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"The closest thing I had to a father passed when I was seven. Duke and I were in the house when Goat rushed in, carrying Walter Sr. in his arms. He'd collapsed in the street." pg.13

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"The closest thing I had to a father passed when I was seven. Duke and I were in the house when Goat rushed in, carrying Walter Sr. in his arms. He'd collapsed in the street." pg.13

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This quote says that Gucci Mane lost his only father figure at a young age. The quote means that after his grandfather passed he didn't have another father figure so basically he was lost. But he still had his big brother but his big brother was still growing up himself. This quote matters because it is beneficial to understand that since he didn't have a father figure he was lost. Even though with his birth father being there sometimes he still didn't have a solid relationship with him as he did with his grandfather.

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"As sick as he was, my father's tricks weren't paying the bills." p.23

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"As sick as he was, my father's tricks weren't paying the bills." p.23

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This quote says that Gucci's father had a bad gambling habit and him tricking people out of their money wasn't paying the bills. This means that his father wasn't able to pay bills because he would go out and spend the money so the bills wouldn't be able to get paid. This matters because without Gucci's father being able to pay the bills he would have to resort to another way of helping his parents. Or mother mainly because his father wasn't really present.

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"Getting robbed was a turning point. Instead of making me retreat into my shell out of fear, it had the opposite effect." p.33

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"Getting robbed was a turning point. Instead of making me retreat into my shell out of fear, it had the opposite effect." p.33

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This quote says that Gucci had gotten robbed for everything he had. This means that Gucci would have to get protection such as a gun. Only to protect himself and his things. This matters because this would change the way Gucci Mane acted and how selling drugs would go for him. He

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"I was an outsider at Georgia Perimeter. Whenever I did show up it was for the sole purpose of showing out." p.43

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"I was an outsider at Georgia Perimeter. Whenever I did show up it was for the sole purpose of showing out." p.43

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This quote says that when Gucci Mane decided to go to college for him it was either go big or go home. This means that he felt like he always had to flex on whoever would pass by him. And just be flashy in general with everything he does and did. This matters because this is also how his father acted. Always boasting and showing out. But Gucci Mane could do that because he was spending his money then making it right back. Due to him being a drug dealer.

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"At that point I arrived at a crossroads. Was I going to re-up on Gucci Mane LaFlare and try to move another thousand copies or was I going to figure out something else? My next, move would be a pivotal one, one of the smartest decisions I made in my early music career." p.53

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"At that point I arrived at a crossroads. Was I going to re-up on Gucci Mane LaFlare and try to move another thousand copies or was I going to figure out something else? My next, move would be a pivotal one, one of the smartest decisions I made in my early music career." p.53

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This quote basically says will Gucci Mane sell more copies or figure out a different way to spread his music around. This means that instead of him giving out more copies to promote his music, he found a different way and that helped him in the long run. This matters because this is an all new chapter in his life. And it did him justice for his music career and popularity.

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"My momma and Duke took me to the hospital, where I stayed for a couple of days until I started to feel like myself again." p.63

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"My momma and Duke took me to the hospital, where I stayed for a couple of days until I started to feel like myself again." p.63

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This quote says that Gucci Mane was hospitalized due to the way he felt after drinking cough syrup. And he wasn't getting any better. This means that due to the way that the cough syrup made him feel and the way his body was reacting he just didn't look or feel right. This matters because after he got over that high, he wanted that same high. So he started drinking cough syrup more and more. Loving the way the high made him feel.

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"Todd wanted me bad. But his enthusiasm scared me off. I had trust issues from my dealings in the streets and I was coming from a group where our worst nightmare was getting f***ed over in a deal." p.83

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"Todd wanted me bad. But his enthusiasm scared me off. I had trust issues from my dealings in the streets and I was coming from a group where our worst nightmare was getting f***ed over in a deal." p.83

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This quote says that Gucci Mane basically has trust issues with certain deals from the streets. This means that since he has these type of trust issues he's not really sure what to make out of it. This matters because he eventually starts trusting Todd and they become real close.

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Since I'd been out of town i already felt like I was late in responding to "Stay Strapped", so "Round 1" needed to get out right away. Ace, my DJ and road manager at the time, told me he'd handle circulating the diss to the clubs and radio stations, but I thought this was something I needed to go out and put in people's hands myself." p.93

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Since I'd been out of town i already felt like I was late in responding to "Stay Strapped", so "Round 1" needed to get out right away. Ace, my DJ and road manager at the time, told me he'd handle circulating the diss to the clubs and radio stations, but I thought this was something I needed to go out and put in people's hands myself." p.93

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This quote says Gucci Mane felt late with his diss track towards Young Jeezy. This means that he had to step her game up with his raps and be quicker. This matters because Gucci Mane got his diss out and him and Jeezy were sorta beefing but they really weren't.

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"While I was locked up, the in-house publicist at Big-Cat implemented a "crisis management campaign", issuing statements on my behalf. "As much as  I want to be celebrating my album release party rather than sitting alone in a cell alone in a cell where I didn't belong, I can't feel sorry for myself because a man lost his life," said one." p.103

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"While I was locked up, the in-house publicist at Big-Cat implemented a "crisis management campaign", issuing statements on my behalf. "As much as  I want to be celebrating my album release party rather than sitting alone in a cell alone in a cell where I didn't belong, I can't feel sorry for myself because a man lost his life," said one." p.103

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"It was relief more than happiness. A weight had been lifted off my shoulders, one that I'd forgotten I was carrying because it'd been too long. In October I pleaded no contest to my aggravated assault case. I was given a six-month sentence with a six and a half years' probation. I'd already spent three months in Fulton County, so by the top of 2006, I was home." p.113

