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.”
Bet Money
Gucci Mane Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Money got me sure my ass can't even hold my pants up
Twenty niggas standing on the flat all getting off
Found a jacket, get em bro, late with his head soft
Try me in the six, I'ma raise this forty five up
Shave a brick, put it back together, that's a lineup
We mix the chick, use a little cut, that's a temp fade
And if he got a chopper never ever bring a switchblade
I'm a multimillionaire, I got a couple hundred on me
And no more mac, I told the scrap, I make you stick yourself like Tony
I give a nigga my whole stash if he can take this jewelry off me
And I'm so bossy in my altar, smoking kush and sipping coffee
Walk, walk, walk
They said I couldn't get rich, I hid that money (pick up that money)
All that sideline talk don't make no money
Bout that bread, y'all niggas out here too funny (y'all niggas too funny)
Hit your bitch then leave her with no money (she broke)
They said I couldn't get rich, I hid that money (I did it)
All that sideline talk don't make no money (y'all niggas out crocked)
Bout that bread, y'all niggas out here too funny
I hit your bitch then leave her with no money
Money is a motto, if you speak it then I'm with ya
Any sideline nigga, they get cropped out the picture
If you ask me, yeah I'm ready, got your hoe on a mission
Catch me running through your city like a damn politician
Boy I'm all about a chick
She don't ask no questions, boy she all about the nig
Say she want to crash so I let my partners rip
Looking at this nigga that stay flyer than a jet
They don't hear me yet
I'ma get that check, that money
Y'all niggas out here funny
You know y'all nigga on the go
Gotta have that green light gumby
I'ma fool with it though, too clumsy
On the clock monday through sunday
Everyday gotta get that money
And I learned that from the big homie
They said I couldn't get rich, I hid that money (pick up that money)
All that sideline talk don't make no money
Bout that bread, y'all niggas out here too funny (y'all niggas too funny)
Hit your bitch then leave her with no money (she broke)
They said I couldn't get rich, I hid that money (I did it)
All that sideline talk don't make no money (y'all niggas out crocked)
Bout that bread, y'all niggas out here too funny
I hit your bitch then leave her with no money
I'm like eleven of them back, give me that fucking walkie talkie
Then get lost cause when you said you'd never cross me then you crossed me
And these hoes count the vapors like biz marquee
It's since they brought me these keys, niggas idolize me
Critics criticize me, haters sabotage me
I get angry then I cut through whoever camouflaged veep
Better workers, that's my killers, ain't gonna jeopardize me
I know these fuck niggas with they could paralyze me
Walk, walk, walk
They said I couldn't get rich, I hid that money (pick up that money)
All that sideline talk don't make no money
Bout that bread, y'all niggas out here too funny (y'all niggas too funny)
Hit your bitch then leave her with no money (she broke)
They said I couldn't get rich, I hid that money (I did it)
All that sideline talk don't make no money (y'all niggas out crocked)
Bout that bread, y'all niggas out here too funny
I hit your bitch then leave her with no money
In Bet Money, Gucci Mane raps about his massive wealth and how he has become a multimillionaire through grinding and hustling. He boasts about his excessive money by stating "Money got me sure my ass can't even hold my pants up." He goes on to describe his entourage of men all receiving money and gifts from him, "Twenty niggas standing on the flat all getting off." Gucci Mane then transitions to rapping about his illicit activities, such as shaving and breaking down bricks of drugs, "Shave a brick, put it back together, that's a lineup," and selling them for money. He also sends a warning to anyone who crosses him, saying he will raise his .45 gun on them, "Try me in the six, I'ma raise this forty five up." The rest of the song emphasizes his strong work ethic and determination to make money, despite any obstacles or naysayers.
Line by Line Meaning
Break a line to a bunch of dimes then you grind up
Breaking down drugs into smaller pieces and then grinding them up to make a powder for distribution.
Money got me sure my ass can't even hold my pants up
Having so much money that it causes the pants to sag and not stay up properly.
Twenty niggas standing on the flat all getting off
A group of 20 men exiting a car or van.
Found a jacket, get em bro, late with his head soft
Finding someone who owes money and seeking out retribution for their tardiness in payment.
Try me in the six, I'ma raise this forty five up
If someone challenges him in his car, he will pull out his gun to defend himself.
Shave a brick, put it back together, that's a lineup
Breaking a large amount of drugs into smaller pieces and then reassembling them for distribution.
We mix the chick, use a little cut, that's a temp fade
Mixing drugs with a less potent substance in order to increase profits.
And if he got a chopper never ever bring a switchblade
If someone has a gun, never bring a knife to a fight.
I'm a multimillionaire, I got a couple hundred on me
Having a net worth of several million dollars and carrying a few hundred dollars in cash.
And no more mac, I told the scrap, I make you stick yourself like Tony
No more machine guns, threatening to make someone accidentally injure themselves with their own weapon.
I give a nigga my whole stash if he can take this jewelry off me
Offering all of his drug money to someone who can steal his jewelry.
And I'm so bossy in my altar, smoking kush and sipping coffee
Being confident and assertive in his environment while smoking marijuana and drinking coffee.
Walk, walk, walk
A repetitive phrase that serves as a transition between verses.
They said I couldn't get rich, I hid that money (pick up that money)
People doubted his ability to become wealthy, but he successfully accumulated and hid his money.
All that sideline talk don't make no money
Talking about making money is not the same as actually making money.
Bout that bread, y'all niggas out here too funny (y'all niggas too funny)
People who don't prioritize making money are not to be taken seriously.
Hit your bitch then leave her with no money (she broke)
Having sex with a woman and then leaving her with no financial compensation.
I'm like eleven of them back, give me that fucking walkie talkie
Asking for a walkie-talkie from the person who is 11 steps behind him.
Then get lost cause when you said you'd never cross me then you crossed me
Telling someone who betrayed him to leave and never come back.
And these hoes count the vapors like biz marquee
Women who are impressed by his wealth and status.
It's since they brought me these keys, niggas idolize me
Since he became successful through drug dealing, other people look up to him.
Critics criticize me, haters sabotage me
Facing criticism and sabotage from those who dislike him.
I get angry then I cut through whoever camouflaged veep
If someone tries to hide their true intentions or betray him, he will become violent.
Better workers, that's my killers, ain't gonna jeopardize me
Only trusting his most capable employees to do work that won't risk his own safety or freedom.
I know these fuck niggas with they could paralyze me
Knowing that there are people who want to harm him, but he will not let them succeed.
Contributed by Jordyn B. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Ian McAteer
Legendary song, these two need to pair up more, they have good chemistry
Head On
i remeber downloading all of his music while he was in jail on my galaxy s4. He dropped alot of good mixtapes , they just had horrible promotion.
Stubbo242
He dropped for the fans. Now look at the amount of content he has. He's set for life and his next generation
Stelvio Ireneu
still made him a million dollars WOP the #goat
Head On
Easy Breezy Beautiful Thugger Girls he was in jail so no one was promoting. He gave us all his hits in mixtapes and albums from his vault while in jail. He dropped alot of dope ass hits but not many were looking for him. Everyone was listening to his old shit
Easy Breezy Beautiful Thugger Girls
Hancho familia he didn't care about the promotion it was for the fans but I feel ya
Exposing Democrats
2022 now. Still cranking.
4K
Damn another one that was slept on
Manuel Rivera
Shit hard!✨💵💯
Ozee 919
throwback though 💯