It’s said that art mirrors life. In hip-hop’s case, there’s always been a deliberate entanglement of perception and reality. Fans demand their MCs be real…but never too real. Successful hip-hop is about the hint of the danger, the tease of it, the mystique. Hip-hop is about balance.
Gucci Mane is an artist striving for that balance, volatility versus musicality. Controversy, including a feud with former collaborator Young Jeezy, has grabbed the headlines, with insufficient regard paid to his considerable mic skills, raw talent, and business acumen. Gucci is looking to wrest his name from public speculation and let his own words do the talking.
“I wish everybody well who’s making money in this rap game,” the Atlanta-raised rapper says, dismissing the controversy that followed him in the past. “My own rap game is going so good, I’ve got so many things on my plate at my label, that I don’t got time for other people’s business.” With a deal with Asylum Records as the boss of his own label, So Icey Entertainment, Gucci does indeed have a full schedule with no time to dwell on the past.
“I live my life with no regrets. I just wish that a lot of things never happened, but anybody can wish,” says Gucci. Sounds like a man with his eyes on the prize. And you’d expect nothing less from an artist who ground his way to the top via the hustle of independent records. Signing to Big Cat Records in the wake of his local single “Black Tee,” he dropped his debut record, Trap House, in May 2005. The independent album moved an impressive 140,000 units, largely on the strength of the “Icy” single, featuring Jeezy. Clamor over song rights sparked dispute, and the resulting rift grew.
Controversy notwithstanding, Mane’s independence was cemented: “I was on the independent scene for about two years,” he recalls. “It’s crazy! You gotta go into your own pocket to support your craft. You need other avenues to have money coming in, to support your stuff. You might win, you might lose, and it’s a gamble out there with the independent circuit. One thing you’d better have is good music because without that, you go downhill fast in the independent game.”
Good music firmly in hand, Gucci was fast approaching stardom when more tragedy befell him. But let’s backtrack; how did the man born Radric Davis in Bessemer, Alabama, become Gucci Mane, mouthpiece for Atlanta stuntin’? Mane remembers little from his time in Alabama, just that it was rural, and that it’s changed dramatically since he left at the age of nine. “I gotta shout out Alabama though, because they holdin’ it down,” he affirms. “Every time I go there to do a show, I’m impressed with how hip-hop culture has taken root.”
Mane’s identity coalesced when he moved with his mother to Atlanta. “I lived all of my adolescent and adult life in Atlanta,” he explains. “I’m from East Atlanta Zone Six; it was hard, man, it was real rough. I grew up in the Starter jacket era: they’d take your Starter jacket, your 8Ball jacket, they’d take your hat, your shoes. It was just no holds barred on the streets, dog eat dog. If you missed the bus, you had to be crewed up or you’d get jumped. It was wild when I came up.”
It’s a bleak portrait. When asked to describe his home life more vividly, Mane offers a look into his contemplative side, a side honed as a schoolyard poet. “I was just a young dude in a single parent house most of my life. I can’t complain that much. I would guess it’s like any black child growing up in a single parent household. There are a lot of people who know how that is. I didn’t have a lot coming up; but what I did have, I appreciated. I was blessed to have a caring mother to raise me right and to help me with my business ventures; she’s been there through the whole struggle. There’s a lot that goes along with that; it made me who I am today.”
A stepfather would enter the picture during Mane’s adolescence, introducing not only a male figure, but also inspiration for Mane’s unusual moniker. “My father came in, the original Gucci Mane; that’s what people in the neighborhood called him, and that’s where I get my name from. From then on, I grew up the son of a hustler and a schoolteacher; it was the best of both worlds because I was educated twice.” Drawing inspiration from a pantheon of rappers before him –Big Daddy Kane, LL Cool J, Ice Cube, the Beastie Boys, N.W.A—Mane went on to release Trap House, a lethal brew of his signature sound: “I call my music straight Gucci: going hard and whatever beats you make you for me, if I’m feeling it, if I’m rocking with it, I’m gonna crush it. When you hear me, you hear a lot of pain, a lot of hood; you hear what’s going on in the inner city in Atlanta.”
Unfortunately, Trap House was ill timed; the month of its release, Gucci was accused of murder and jailed for two days. Eventually deemed to be acting in self-defense, and without sufficient evidence to hold him, Mane was exonerated. But the ordeal left an indelible imprint on the man. “I learned to keep better company, watch where I go, and be mindful of my surroundings at all times,” he reveals. “Watch what I say, watch what I do and how I do it, just keep myself out of the wrong crowd.”