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"It was relief more than happiness. A weight had been lifted off my shoulders, one that I'd forgotten I was carrying because it'd been too long. In October I pleaded no contest to my aggravated assault case. I was given a six-month sentence with a six and a half years' probation. I'd already spent three months in Fulton County, so by the top of 2006, I was home." p.113

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Author's Name : Radric Delantic Davis

Author's Stage Name : Gucci Mane

Author's Social Media Handles : @laflare1017 - Instagram @Gucci Mane - Facebook @gucci1017 - Twitter @GuwopSnap - Snapchat

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Books: The Autobiography of Gucci Mane; The Gucci Mane Guide to Greatness

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With Tenor, maker of GIF Keyboard, add popular Gucci Mane animated GIFs to your conversations. Share the best GIFs now >>>

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Gucci Mane Interview: Police Brutality, Snitching and Hip-Hop Needing More Female MCs

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On a partly cloudy spring morning five years ago, Radric Davis - better known as the rap superstar Gucci Mane - quietly traded in his navy-blue prison jumpsuit for Ralph Lauren sweats and Nike Air Jordan sneakers. He had chosen the outfit himself, and his then-girlfriend, Keyshia Ka'oir, brought it to the federal penitentiary in rural Indiana where he had been serving a three-year sentence for firearms possession.

"I remember that day so well," says Ka'oir today. She had flown in from Georgia alone, rented a car and drove through winding, tree-lined roads on her way to bring Gucci back home a few months ahead of his original release date. "We didn't tell anyone - his attorneys, no one."

If the couple's efforts to fly under the radar that day were thorough - Ka'oir temporarily changed her signature mohawk hairstyle and the two flew commercial - Gucci's physical transformation ensured an incognito return. Thanks to his twice-a-day workouts - and the fact that he had kicked an addiction to lean while in prison - the rapper had lost 90 pounds, and washboard abs had replaced the East Atlanta Santa's once protruding belly. "He was so skinny," says Ka'oir, "his pants were falling off of him when he came out."

He had undergone a deep mental transformation, too - the "Lemonade" rapper embodying the idea of turning lemons into just that. While in prison he wrote The Autobiography of Gucci Mane , which was published in 2017, and came up with a five-year plan that would cement his status as one of the music industry's most prolific rapper-executives from the moment of his release.

"When I went to prison, I knew that I was special. I knew I was unique, and I knew I had something to offer that a lot of people didn't," says Gucci today. "When I got out I said, 'I'm going to show everybody.'"

Nearly five years later to the day, Gucci Mane removes his weighty, glimmering diamond jewelry at the end of his photo shoot and gingerly places each piece into a brown monogrammed Louis Vuitton bag. Next to him, Todd Moscowitz, his manager, Alamo Records CEO and longtime friend, reminisces about the time Gucci creative-directed 12 different music videos - all from his Marietta, Ga., mansion due to the restrictions of his house arrest - following the rapper's 2016 release . Gucci flashes his 1,000-watt smile - each of his perfectly aligned bottom teeth embellished with a single diamond gemstone - and recalls the resourceful and necessary feat.

While in prison, Gucci decided he would publish his book, revamp his label, sell the rights to his autobiography to a major film company, go on tour and take nothing less than $100,000 per show.

Since his release, the man known to fans as Guwop has gone gangster glam. Instead of oversized T-shirts and gold grills, Gucci opts for dapper fashion picks, like Chanel collared zip-ups and coordinated Fendi looks with fashionista wife Ka'oir. And while his nickname once stood for "Get Ur Weight Up Pussy," it, too, now represents a more refined Mane. "#GUWOP -God Unity Wisdom Opportunity Power," he tweeted in 2016.

His transformation, dubbed the "Gucci Mane Glow-Up" on social media, was far from superficial. Post-release, the former mixtape god has entered the mainstream, collaborating with artists such as Selena Gomez, Drake and Bruno Mars. He spent six weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 as the featured act on Rae Sremmurd's 2016 smash "Black Beatles" and was nominated for his first Grammy alongside Lizzo for "Exactly How I Feel." He has released 14 projects in five years, including his first post-prison album, Everybody Looking , which became his highest-charting, reaching No. 2 on the Billboard 200 - a feat he matched a year later with 2017's .

After a financial falling out with Atlanta-based Big Cat, serving a six-month county jail sentence and subsequently reverting to selling drugs, Gucci dropped the name La Flare and started Street N-a Entertainment - a short-lived rebrand that, after an intervention by Gucci's mother as well as talent manager Debra Antney, then became So Icy Entertainment.

"'Street N-a Entertainment' was too hood - that ain't gone get me too far," says Gucci. Upon his release from another six-month jail stint, its name changed again to 1017 Brick Squad Records; following a falling out with Antney, he shortened it to 1017, an homage to his childhood home address. After his latest prison release, Gucci created 1017 Eskimo, in partnership with Alamo Records/Universal, but after a few years, decided to go all in with Atlantic Records. "I've been dealing with the staff and execs from Atlantic through my artist deal since [2009]," says Gucci of his decision to enter the partnership. "We already had a great chemistry." (When asked for details of the deal, a representative from Atlantic said, "We have a fruitful partnership and look forward to a long future together.")

"What first got me were his lyrics," says Gucci of the label's new golden child. "When I started hearing his bars and punchlines I said, 'This guy is intelligent. He's really crafty. He might be one of the most talented guys I ever signed.'"

For Gucci, relaunching a label amid a pandemic was an opportunity, not a roadblock. "The pandemic is how I popped off my label," he says. "While everybody [else] is going to sit on their money, I'm going to come out and sign artists. That was my whole strategy." A few months before global lockdowns began, Gucci took to Twitter and Instagram, promising $1 million and a deal to the "hardest unsigned artist out right now."

