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.”
Corner Cuttin Featuring Khujo Goodie
Gucci Mane Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Booty hoppin, you hear that beat knockin
(Is that that beat knockin?) That's that beat knockin
(Is that that beat knockin?) Yeah that's that beat knockin
Corner cuttin, trap shakin
Booty hoppin, you hear that beat knockin
(Is that that beat knockin?) That's that beat knockin
Silverados, sittin on 60's
Lamborghini do's, just for the bitches
(Just for the bitches?) That's for the bitches
(For them witches?) That's for the bitches
Dodge Magnum, paint it platinum
He got to hear me in it, so it's the fast one
(Is that the brass one?) That is the fast one
(That's the brass one) Nah that's the fast one
Bubble eye Hummer, with the chrome grill
Ask your baby mama, how that leather feel
(How the leather feel?) That's how the leather feel
(Yeah how the leather feel?) That's how the leather feel
Brand new 'Vette, with the Calvins
Red and black, same color as the Falcons
(As THE FALCONS?!) As the Falcons
(As THE FALCONS~!) As the Falcons
Corner cuttin, trap shakin
Booty hoppin, you hear that beat knockin
(Is that that beat knockin?) That's that beat knockin
(Is that that beat knockin?) Yeah that's that beat knockin
Corner cuttin, trap shakin
Booty hoppin, you hear that beat knockin
(Is that that beat knockin?) That's that beat knockin
(Is that that beat knockin?) Yeah that's that beat knockin
63M, check the tag, yessir
Under the hood nigga, it's a geek monster
(Is that a geek monster?) Now that's a geek monster
(IS THAT A GEEK MONSTER?) Now that's a geek monster
Old school Chevy, with the Gucci guts
It's that latter day, I'ma make 'em put it up
(Make 'em put it up) I make 'em put it up
(SHAWTY MAKE THEM PUT IT UP~!) I make 'em put it up
Paint drippin wet, like my girl pussy
Me and Khujo, smokin bubble kushy
(Is that that bubble kushy?) Yeah that's that bubble kushy
(Is that that bubble kushy?) Yeah that's that bubble kushy
Corner cuttin, trap shakin
Booty hoppin, you hear that beat knockin
(Is that that beat knockin?) That's that beat knockin
(Is that that beat knockin?) Yeah that's that beat knockin
Corner cuttin, trap shakin
Booty hoppin, you hear that beat knockin
(Is that that beat knockin?) That's that beat knockin
(Is that that beat knockin?) Yeah that's that beat knockin
Every woofer on, I skated on chrome
Just the other day, I got my lights on
(You got yo' lights on?) I got my lights on
(You got yo' lights on?) I got my lights on
Twenty cars deep, everybody whippin
{?} run the mill, all in them 26's
(Is them those 26's?) Oh them the 26's
(Is them those 26's?) Oh them the 26's
Bubble out bill, with the frog face
Alligator seats, that's how them ballers play
(That's how them ballers play?) That's how them ballers play
(That's how them ballers play?) That's how them ballers play
Old school Chevelle, sittin high as hell
High as hell as I ride through the A-T-L
(Through the A-T-L?) Through the A-T-L
(Ride through the A-T-L?) Through the A-T-L
Corner cuttin, trap shakin
Booty hoppin, you hear that beat knockin
(Is that that beat knockin?) That's that beat knockin
(Is that that beat knockin?) Yeah that's that beat knockin
Corner cuttin, trap shakin
Booty hoppin, you hear that beat knockin
(Is that that beat knockin?) That's that beat knockin
(Is that that beat knockin?) Yeah that's that beat knockin
In "Corner Cuttin," Gucci Mane, Jermaine Dupri, and Young Jeezy celebrate the trappings of trap culture. The chorus extols the virtues of corner cutting, trap shaking, and booty hopping, all over a hard-hitting beat. The first verse describes the various extravagant cars that the rappers drive, from Silverados and Lamborghinis to Dodge Magnums and Hummers. The second verse features more car talk, as well as smoking bubble kushy with Khujo. The song overall is a celebration of excess and success in the world of trap music. The chorus repeats throughout, emphasizing the driving force of the song.
Line by Line Meaning
Corner cuttin, trap shakin
Engaging in risky or illegal behavior to make money, specifically in drug dealing, while also partying and dancing to the beat of the music.
Booty hoppin, you hear that beat knockin
Dancing in a sexually suggestive way to the loud rhythm of the music.
(Is that that beat knockin?) That's that beat knockin
Confirming that the loud sound is indeed the beat of the music.
(Is that that beat knockin?) Yeah that's that beat knockin
Affirming again that the loud sound is the beat of the music.
Silverados, sittin on 60's
Having Chevy Silverado trucks with 60-inch rims as a symbol of wealth and status.
Lamborghini do's, just for the bitches
Using Lamborghini doors that open upwards as a way of impressing women.
(Just for the bitches?) That's for the bitches
Acknowledging that this flashy display is done specifically to attract female attention.
(For them witches?) That's for the bitches
Dismissing any criticism or judgment by sarcastically saying that it's done for the benefit of the women they attract.
Dodge Magnum, paint it platinum
Driving a Dodge Magnum car with a platinum-colored paint job as another sign of wealth and luxury.
He got to hear me in it, so it's the fast one
Choosing a car that has a powerful engine and makes a loud noise to impress others and show off one's status.