“I always stand up man,” he continues. “I’m one of the toughest guys I know. It’ll take a lot more than that to break me down.” Undeterred, Mane was back in the studio, preparing 2006’s eerily apropos Hard To Kill. The buzz from Hard To Kill vaulted Gucci Mane from regional commodity to national treasure, and major labels responded accordingly: “There was a bidding war going on, and I liked Atlantic’s approach. They made it known that they wanted me, they felt where I was going and that I could grow with them.”
Asylum/Atlantic Records welcomed Gucci Mane in early ’07, granting him his own imprint, So Icey Entertainment. With it comes an entire stable of artists, the So Icey Boyz. As the Boyz ready for their own exposure –“I got them in training; they be in the weight room, pumping iron, doing pushups, shopping at the mall, buying ice”—Gucci is focused on his magnum opus, Back to the Trap House. “I started working on the album, and by the third song, I was like ‘This is going back to the Trap House.’ I started feeling the same way I did when I made my first album. It had the same feel to it, the same freshness. And I had the same hunger and desire I had when I first started rapping.”
“Since I went major, I want everybody to know I’m still keeping it street, keeping it hood,” Gucci maintains. “I’m trying to take it back to all my fans that I had when I first started my career. And at the same time, I’m trying to open up my new album to a new fan base. So it’s a mix for everybody coming together, like my first album was.” Gucci has always prided himself on his innate ability, and his refusal to let guest appearances dictate the tone of his records. “I just want people to know I’m a great songwriter, man,” he asserts. “I’m passionate about what I do, and it’s choreographed strategically when I do it. I bring a lot of experience, creative wordplay, and a crazy style. And my albums, I record most of the songs without writing them down; it’s a God-given gift and I just get paid for it. It come from God, it’s like wondering what makes a bird fly. He made me a poet like the great poets of the past.”
But don’t mistake Gucci’s confidence for self-absorption. The vicissitudes of his career have dictated a longer view. Lyrics aside, he’s less preoccupied with visible means and more so with acting as an emissary from his under-repped block. “I’m not the one to glorify what goes on in the hood,” he insists. “We have everything there, the whole range from violence to people getting on the bus and going to work. There’s a lot more to the hood than just drugs. It’s a bigger story, there’s a big picture. I went to school in that neighborhood, I worked there, I trapped there, I hustled there, and I got my name there. I’m proud to be from East Atlanta Zone Six, and I claim there. I hold that on my back and carry that, to be the first one from there to really rock.”
And Gucci’s professional aims have matured as well. While other rappers stress platinum plaques, Gucci hasn’t forgotten the route he took to stardom. “I made a lot of CDs on my own. People fucked with me and supported me, and just made me the man I am today. That’s my blueprint right there, and I stay mindful of it. So now, my only concern is that people feel my music; at the end of the day, I do it for people to feel it. If one person feel it, two people feel it, I feel like my job’s been done.”
Fortunately for Gucci, he should be prepared to welcome an army of new fans with Back to the Trap House. But longstanding fans shouldn’t fear; they’ll recognize “Freaky Gurl,” reprised from its previous appearance from Hard To Kill. Luda, upon hearing the joint, asked for a guest spot on the remix. Said remix now appears as the lead single on Back to the Trap House, following in Gucci’s theme of mating old and new. Over a bouncing, meandering beat from Cyber Sapp, the two cook up the requisite concoction of whips, chips, and chicks. Also look out for “Bird Flu,” the album’s number two single, laced by New-York based Supa Sonics. Elsewhere, firm guest verses from Rich Boy and Pimp C of UGK round out Gucci’s regional flavor, while Bay-area producer Zaytoven (of “Icy” renown) locks down Gucci’s West Coast appeal.
Gucci Mane has something for everyone, and with the struggles of the past in his rearview, Gucci is settled in for his ride to the top. “I’m best known for controversy but I’m trying to gain respect as a songwriter and entertainer. I plan to hit them so hard with this album; who knows what the future will bring. I’ll be banging them out till I can’t bang no more.”