First to cash in was Greensboro, Ga., native Foogiano, who signed a $2 million deal with Gucci and Atlantic: $1 million for production and another as his advance. Soon after came Shiesty, Enchanting and Big Scarr. "How do you just wake up one day and turn me from being stuck in the hood to an unstoppable millionaire?" says Shiesty. "I wasn't going to sign to anyone else. I promise I wasn't."

Shiesty vividly remembers his first meeting with Gucci Mane at Atlanta's famed Patchwerk Studios, where Gucci recorded much of his early music. Upon arrival, Gucci admired Shiesty's "money spread," the skilled act of fanning out bills across the arms and chest as a signifier of wealth. Shiesty recalls that Gucci asked for spreading tips, pulling out his own neat stacks. "He had fresh new hundreds so thick," says Shiesty. "I had nothing but raggedy 20s." The rest was history. "He's like a big brother," says the 21-year-old of his label boss. "We get on FaceTime and talk for four or five hours."

For Gucci, creating genuine bonds like that among the 1017 team is a crucial part of his success - and part of what has distinguished him even among the growing class of rapper CEOs - including Yo Gotti (with CMG), Wiz Khalifa (Taylor Gang) and Young Thug (YSL) - using their experience and ears to discover and invest in their successors. "We've been like a family. I want to make my artists a part of everything I do," says Gucci. "And we're going to all grow together."

And despite the halt in touring due to the pandemic, Gucci says that growth is well underway, thanks to streaming gains and a lack of typical business expenses. "We don't even have a studio. We don't have these overheads that a lot of labels have," he says. "We're not doing things the traditional way to make sure we make profit." 1017 is still the equivalent of a "niche mom-and-pop" in Gucci's words. But he hopes that "it's going to turn into a big Walmart."

Gucci Mane is not a rapper-turned-executive, but rather, an executive-turned-rapper. Growing up in Atlanta (by way of Bessemer, Ala.), Gucci didn't aspire to be an artist. He graduated high school with a 3.0 GPA, and as a teenager dreamed of discovering the next Kriss Kross. "I wanted to be a Jermaine Dupri," he says. "I never got into music thinking, 'I'm going to be this rapper and just chase this solo career.' It was like, 'Let's all put our heads together to help [each other].' It takes a village to do anything. You need that community."

Gucci has been creating connections in the Atlanta rap scene since his teenage years. Just after graduating high school, he helped bring producer Zaytoven, then a virtual unknown making beats in his mother's basement, to prominence; he did it again with Mike WiLL Made-It, who got his start and his signature producer tag from Gucci. He mentored Metro Boomin; made a mixtape with Future, four years prior to What a Time To Be Alive with Drake; and signed both Migos and Young Thug in 2012, making collaborative mixtapes with each before their respective big breaks. Gucci recalls connecting a young, wide-eyed Nicki Minaj with DJ Holiday and the Trapaholics, who hosted her groundbreaking mixtape, Beam Me Up Scotty . Gucci even hopped on the tape - which was recently rereleased on streaming services and scored a top 10 Billboard 200 debut - taking the lead on "Slumber Party."

"He has great ears," says Atlantic Records executive vp Juliette Jones, who has worked with Gucci since his 2016 prison release. "He really understands culturally what is working and what people are listening to and consuming."

As Gucci refined his A&R skills, he also gained prominence as a rapper, landing a deal with Warner Music Group in 2009. As an ascendant Atlanta star himself, Gucci spent most of his early career releasing six to 10 raw, eclectic mixtapes a year (which has added up to a whopping 74 tapes to date). Long before the more-is-more streaming ecosystem developed, the release strategy grew his fan base exponentially - and was soon adopted by many up-and-coming trap artists.

Fifteen years after Gucci's arrival as a forefather of trap, his influence still permeates hip-hop culture. "I don't think he has gotten all of his flowers for how influential he is to urban music, and culture as a whole," says Amina Diop, senior vp at Republic Records who manages Gucci. Since his rebrand, Gucci has traded in defeated mugshots for high-fashion campaigns - he was the face of Gucci's 2020 Cruise collection, solidifying his relationship with the luxury fashion house he was named after. "People began saying, 'I'm Guwop down,' because they have on a Gucci outfit," says Diop. "They weren't even using the word 'Gucci' as it pertains to fashion - they were using his name."

Gucci has yet to receive traditional accolades, like a Grammy Award, and he is not a Grammy voter. While he says he doesn't care much about receiving a gold-plated gramophone for himself, he does hope for signee Pooh Shiesty to win a few. "At this age and this stage in my career," he says, "I get more pleasure out of seeing my artists kill the charts than me."

While his Grammy shelf may be wanting, Gucci's legacy is firmly established - that much was clear last November, when his showdown with former archnemesis Jeezy broke the record for the platform's most-viewed battle ever. The feuding rappers' episode (their first time sharing the stage after a nearly two-decade-long beef) attracted over 9 million viewers - a ratings figure that rivals the Grammys telecast itself.

The rappers spent the night fluctuating from ice cold glances to firing shots - squabbling, lobbing disses, keeping fans on the edge of their seats in hope and fear that tensions would boil over. Jeezy appeared measured, calling for unity and speaking on generational wealth and ownership, while Gucci was ever the entertainer, hurling disses and insulting Jeezy's outfit. "My outfit cost 10 bands - look at my opponent, man," said Gucci, pointing to Jeezy. "I don't have no $10,000 outfit," responded Jeezy, "but I own half of Atlanta."

