together, the numbers explain Atlantic’s interest. An artist with that commercial record and that business footprint is a safer bet as a label head than most.
Splurge and What Comes Next
The next step is the album. Splurge has a title and now a lead single, but no date. HotNewHipHop described the new chapter as “a new creative step” for Gunna, and the rollout so far suggests a big, visual campaign rather than a quiet release.
Rollouts can be a story in their own right. RapStar.News recently looked at how Drake is releasing his new era one YouTube video at a time. Gunna’s version is different: one single, one star-studded video and a new label, all launched together. If Splurge lands as well as The Last Wun, Gunna will have a hit album and a new label rising at the same time.
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