Alley Cat
Gucci Mane Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Strictly entertainment (strictly entertainment)
For all my street bitches out there (all my street bitches)
Real spit (real spit)
She a alley cat, she a hood rat,
She a alley cat, she a hood rat,
She a alley cat, she a hood rat,
Straight from the block baby keep her hair fixed,
On the low dog she a alley ass bitch,
She a alley cat, she a hood rat,
She a alley cat, she a hood rat (Yeeaaaahhhh)
Four bed rooms with four bad kids, (bad kids)
But the girl so pretty and her ass so big, (so big)
Dancin at the strip joint, guess what I did, (what I did)
Made it rain on her fo' head, told her go head, (go head)
Break bread if you got it, if you don't just watch me, (just watch me)
A red stop sign in the road couldn't stop me, (couldn't stop me)
Alley ass girl, bitch yo ass outrageous, (outrageous)
Goodness gracious, get butt naked, (butt naked)
20 thousand ones, baby just to have fun, (have fun)
Got a half-a-mill saved in case I have to post bond, (post bond)
You a alley ass hoe, Why you talkin so loud, (so loud)
Ol' Alley ass bitch with a gold grill smile, (grill smile)
Tattoo's, shawty got alot of piercings, (piercings)
And she rollin on a pill, feelin like I'm feelin, (Feelin)
You a alley cat shawty, I won't pay you no mind, (no mind)
Put ya number in my phone cause yo ass so fine, (so fine)
She a alley cat, she a hood rat,
She a alley cat, she a hood rat,
She a alley cat, she a hood rat,
She a alley cat, she a hood rat,
Straight from the block baby keep her hair fixed,
On the low dog she a alley ass bitch,
She a alley cat, she a hood rat,
She a alley cat, she a hood rat (Yeeaaaahhhh)
Shawty thick like grits, real talk, real spit, (spit)
If you lookin for a alley bitch, that's what you gon get, (gon get)
Alley girls got money, (got money) Alley girls got plugs, (got plugs)
Alley girls smoke weed, (smoke weed) Alley girls sell drugs, (sell drugs)
Shawty at it like a mutherfucker, just like me, (like me)
Credit card scammin hoe, runnin from the police, (police)
You a eastern alley hoe, I was down in south beach, (south beach)
Seen a big thick bitch with alot of gold teeth, (lotta gold teeth)
Had platinum 21, listen bentley car keys, (bentley cars keys)
It's impossible to steal, I ain't stuntin car thieves, (I ain't stuntin car thieves)
Shawty real real alley, keep it real real street, (real real street)
Suck dick, eat pussy, she a real real freak, (real real freak)
I'm a keep it dawg, I won't bite my toungue, (my toungue)
East Atlanta zone 6 where them alley hoes from, (alley hoes from)
Like T-Pain mane all these alley hoes sprung, (alley hoes sprung)
Gucci Mane performin live, all the alley come, (aahhh)
She a alley cat, she a hood rat,
She a alley cat, she a hood rat,
She a alley cat, she a hood rat,
She a alley cat, she a hood rat,
Straight from the block baby keep her hair fixed,
On the low dog she a alley ass bitch,
She a alley cat, she a hood rat,
She a alley cat, she a hood rat (Yeeaaaahhhh)
In the song "Alley Cat" by Gucci Mane, he is referring to women who are from the streets, and who may be involved in illicit activities such as stripping, selling drugs, or engaging in credit card scams to make money. Gucci Mane uses the terms "alley cat" and "hood rat" synonymously to describe these women. The lyrics suggest that Gucci Mane views these women as purely for entertainment, and not to be taken seriously or respected in any way. He explicitly mentions paying one of these women to dance for him and throwing money at her, dehumanizing her further.
The song also includes references to the luxurious lifestyle that Gucci Mane lives, such as having four bedrooms and a half-million dollars saved in case he needs to post bail. Gucci Mane seems to be bragging about his wealth and the ease with which he can obtain sex and companionship from these "alley cats."
Overall, the lyrics to Gucci Mane's "Alley Cat" are degrading and objectifying towards women who are already marginalized and likely struggling to make a living in harsh circumstances. It is important to recognize and resist this type of harmful language and objectification in music and popular culture.
Line by Line Meaning
Alley cats hoes mane
This song is about women in the streets who are considered 'alley cats' or 'hood rats'.
Strictly entertainment (strictly entertainment)
The song is meant to be entertaining and not taken too seriously.
For all my street bitches out there (all my street bitches)
The song is a tribute to women who come from the streets and know how to survive in that environment.
Real spit (real spit)
The song is meant to be truthful and honest.
She a alley cat, she a hood rat,
The singer is describing a woman who comes from the streets and may have a reputation for being promiscuous or untrustworthy.
Straight from the block baby keep her hair fixed,
Despite coming from a tough environment, this woman takes pride in her appearance.