In the night's most jaw-dropping moment, Gucci boasted about killing Jeezy's friend, Pookie Loc, during a 2005 attack on Gucci at the apartment of a friend. Gucci, who believes Jeezy orchestrated the attack, later turned himself in for the killing, claiming self-defense. The charges were soon dropped due to insufficient evidence.

After his impassioned performance of "Truth," the infamous Jeezy diss track about the attack, Gucci wasn't done. "Put that n-a ass in the dirt," he said, causing audibly mixed reactions from those present.

While Gucci may have used the Verzuz to swing the hatchet rather than bury it, the pair took the high road in the end, performing their early smash "So Icy" together. "I appreciate you for throwing out the olive branch," said Gucci. "It's all love."

"Looking back at it, it was tense but it was real," Gucci says now. "It was a good step forward. For us to do that and for nothing bad to happen, that was great." In the end, the "So Icy" performance became an historic hip-hop moment and an opportunity for both to receive their flowers.

"If you wait on [the world] to give some credit, either they're going to do it when you're dead or when somebody has fallen off and they're not relevant anymore," says Gucci. "They never give it to the person when they're still in the moment."

Sitting in the Florida mansion she shares with her husband, Keyshia Ka'oir giggles. She is recalling how, for weeks after he first left prison, Gucci would gently wake her at 4 a.m. to whip him up a pre-sunrise breakfast. "I'm like, 'Listen here, you're on your jail schedule. People don't wake up at four o'clock in the real world,'" she says with a laugh. Gucci still starts his day at 4 a.m. - but instead of waking Ka'oir for a carb-free meal, he heads to the gym for the first of two daily workouts. "I feel like I get a lot more accomplished if I wake up before everybody," he says.

Ka'oir and Gucci met on the set of his music video for 2010's "911 Emergency," after the rapper insisted the Jamaican-born entrepreneur and model should appear as his love interest. After some convincing, she agreed, and at the shoot, she was taken aback by the man she met. "He was super well-spoken, he was loving, he was well-mannered," she recalls. "He held my hand, he opened the car door. And I was like, 'This is different,' especially for a gangster like him." As Gucci tells it in his autobiography, his behavior even surprised him. "The whole situation was out of character for me," he writes. "I knew she was special."

The relationship rapidly blossomed, but Gucci's mental and physical well-being had long been deteriorating. As chronicled in his book, the rapper had a not-so-graceful tumble from his throne in the early 2010s: There were multiple jail stints and criminal charges, ranging from minor traffic violations to battery, aggravated assault and possession of weapons, plus a court-mandated stay at a psychiatric hospital. He had become embroiled in heated lawsuits involving formerly trusted friends and partners and was dropped from Atlantic. In a now-infamous 2013 Twitter tirade, he targeted Nicki Minaj, Drake, Jeezy and Yo Gotti, among many others. Meanwhile, his addiction to lean worsened, which both Ka'oir and Gucci say led to many of his falling-outs. By the time he went to prison on the firearms conviction, "he was all over the place," says Ka'oir. "It wasn't a surprise for any of us. He was terrible at times."

Each day of his sentence, Ka'oir spoke to Gucci multiple times. She sent him organic groceries on Christmas and Thanksgiving, scheduled her workouts and meals to coincide with his and constantly reassured him that it was only a matter of time before they'd be together again. "I remember telling him over the phone, 'Just allow me to love you and come home to me,'" she says. "And those were the words and the conversations and the emails that got him out safe."

While the pair now lead a loving relationship, their early days were a different story. In his book, Gucci admits to mistreating Ka'oir, screaming at her over the phone after two weeks in an isolation cell, and berating her on social media. "I was in such a bad place when I went to prison, and I just give her all the credit," he says. "She definitely is a blessing and I'm grateful for her. I don't take her for granted."

Upon his release from prison, Gucci was required to attend court-mandated therapy. He was open to the idea, in part out of curiosity as to whether the rumors circulating about his mental health had any merit. "Everybody used to say that I was bipolar; I wanted to know if it's true or not," he says. In the end, "[the therapist] told me I was fine," says Gucci, and "[she] suggested I don't come anymore." Still, he says the experience was positive and sought out a therapist of his own, whom he now periodically talks to on FaceTime.

"There's a stigma that we have to get past, especially in the Black community," he says. "Everybody needs to take care of their mental health and shouldn't be ashamed if they're going through something and reach out to a professional."

In October 2017, Gucci and Ka'oir tied the knot in a $2 million wedding televised on BET (it drew over a million viewers ), and last year they welcomed their newborn son, Ice Davis, two days before Christmas. "For maybe the first four weeks, [Gucci] put him to sleep every night on his chest by himself," says Ka'oir. "He's a great dad."

Gucci also has a 14-year-old son, who he only became aware of when the child was 10 months old and finally met when he was 1. "Me and the mother were kind of like strangers," he says. As a result, Gucci felt like a first-time father with Ice. "I never knew how much attention you got to pay to a baby," he says. "It's not easy. It's a great thing and I love it, but it's definitely challenging to be a parent."

Fatherhood has caused him to reflect on his own parents' struggles a bit differently. "Having a baby definitely made me less critical of my parents," he says. "Now I see that we're all humans and do the best we can." According to 1017 artist Enchanting, Gucci is an especially protective father. "His kids are in quarantine, which he does not play games with," she says, adding with a laugh, "Nobody sees those kids unless you get a corona[virus] test or a damn vaccine."

As Gucci's mother-of-all face tattoos - the infamous ice cream cone on his right cheek - has slowly faded away, so too has his trapper lifestyle. Gone are his weekly strip club outings; family nights have replaced evenings of throwing $50,000 in cash in the air. And, "He doesn't travel with a gun anymore," says Ka'oir. "When we first met, the gun was on his lap at all times. Now, he's definitely a businessman."

