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.”
Boy from the Block
Gucci Mane Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I'm the boy from the block, boy from the block block
I'm the boy from the block, boy from the block block
I'm the boy from the block, boy from the block block
I'm the boy from the block, boy from the block block
With the very large knots
I'm the boy from the block, boy from the block block
I'm the boy from the block, boy from the block block
I'm the boy from the block, boy from the block block
With the very large knots
I pull up in that Spyder, strapped up like McGyver
Should have brought my phantom na, but I'm mad at my driver
He so fuckin' turnt up, ridin' on auto pilot smokin' kush and smilin',
He drinkin' while he drivin'
Gucci please excuse me , huh, all my goons got jewelry on 'em
All my niggas booked up, paper they get it on there own
I don't think you know me homie, I suggest you leave me alone
I got so much jewelry on, that I think I need a clone
I pull up to the traffic light, icy as a blood light
Shinin' like a flash light I might damage ya eye sight
Gucci got that real ice, don't it look real nice
I don't want your girlfriend homie but my bitch might
[Chorus]
Now straight to the channel shop, that's how she shop
500 for the flip flops cause they ain't Reebok
I'm the boy from the block with the very large knots
Gotta spot in the hood no sofa just pot
I'm hot, so hot stand next, get shocked
I got Caucasian neighbors that's just how I rock
If you talkin' to me tell me somethin' that I wanna know
If she ain't got no money know you gotta have some doe
Then she ask me for a drank so I bought a bottle
She was flexin' really hard, now she flexin' harder
You a bitch, one more bitch, I only fuck with starters
So if you ain't a dime piece, ain't no need to bother
[Chorus]
I want the money, I smell like a pocket full of hundreds
A whole bag full of Kush I been buckin' since a youngin'
I know you need a man right now because you strugglin'
So if he isn't helpin' then there's no need for discussion
In Houston Texas I can spend fifty thousand on a Monday
I got fifty woman with me, fifty more that ain't comin'
My pocket do the conversation make all the decisions
I only fuck with bad bitches cause I'm very picky
He cant buy a drink so he don't deserve ya digits
I'm polar bear laflare, wrist and ear is very frigged
My charm big as a midget
I give yo ass the business
So if you got yo swag right you know that you can get it
In Gucci Mane's song "Boy from the Block," the rapper boasts about his success and wealth, declaring himself as the boy from the block with very large knots. In the chorus, he repeats this line several times to emphasize his point. Gucci pulls up in his Spyder with a driver who is both high and drunk, apparently unreliable. He also mentions that his goons have jewelry on them, alluding to his entourage or crew. Gucci delivers a sense of menace by claiming to have so much jewelry on that he thinks he needs a clone. He also brags about his jewelry being real ice, and how it looks real nice.
In the second verse, Gucci talks about his extravagant lifestyle, talking about how a pair of flip flops cost him $500 because they didn't come from Reebok. He boasts about having a spot in the hood, where he has no sofa, just weed (pot). Gucci comes across as confident and arrogant by stating he's too picky to mess around with women who aren't dime pieces. He again mentions his wealth by stating that he could spend $50,000 in a day in Houston and that he only deals with bad bitches. The song concludes with Gucci impressing everyone with his wealth and charm by declaring, "I'm Polar Bear LaFlare, wrist and ear is very frigged."
Line by Line Meaning
I'm the boy from the block, boy from the block block
I'm someone who grew up in the hood and has experienced both sides of life.
With the very large knots
I have a lot of money and don't have to worry about financial issues.
I pull up in that Spyder, strapped up like McGyver
I arrive in my fancy car with weapons and protection for my safety.
Should have brought my phantom na, but I'm mad at my driver
I regret not bringing my even fancier car, but I'm upset with my driver for some reason.
He so fuckin' turnt up, ridin' on auto pilot smokin' kush and smilin',
He's high on drugs and not focused while driving.
He drinkin' while he drivin'
He's also drunk while driving, which is dangerous.
Gucci please excuse me , huh, all my goons got jewelry on 'em
I'm apologizing in advance for my friends who are also wearing expensive jewelry.
