For the past couple of years, Chri$tian Gate$ has intimately engaged with a devoted TikTok audience that has fully embraced his knack for communicating our generation's unique lust for human connection. After releasing numerous viral singles, his most recent project Why Do I Hear Breathing? synthesizes his flair for endearingly hotheaded anger, a kind of palpable emotion that traces the lifespan of a relationship from start to finish. Between six tracks, Gate$ personifies the turbulent toxicity of two people that can never get on the same page, without wallowing in self-pity – the artist invites each track as a deeply personal chapter in an attempt to process the reality of a foregone connection.

Like every unstable Gen Z relationship, the EP begins with “Thing For Ya,” a playful confession of a crush scattered with numerous moments of hesitancy, the indecision yet discernable emotional weight building the edge that guides the project. The intro track leads to two back-to-back songs, “Why Do I Hear Breathing?” and “Dangerous State of Mind” both driving a punk-heavy production as hard-hitting as the realization that the feelings shared are nothing but immature games. In between pop-layered vocals and spiteful regrets, the core of the EP describes the artist's initial breaking point in which he contemplates how well we really know the people we claim to love, “You stand behind your walls, you don’t know me at all, you stay just out of reach just so you could take advantage of me.”

Drained of energy and freshly reeling from heartbreak, Gate$ takes a moment to breathe in “Never with You Again.” In the quiet of the acoustic guitar, the track stands out as we see the rising artist initiate his most natural vocals, with minimal background noise he stands alone ridding himself of any lingering emotional attachment. After briefly giving into his more impulsive thoughts in “ARSON,” the EP culminates with “BREATHE” – a track that guides the artist away from the metaphorical edge. As Gate$’ first complete project, the EP is a confounding testament to the limits that the artist can go with his range both creatively and emotionally.

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