Like Gucci's own come-up, the rise of 1017 hasn't been entirely smooth. In March, Foogiano was arrested after he violated probation by melting off his court-ordered ankle monitor; he's now set to serve a five-year prison sentence. "Foogiano getting arrested and locked up, that put a damper on everybody's spirit," says Gucci. From the tone of his voice, his sympathy is clear. "He's going through the same things that I went through," he says. "It has been tough seeing him go through that, especially with him having a little boy. Me and him had a son right around the same time. He's in good spirits, but it's still unfair to him, and we're going to try and appeal it." While Foogiano is in prison, 1017 will still roll out his music and visuals.

When it comes to the decision-making of his signees, Gucci says he uses his own life as a testimony. "I definitely don't want to come off as a hypocrite," he says. "I always tell them I want them to have a long-lasting career, and I show them what it takes to get there." His own arrests, addictions and damaged relationships came at a high cost: He parted ways with signings like Migos and Young Thug, whose careers he could not oversee from behind bars. Each arrest or personal setback often disempowered Gucci in his quest for both peace and profit. For his protégés, he's determined to get it right. "With my artists, it's different," he says. "I do want to be their role model."

As live events slowly return, Gucci himself still plans to tour but has significantly slowed his musical output, opting to drop compilations and mixtapes dedicated to each of his signees instead of a slew of solo projects. Strategizing with Atlantic on rollouts and plans for his artists is what most excites him now. "Seeing them succeed, that's what makes me feel more accomplished," he says, his voice swelling with glee. "It's something that I've always loved to do, but now I'm actually getting paid from it."

"With me doing drugs and the toll it took on my life, I look at the Pimp Cs, DMXs, Black Robs, Princes and I decide what I want my legacy to look like," he says. In 2018, Gucci sold the rights to his autobiography to Paramount Pictures, which he says will release a biopic in the near future. In the meantime, he and Ka'oir have plans for growth of a different kind. "I think Ice needs somebody to play with," he says, hinting at perhaps having another baby or two.

As Gucci shares vivid reflections on the "three most challenging roles" in his life - father, husband and music executive, in that order - he looks self-assured and collected, a far cry from the broken man who entered a federal correctional institution eight years ago. "I'm definitely still a work in progress," he admits in his Alabama drawl. "I'm not perfect. I'm still evolving.

"I got another opportunity to do it again," he continues. "This time, I'm not going to prison. I'm here to experience it from the beginning to the end."

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How Gucci Mane Rebuilt His Life - And Started Building the 'Walmart' of Record Labels

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On a partly cloudy spring morning five years ago, Radric Davis - better known as the rap superstar Gucci Mane - quietly traded in his navy-blue prison jumpsuit for Ralph Lauren sweats and Nike Air Jordan sneakers.

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MTV Video Music Award for Best Pop

Teen Music Choice Award

Billboard Music Award

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"After we got "Chicken Talk" pressed up, me and Burn One went to the Old National Flea Market to sell some copies. The guy there wasn't having it. "Ain't nobody gonna buy that," he told Burn One. "I heard Gucci Mane over with." meanwhile I was outside in the parking lot with my new tape booming out of Burn One's truck." p.123

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"After we got "Chicken Talk" pressed up, me and Burn One went to the Old National Flea Market to sell some copies. The guy there wasn't having it. "Ain't nobody gonna buy that," he told Burn One. "I heard Gucci Mane over with." meanwhile I was outside in the parking lot with my new tape booming out of Burn One's truck." p.123

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This quotes says that someone was really doubting Gucci Mane because of the stuff that he did and because his music wasn't really as popular. This means that because people are doubting him its only right that he shows them that his music is really getting better. This matters because the same man that was doubting him was the same one buying the most copies after he heard a little demo.

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I was working with Powlow da Don on a song called "I Know Why." Waka had never rapped a verse in his life, but for some reason Powlow gave him a look up and down and then turned to me. "That dude who with you, Gucci," he told me. "I think he could be a star." "You know what, Powlow?" I said. "I been thought that." p.133

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I was working with Powlow da Don on a song called "I Know Why." Waka had never rapped a verse in his life, but for some reason Powlow gave him a look up and down and then turned to me. "That dude who with you, Gucci," he told me. "I think he could be a star." "You know what, Powlow?" I said. "I been thought that." p.133

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"I'd gotten arrested over the summer. After a late night I was driving back to Eagle's landing with a couple of girls when I hit a sobriety checkpoint. The officer said he smelled weed, which gave him probable cause to check the car." p.143

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"I'd gotten arrested over the summer. After a late night I was driving back to Eagle's landing with a couple of girls when I hit a sobriety checkpoint. The officer said he smelled weed, which gave him probable cause to check the car." p.143

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"Todd had fought for me since day one and he was still fighting for me. He brought me over to Warner Bros. with him. Right away I started getting the support from the label I'd always wanted. I know I had my own imprint, 1017 Brick Squad, which I named after my childhood home in Bessemer." p.153

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"Todd had fought for me since day one and he was still fighting for me. He brought me over to Warner Bros. with him. Right away I started getting the support from the label I'd always wanted. I know I had my own imprint, 1017 Brick Squad, which I named after my childhood home in Bessemer." p.153

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"In the fall of 2003 a rap group from the Westside of Atlanta called Dem Franchize Boyz released a song called "White Tee". It blew up. These guys didn't do much after that, but at the same time "White Tee was everywhere. I like "White Tee" but it was tame and kid-friendly, so me and a couple of guys from the Str8 Drop came up with "Black Tee". We put a sinister spin on it, rapping about robbing and selling drugs." p.73

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"In the fall of 2003 a rap group from the Westside of Atlanta called Dem Franchize Boyz released a song called "White Tee". It blew up. These guys didn't do much after that, but at the same time "White Tee was everywhere. I like "White Tee" but it was tame and kid-friendly, so me and a couple of guys from the Str8 Drop came up with "Black Tee". We put a sinister spin on it, rapping about robbing and selling drugs." p.73

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Right There :

1) What is Gucci Manes first name?