On the low dog she a alley ass bitch,
This woman may seem unassuming, but she's actually tough and street-smart.
Four bed rooms with four bad kids,
The woman being described may have children and is struggling financially.
But the girl so pretty and her ass so big,
Despite her struggles, this woman is physically attractive.
Dancin at the strip joint, guess what I did,
The singer is describing a time when he went to a strip club and made it rain money on one of the dancers.
Made it rain on her fo' head, told her go head,
He threw a lot of money at the dancer's head and gave her permission to keep it.
Break bread if you got it, if you don't just watch me,
If you have money, share it with others. If you don't, just watch and admire the singer's generosity.
A red stop sign in the road couldn't stop me,
The singer is unstoppable and won't let anything get in his way.
Alley ass girl, bitch yo ass outrageous,
This woman is tough and her behavior may be vulgar or extreme.
Goodness gracious, get butt naked,
The singer is urging this woman to take off all her clothes.
20 thousand ones, baby just to have fun,
The singer has a lot of money and is willing to spend it frivolously.
Got a half-a-mill saved in case I have to post bond,
The singer has a large amount of money saved up in case he gets arrested.
You a alley ass hoe, Why you talkin so loud,
The singer is criticizing this woman for being loud and obnoxious despite her reputation.
Ol' Alley ass bitch with a gold grill smile,
This woman has a gold dental grill, indicating that she has money and status despite her reputation.
Tattoo's, shawty got alot of piercings,
This woman has a lot of tattoos and piercings, which may be seen as rebellious or unconventional.
And she rollin on a pill, feelin like I'm feelin,
The woman is taking drugs and feeling good, just like the singer.
You a alley cat shawty, I won't pay you no mind,
The singer is acknowledging this woman's reputation, but he's not interested in her.
Put ya number in my phone cause yo ass so fine,
Despite not being interested, the singer is still attracted to this woman.
Shawty thick like grits, real talk, real spit,
This woman has a curvy figure and the singer is speaking truthfully about it.
If you lookin for a alley bitch, that's what you gon get,
If you're looking for a woman from the streets, this is the type of woman you'll find.
Alley girls got money, (got money) Alley girls got plugs, (got plugs)
Women from the streets may have access to illegal money and resources.
Alley girls smoke weed, (smoke weed) Alley girls sell drugs, (sell drugs)
Women from the streets may participate in drug culture.
Shawty at it like a mutherfucker, just like me,
This woman is sexually active and so is the singer.
Credit card scammin hoe, runnin from the police,
This woman may participate in illegal activities such as credit card fraud.
You a eastern alley hoe, I was down in south beach,
This woman is from a different part of town than the singer.
Seen a big thick bitch with alot of gold teeth,
The singer is describing a woman with a physical appearance that matches the stereotype of a woman from the streets.
Had platinum 21, listen bentley car keys,
This woman has a lot of money and may be successful despite her reputation.
It's impossible to steal, I ain't stuntin car thieves,
This singer has a lot of money and doesn't have to worry about his car being stolen.
Shawty real real alley, keep it real real street,
This woman is authentic and true to her roots.
Suck dick, eat pussy, she a real real freak,
This woman is sexually adventurous and willing to please others.
I'm a keep it dawg, I won't bite my toungue,
The singer will speak his mind and not hold back.
East Atlanta zone 6 where them alley hoes from,
The women being described in this song are from a specific area of Atlanta known for its tough neighborhoods.
Like T-Pain mane all these alley hoes sprung,
These women are attracted to the singer, just like many women are attracted to T-Pain.
Gucci Mane performin live, all the alley come,
When the singer performs live, many women from the streets come to see him.
Lyrics © Ultra Tunes
Written by: RADRIC DELANTIC DAVIS, XAVIER DOTSON
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Big Mill Official
This shit still slap👋👋👋🔥
Deven Stewart
Hard as hell still
John caldwell
I love Gucci mane when he frist came out.he went so hard'.him and young jeezy
Tristan Chatman
Already already but he still go hard though he go in and out a little bit but he still Gucci mine but I love you, though already already burr burr
Sk8 Nash
Still my favorite song after 13 years 💪🏾💯
andrew spruell
hard to kill, and chicken talk best albums he made
Tramaine Brunson
💯💯💯🅱️IG FACTZ‼️
Frxsty lovs u More
@David Prince I think you’re 9 years to late
David Prince
You forgot ice attack
Lb Reed
2018 still banging the Trap God Gucci Mane