(Is that the brass one?) That is the fast one
Clarifying that it's not a brass-colored car, but a fast one, as originally stated.
(That's the brass one) Nah that's the fast one
Correcting someone who mistakenly thought the car was brass-colored, emphasizing that it's all about speed and power.
Bubble eye Hummer, with the chrome grill
Driving a Hummer SUV with big round headlights and a shiny chrome grille as another symbol of wealth and extravagance.
Ask your baby mama, how that leather feel
Boasting about having luxurious leather seats in the car, and suggesting that women will appreciate this detail.
(How the leather feel?) That's how the leather feel
Answering a rhetorical question with an obvious answer, confirming the quality of the leather seats.
(Yeah how the leather feel?) That's how the leather feel
Repeating the same response to a similar question, as if to emphasize the point even more.
Brand new 'Vette, with the Calvins
Driving a brand new Corvette sports car, with a reference to Calvin Klein underwear as a fashionable detail.
Red and black, same color as the Falcons
Choosing red and black as the color scheme for the car, matching the colors of the Atlanta Falcons football team.
(As THE FALCONS?!) As the Falcons
Confirming that the inspiration for the color choice came from the local football team.
(As THE FALCONS~!) As the Falcons
Emphasizing again that the colors were chosen to pay homage to the Falcons football team.
63M, check the tag, yessir
Driving a Mercedes-Benz S-Class luxury car and proudly boasting about it.
Under the hood nigga, it's a geek monster
Referring to the powerful engine of the car, with a slang term 'geek monster' meaning something impressive or dominant.
(Is that a geek monster?) Now that's a geek monster
Confirming that the engine is indeed impressive and powerful.
(IS THAT A GEEK MONSTER?) Now that's a geek monster
Using capital letters to show excitement and emphasis about how impressive the engine is.
Old school Chevy, with the Gucci guts
Driving an old Chevrolet car that has custom Gucci upholstery and details inside to make it more luxurious.
It's that latter day, I'ma make 'em put it up
Being so successful and wealthy that others will feel intimidated and have to compete by showing off their own possessions.
(Make 'em put it up) I make 'em put it up
Asserting that one has the power to make others put up their own possessions in a display of status and wealth.
(SHAWTY MAKE THEM PUT IT UP~!) I make 'em put it up
Saying it in a catchy and playful way, as if to emphasize how easy it is to show off and intimidate others with wealth.
Paint drippin wet, like my girl pussy
Comparing the shiny and wet paint of the car to the appearance of a woman's genitalia, using crass but provocative language to add shock value and bravado.
Me and Khujo, smokin bubble kushy
Smoking marijuana with Khujo, a fellow rapper and collaborator, to celebrate and enjoy their success.
(Is that that bubble kushy?) Yeah that's that bubble kushy
Confirming that they're smoking a specific strain of marijuana called 'bubble kushy.'
(Is that that bubble kushy?) Yeah that's that bubble kushy
Repeating the same response to emphasize the type of marijuana they're smoking and also to hype up the song's catchiness by repeating the same phrase a few times.
Every woofer on, I skated on chrome
Having the car's sound system turned up loud and feeling proud of the chrome wheels on the car.
Just the other day, I got my lights on
Turning on the car's powerful lights to show off and intimidate others with one's wealth and power.
(You got yo' lights on?) I got my lights on
Confirming that one has turned on the powerful lights of the car as another display of status.
(You got yo' lights on?) I got my lights on
Repeating the previous response, as if to emphasize how powerful and important they are.
Twenty cars deep, everybody whippin
Having a large group of people driving expensive cars, all showing off their wealth and power together.
{?} run the mill, all in them 26's
A possible reference to how common it is to have cars with 26-inch rims as a sign of wealth and status.
(Is them those 26's?) Oh them the 26's
Confirming that the cars in the group have indeed 26-inch rims, as expected.
(Is them those 26's?) Oh them the 26's
Repeating the confirmation in a slightly different way, as if to emphasize the previously stated point.
Bubble out bill, with the frog face
Having a Mercedes car with a bubbly design and a face-like appearance on the front grille, another way of showing off wealth and uniqueness.
Alligator seats, that's how them ballers play
Having car seats made of expensive alligator skin, as a way of showing off wealth and attention to detail.
(That's how them ballers play?) That's how them ballers play
Confirming that having such extravagant car details is what separates rich and successful people from the rest, as a type of norm or tradition.
(That's how them ballers play?) That's how them ballers play
Repeating the same response to emphasize the point and to make it more memorable as a hook.
Old school Chevelle, sittin high as hell
Driving a classic Chevrolet Chevelle car that has been modified to look higher than usual, as another way of showing off one's individual style and wealth.
High as hell as I ride through the A-T-L
Feeling proud and confident as one drives through Atlanta, showing off the high and unique-looking car as a symbol of success.
(Through the A-T-L?) Through the A-T-L
Confirming the location where the car is being driven through, and incorporating it into the song's catchy hook.
(Ride through the A-T-L?) Through the A-T-L
Repeating the same response again, as a way of hyping up the song's rhythm and catchiness.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: RADRIC DELANTIC DAVIS, DEMETRIUS STEWART, DEMETRIUS L STEWART
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
The Resell Trapper
Classic
Trey Libra
I never knew you were on this album.