2) Why did Gucci Mane take his dad's nick name?

3) Which two county jails did Gucci Mane go to?

4) How old was Gucci Mane when he moved to Atlanta?

Author & You :

1) What really happened between Gucci Mane and Big Meech?

2) What was his best album in 2007?

3) What was the reason that Jeezy hated Gucci Mane after they made So Icy?

4) If Gucci Mane had got an actual job would he be a rapper?

Think and Search :

1) Why couldn't Big Cat pay Gucci Mane his money?

2) How many times was Gucci Mane put in jail?

On My Own :

1) How does solitary confinement effect the way someone thinks?

2) Does the environment a child grows up in affect the way that they'll act once older?

3) Why as soon as someone gets famous they have a murder charge?

4)

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"Coach and I boarded a flight to Houston. We were forty-five minutes from our destination when a boom of thunder shook us out of our seats. Moments later the strike of lightning pierced the black sky. That's when I saw it: a tornado ripping its way through the night. The plane shook as the pilot announced that we were flying through a severe strom" (pt.1) p.163

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"Coach and I boarded a flight to Houston. We were forty-five minutes from our destination when a boom of thunder shook us out of our seats. Moments later the strike of lightning pierced the black sky. That's when I saw it: a tornado ripping its way through the night. The plane shook as the pilot announced that we were flying through a severe strom" (pt.1) p.163

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"We were told to brace for turbulence. I turned around to find passengers in prayer, flight attendants included. the storm bellowed as I heard muted crying. I looked at coach. We didn't exchange any words but I knew we were thinking the same thing. Maybe this was it. We bowed our heads and all I could think of was my son." (pt.2) p.163

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"We were told to brace for turbulence. I turned around to find passengers in prayer, flight attendants included. the storm bellowed as I heard muted crying. I looked at coach. We didn't exchange any words but I knew we were thinking the same thing. Maybe this was it. We bowed our heads and all I could think of was my son." (pt.2) p.163

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This quote says that Gucci Mane was scared due to there being a tornado while he was on the plane. This means that since he was scared and seen all the people around him praying and crying and thinking about their loved ones he thought about his son. This matters because he could've died and he never really knew his son like that. And it would be sad but he knew his son would have some money because he wouldn't leave his son with nothing.

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"I kept up my usual routine: straight from jail to the studio. After a welcome-home dinner I was back at Patchwerk, where Drumma Boy had a batch of beats on a thumb drive waiting for me. He loaded them up. Two beats in and it was back to business. I stepped in the booth and proceeded to freestyle ("Normal")." p.173

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"I kept up my usual routine: straight from jail to the studio. After a welcome-home dinner I was back at Patchwerk, where Drumma Boy had a batch of beats on a thumb drive waiting for me. He loaded them up. Two beats in and it was back to business. I stepped in the booth and proceeded to freestyle ("Normal")." p.173

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"Two weeks before "The Appeals" release, I was in Los Angeles, getting ready to walk the red carpet of the MTV Video Music Awards. I was not in a good state of mind. I was becoming more reclusive, combative, paranoid, and isolated. The day before Todd had called me to discuss a music video and I'd told him never to call me during the daytime again. That he was only allowed to call me after dark. Otherwise, I said, he and I were going to have a serious problem." p.183

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"Two weeks before "The Appeals" release, I was in Los Angeles, getting ready to walk the red carpet of the MTV Video Music Awards. I was not in a good state of mind. I was becoming more reclusive, combative, paranoid, and isolated. The day before Todd had called me to discuss a music video and I'd told him never to call me during the daytime again. That he was only allowed to call me after dark. Otherwise, I said, he and I were going to have a serious problem." p.183

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"("Rapper Gucci mane has had a large tattoo of a triple coop ice cream cone inked onto his face just days after he was released from a mental health facility." - Daily Mail)" p.193

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"("Rapper Gucci mane has had a large tattoo of a triple coop ice cream cone inked onto his face just days after he was released from a mental health facility." - Daily Mail)" p.193

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This quote says that Gucci Mane has a tattoo of an ice cream cone on his face. This means that since he got that tattoo it has caused a sort of up roar with the community. This matters because he was getting recognized more as the spontaneous tattoo on his face made him known.

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"In September, i pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery in the incident with the girl in my car. Even though I felt I'd done nothing wrong, my lawyer advised me against trying to fight it. After the year I'd just had I knew he was right. I was the boy who cried wolf by that point. telling my side of the story would have just pissed off the judge." p.201

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"In September, i pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery in the incident with the girl in my car. Even though I felt I'd done nothing wrong, my lawyer advised me against trying to fight it. After the year I'd just had I knew he was right. I was the boy who cried wolf by that point. telling my side of the story would have just pissed off the judge." p.201

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Gucci Mane has been in self-reflection mode with the release of his new album, Breath of Fresh Air. In an interview with The Morning Hustle, the Atlanta rapper admitted that if he had it to do over again, he wouldn't have gotten that tattoo, which admits may have helped fuel the popularity of young rappers getting their faces tatted.

"I wouldn't take credit for starting the trend, but I think I definitely made people think it was something cool to do," he said of the tattoo, which he had inked on his face in 2011. "I was going through something when I did it. If I could do it over again, I probably wouldn't have [done] it. People don't know the backstory to that. I wasn't in a healthy place at the time. That was just a sporadic thing I did."