All my niggas booked up, paper they get it on there own
All of my friends have their own money and don't need to rely on me.
I don't think you know me homie, I suggest you leave me alone
I don't want any trouble and suggest that people stay away from me.
I got so much jewelry on, that I think I need a clone
I'm wearing multiple expensive pieces of jewelry and need someone to replicate my appearance so that I can wear more.
I pull up to the traffic light, icy as a blood light
I show off my flashy jewelry when I stop at traffic lights.
Shinin' like a flash light I might damage ya eye sight
My jewelry is so bright that it might hurt your eyes.
Gucci got that real ice, don't it look real nice
My diamond jewelry is genuine and looks good on me.
I don't want your girlfriend homie but my bitch might
I'm not interested in stealing anyone's girlfriend, but my own girlfriend might be interested in someone else.
500 for the flip flops cause they ain't Reebok
I'm willing to pay a lot of money for designer flip flops because they're not a cheap brand like Reebok.
Gotta spot in the hood no sofa just pot
I have a place to stay in the hood, but it's not furnished with anything extravagant.
I'm hot, so hot stand next, get shocked
I'm popular and trendy, standing next to me will get you noticed too.
I got Caucasian neighbors that's just how I rock
I have white neighbors and that's just the way it is.
If you talkin' to me tell me somethin' that I wanna know
If someone is speaking to me, they should make sure it's something that interests me.
If she ain't got no money know you gotta have some doe
If a woman I'm interested in doesn't have her own money, her partner needs to have enough money to support them both.
Then she ask me for a drank so I bought a bottle
A woman asked me for a drink, so I bought an entire bottle for her.
She was flexin' really hard, now she flexin' harder
The woman was showing off before, but after receiving something from me, she's showing off even more.
You a bitch, one more bitch, I only fuck with starters
I'm not interested in hanging out with more fake people - I only spend time with my close friends.
So if you ain't a dime piece, ain't no need to bother
If someone isn't extremely attractive, I'm not interested in pursuing them.
I know you need a man right now because you strugglin'
I understand that a woman might be looking for a partner because she's going through a tough time.
So if he isn't helpin' then there's no need for discussion
If a woman's current partner isn't supporting her, there's no need to talk about it - she should look for someone else.
In Houston Texas I can spend fifty thousand on a Monday
I have enough money to spend $50,000 in a single day in a city like Houston, Texas.
I got fifty woman with me, fifty more that ain't comin'
I have 50 women with me and 50 more who are interested in me but didn't come along for some reason.
My pocket do the conversation make all the decisions
I have so much money that it speaks for me and influences my decisions.
I only fuck with bad bitches cause I'm very picky
I only pursue women who meet my high standards of attractiveness.
He cant buy a drink so he don't deserve ya digits
If a man can't afford a drink, then he's not worth giving my phone number to.
I'm polar bear laflare, wrist and ear is very frigged
I have a lot of ice in my jewelry, specifically in my wrist and ear.
My charm big as a midget
My personality and charm are larger than life.
I give yo ass the business
I'm a serious businessman and don't mess around when it comes to my work.
So if you got yo swag right you know that you can get it
If someone has the right confidence and style, they might be able to get with me.
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: CHRISTOPHER GHOLSON, CHRISTOPHER JAMES GHOLSON, RADRIC DAVIS, RADRIC DELANTIC DAVIS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
That’s So E
This will forever be my favorite song. Got me through them dark days thanks Gucci much love. ❤
Terrell Robertson
1994
Bigdugger1
2022 still bumpin like its new!!!!
D.BagShawtyPage
2023
Terrell Robertson
N 87th St
John Henry
Much respect to him. I like the way Gucci changed and elevated but I can’t lie I do miss this Gucci as well.
HowlBeast
Melvin Banks same wish he tapped into this mode in his mixtape.. he was so cold 🥶 BURRRRRRR
Claire Patterson
Check out “still remember..” it’s new and it’s giving me hope maybe one day he will make music like this again. It’s closer than anything else he’s dropped since he got back out
Suade The American Bully
He cloned now🤦🏼♂️
Joshua Moore
Das real shawty