Gunplay’s “The Hard Way” showcases one of the undisputed top talents in rap near his absolute apex, riding high off flagrant egotism (“middle finger in your madre, as I pull the Benz up to the guard gate”) while still cutting to the core of what drives his unrelentingly cold-hearted writing (“Get high compulsive, can’t keep my composure / Tattoos on my ulcer, heart blacker than vulture”). Its newly released video is appropriately stark — it shows Gunplay in front of a black screen, his facial expression swerving between mean mugs and a deliriously sinister Heath Ledger-as-the-Joker-esque grin. The man is raw humanity; the video for “The Hard Way” is a straight shot to the dome.