In addition to squashing his long beef with fellow Atlanta native T.I., in another interview with Streetz Atlanta, the father of two talked about his hope to inspire folks to embrace family life over the streets.

"I wanted to put out an album to be a time capsule of where I'm at in my life right now, so I can look back at it 10 years from now," he said. "I was like, 'This gon' be the discography of Gucci in 2023, with my little girl and my boy.' So now when I look back 10 years from now, I say, 'Okay, this where I was at.' That's where [the title] Breath of Fresh Air [comes from]. Like, take your time, enjoy your family and just express that instead of talking about - not even the same stuff I talk about - but the same stuff I hear people talk about. Show people you can talk about other things, you know what I'm saying? It's cool to have a family. It's cool to have dinner at home."

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Gucci Mane Says He 'Wasn't In A Healthy Place' When He Got His Ice Cream Face Tattoo

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The Atlanta rapper admitted that if he had it to do over again, he wouldn't have gotten that famous tattoo.

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At thirty-six, the rapper who once boasted of being "geeked-up crazy" is out of jail and embracing sobriety. Can he survive his legend?

Every time Gucci Mane gets out of jail, he likes to go straight to the recording studio-a habit that is acknowledged among his fans as a testament to both his work ethic and his turbulent life. On May 26th, it was time for another reintroduction. Freed once more, after serving three years in federal prison for illegal possession of a firearm, Gucci Mane went to the studio. Less than twenty-four hours later, he released a grim comeback track, "1st Day Out tha Feds," sounding defiant: "I bend, don't break, I don't ask, just take / Black gloves, black tape, and I don't play nor pray."

He delivered these words in an unhurried slur: his warm Southern accent and peculiar enunciation soften the percussive force of his syllables, as if he were drumming with brushes. (A hard word like "straight" might come out as something gentler: "shkray.") In a genre that celebrates resourcefulness, no one is more resourceful than Gucci Mane, who built his legacy not on mainstream hits but on a series of modestly successful major-label albums and a profusion of the unofficial albums known as mixtapes. New releases arrived every year-sometimes every month-and even though the guy on the cover wasn't always available to promote them, listeners were drawn in by an idiosyncratic style that was as consistent as his life was not. "Gucci Mane is one of the most street guys I ever met," Zaytoven, one of his longtime producers, says. "But when he raps it sounds like nursery rhymes." Of course, these rhymes tend not to be child-friendly, or friendly at all: "Pissy yellow jewelry, pussy, don't piss me off / Sever a nigga head off, cut a nigga feet off."

This combination of menace and whimsy turned Gucci Mane into something more than a fairly popular rapper: he became a folk hero, the kind of performer who is almost as much fun to talk about as to listen to. Some musicians have a song or an album that they are known for, but Gucci Mane has been known primarily for being Gucci Mane, although he sometimes calls himself Gucci Mane LaFlare, or simply Guwop. (This last nickname may come in handy if he ever receives a threatening letter from the legal department of an Italian fashion house.) And in 2011 he acquired a new trademark, when he covered the right side of his face with a tattoo of an ice-cream cone, accented with red lightning bolts and one of his favorite interjections: "Brrr." He later explained, as if it were obvious, that the image was a celebration of his status as "the coldest in the game."

This summer, a new Gucci Mane has appeared, one so clearly transformed that some fans insist he has been replaced by a clone. Formerly a self-described "big fat rich nigga," he emerged from prison looking lean and happy, flashing a newly white smile. On Snapchat, he posted a video of himself eating a well-balanced meal. "Yeah, this is kale right here," he said. He says that he is sober after years of addiction to prescription cough syrup. And, at the age of thirty-six, he seems to be relishing his role as one of the most widely admired rappers on the planet, especially among his peers. Gucci Mane showed a generation how to emphasize intonation over enunciation, and how to deploy slight rhythmic imprecision to buck the stiff authority of the beat. His new album, "Everybody Looking," is the product of a six-day recording session and, you might say, a three-year writing session: as an inmate, he passed the time by composing verses in pencil on a legal pad. The album's only featured rappers are Kanye West, Drake, and Young Thug, all defining voices of the current moment, and all fans.

To celebrate his return, and his rebirth, Gucci Mane booked a night at Atlanta's grandest venue, the Fox Theatre, a former movie palace with an ornate ceiling, decorated with trompe-l'oeil stars, and nearly five thousand seats, all of which sold soon after the concert was announced. He took the stage at precisely nine o'clock, shirtless beneath a sparkling golden jacket that reflected the lights above him and the flashing phones below. "Wsappenin'," he said, grinning. "It's Gucci, bitch!" The beat dropped, but for a few minutes he barely rapped, patrolling the stage while the crowd shouted his lyrics back at him. The concert was billed as "Gucci Mane & Friends," and the surprise guests arrived roughly in order of popularity, building from local favorites like OJ da Juiceman to a couple of emissaries from pop music's A-list, Future and Drake. One guest was a new friend: Fetty Wap, the New Jersey warbler behind "Trap Queen," which was among last year's most popular songs. Fetty Wap calls Gucci Mane his favorite rapper, and he followed an exuberant performance at the Fox by posting, the next morning, an even more exuberant Instagram video. "Yo, yesterday I met Gucci Mane," he said. "I met motherfuckin' Guwop!"

The concert wasn't quite exhaustive-if it had been, it might still be going. In this room of admiring faces, more than one of which was decorated with an ice-cream cone, every song was a fan favorite, and no one seemed to mind that the guy rapping about being "geeked-up crazy" had changed his ways. Gucci Mane has disclosed, in interviews, that he felt "numb" during the drug-addled years when he was most prolific. So when he declares, at one point, "I done shook off all my demons-now I'm back to myself," fans might wonder who, exactly, that is.

Gucci Mane, one of the greatest rappers Atlanta has ever produced, is himself a product of Birmingham, Alabama. His name is Radric Davis, and when he was nine he moved with his family to a rough apartment complex in East Atlanta, where his accent marked him as an interloper. (He once described himself as "a country boy and a city boy all blended into one.") He was an interloper, too, in Atlanta's booming hip-hop scene: when a local group scored a hit with a lighthearted song called "White Tee," he and some friends recorded a fearsome remake, "Black Tee," which was a paean to robbery; in an accompanying low-budget video, his face was masked by a black handkerchief.

Gucci Mane's musical career has been inseparable from the criminal career that has frequently interrupted it, burnishing his legend while sabotaging his professional prospects. He says that he started selling drugs at thirteen, and so when, as a fledgling rapper, he declared himself "independent," the implication was that he didn't need record-company money because he had plenty of his own. His first real success, a 2005 gemophile's anthem called "Icy," almost ended his career, and his life. It featured another Atlanta rapper, Young Jeezy, and after the two men argued over its ownership a friend of Jeezy's was found shot to death. Gucci Mane was arrested for the shooting, but he claimed that he acted in self-defense, when the man and some associates burst into an apartment to assault him; the case was dropped. In an interview afterward, Gucci Mane insulted Young Jeezy in characteristically vivid language. "The nigga shaky, like a earthquake," he said. "Like a-what they call it? Quicksand. Stepping on quicksand."

The first big-budget Gucci Mane album, released in 2009, was "The State vs. Radric Davis." Despite the dour title, he seemed to be in high spirits, especially in a song called "Lemonade," which described colorful jewelry with the bewildered enthusiasm of someone seeing it for the first time. ("Yellow diamond pinkie ring, call that there the lemon rock / Jewelry box a lemon bin, my earring size of apricot.") Gucci Mane has never found a consistent home on the radio, at least outside Atlanta, but his music and mythos spread online, sometimes through viral images. (One showed him in a majestic white fur coat, which morphed into a waterfall-the rapper as force of nature.) And, because mainstream success never seemed within reach, he generally eschewed crossover attempts in order to focus on his core fans, which meant focussing on the "trap," or dope house: his discography includes the "Trap House" series (five volumes), "Trap God" (three volumes), "Trap Back" (two volumes), and "Trapology."

Gucci Mane's first conviction, in 2001, was for cocaine possession, but what followed can make him seem less like a trap god than like a lost soul. In 2005, the month after the killing for which he wasn't charged, he was arrested for beating a concert promoter with a pool cue; he pleaded no contest. He was arrested a number of times in the following years, for increasingly erratic behavior, and in 2011 he pleaded guilty to pushing a woman out of a moving vehicle. Two years later, his mother filed an unsuccessful petition for guardianship, declaring that he had been given diagnoses of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder; a psychiatrist testified that she didn't know whether his behavior "was based more on the primary psychiatric issue or on the substance-abuse issue." This is a sad and disturbing chronicle, but fans sometimes treated the arrests as welcome proof that Gucci Mane's life really was as outrageous as his rhymes.

It seems hard to believe, in the conscientious era of "Hamilton" and Kendrick Lamar, that there was once a time when rappers were scary, and their music was condemned by observers from across the political spectrum. In some ways, Gucci Mane is a holdover from this older, meaner era, which is one reason that a younger, courtlier peer like Drake is so eager to get his blessing. (The two are reportedly planning a collaborative mini-album.) His music has drawn its unsettling power not just from ostensibly true crime stories but also from sidelong references to addiction and mental illness: he has bragged about "eating them Percocets like they was baked beans," and joked, "My flow so schizophrenic that I think I need a straitjacket." At his glassy-eyed best, he evoked a zombie kingpin, staggering through a strange and half-dead world. "I keep on hearing voices," he once rapped. The voices were telling him to buy more watches, more diamonds, more cars.

The older, meaner hip-hop world elevated brilliant but scruffy neighborhood guys like Gucci Mane, without asking them to apologize or explain. But it also fostered a kind of exoticism: it was tempting to think of Gucci Mane primarily as an avatar of East Atlanta mayhem, rather than as an entertainer and a craftsman. "Everybody Looking" is certainly entertaining, like dozens of Gucci Mane releases before it, but it hints at a previously implausible (and, it must be said, happy) possibility: that the craftsman might outlive the avatar. He still sounds like himself-the album is carefully devoid of any corrupting outside influence or, for that matter, any concessions to non-initiates. (On one track, he declares, "My Glocks sing my hooks, and we call it 'pop' music.") But he is equally uncompromising on the subject of his newfound sobriety, outing himself as a "recovering drug addict" in the album's first stanza. And, though there is still plenty of mayhem, many of the wildest claims are made in the past tense. "I got so drunk, I left Privé and I crashed a Bentley," he raps, as if he still can't quite believe it.

Privé is an Atlanta night club, which was also the site of the Fox concert's official after-party. Gucci Mane showed up there shortly after two, and he seemed to be the only person in the room not drinking or smoking anything. He watched, impassive, as the d.j. crowed, "Gucci home-the whole motherfuckin' city come out!" Not long afterward, Drake arrived, thumping his chest, bowing his head, and pointing to him in a gesture of respect. Gucci Mane did not rap, but he did briefly accept the microphone in order to make a request. "I wanna hear some Gucci," he said. And then he stood and listened to the guy on the record. ♦

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This summer, a new Gucci Mane has appeared, one so clearly transformed that some fans insist he has been replaced by a clone.