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.”
Do the Math
Gucci Mane Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Uhh, Uhh, Wow
18 bands, I done sold another thang
10 grand cash, that'll get ya bout a half
3 point 5 that's a hundred dollar slab
13 hundred for a baby, pussy nigga do the math
Tractor-trailer truck and its full of that mid (wow)
Got a tractor-trailer truck and its full of that mid (wow)
Got a caravan baby and its loaded down with bricks uh
Kilos stacked up, Thirty's on my lack-truck
Re-up half a mil, Pills Imma vacuum seal
Gucci, Truly, Life of my movie
Woke up this morning bought an 08 dually
07 Charger SRT bitch
Sittin' on Ashanti's, Trunk just beatin'
Dubs just breathin', Old folks peekin'
Somebody bitch gettin' fucked this evening
Gucci got clugs, That's the slang in Cleveland
I'm so gangsta, He so corny
I'm so hood that ya bitch got horny
Cookin' up a brick 7:30 in the morning (It's Gucci)
18 bands, I done sold another thang
10 grand cash, that'll get ya bout a half
3 point 5 that's a hundred dollar slab
13 hundred for a baby, pussy nigga do the math
Tractor-trailer truck and its full of that mid (wow)
Caravan baby and its loaded down with bricks (wow)
Got a tractor-trailer truck and its full of that mid (wow)
Got a caravan baby and its loaded down with bricks uh
My vette burgandy, Hummer snow white
And I bought em same day, True story real light
See my right wrist ice me out like a bitch
I got so much money I can ice my clique
Put ice on the bitch, Put ice on my fists
See them diamonds on my rims, That's some million dollar slims
I'm a cocaine chef, and I love myself
Waiting on Gucci to fall off, Better hold your breathe
Cus the donk look clear, Malibu look stealth
Got so much money Imma ice my belt
See my donk look clear, Malibu look stealth
Got so much money, Imma ice my belt (Gucci)
18 bands, I done sold another thang
10 grand cash, that'll get ya bout a half
3 point 5 that's a hundred dollar slab
13 hundred for a baby, pussy nigga do the math
Tractor-trailer truck and its full of that mid (wow)
Caravan baby and its loaded down with bricks (wow)
Got a tractor-trailer truck and its full of that mid (wow)
Got a caravan baby and its loaded down with bricks uh
Call me Pizza Hut cus I sell a lot of pies
In the drought, I might get 23 of them guys
23 of them grams? That's a whole lot of mans
See my plug Afghanistan, Get my pills from Pakistan
Sold a lot of grams, Got them graham crackers man
Green and yellow donk, Its my Green Bay Packer Van
I don't understand, I don't really like the chicks
See I'm known in the 6 for selling all them fuckin' bricks (Gucci)
In Gucci Mane's "Do the Math," the rapper boasts about his vast wealth and success in the drug game. He starts the song by saying he's sold "18 bands," or eighteen thousand dollars' worth of drugs, and made another ten grand in cash. He references the price of the drug "slab," or crack cocaine, which sells for three and a half grams or a hundred dollars. He adds that 1300 dollars is the price for a baby, using the slang term to refer to a kilogram of cocaine. He advises "pussy nigga[s]" to "do the math" and understand how much money he's making.
Gucci Mane then switches to talking about the transport of drugs, referencing "tractor-trailer trucks" and "caravans" filled with "mid," or low-quality marijuana, and "bricks" of cocaine. He boasts about "kilos stacked up" and how he's making millions of dollars vacuum-sealing pills.
Gucci Mane also talks about his lavish lifestyle, from his cars to his diamond-encrusted jewelry. He brags about buying an '08 dually and an '07 Charger SRT, and says his Corvette is burgundy while his Hummer is white. He discusses diamond rims and million-dollar slims, a slang term for tires.
Line by Line Meaning
18 bands, I done sold another thang
I have sold something else for a lot of money
10 grand cash, that'll get ya bout a half
You can buy half of what you need for $10,000
3 point 5 that's a hundred dollar slab
A small amount of something is worth $100
13 hundred for a baby, pussy nigga do the math
You should be able to calculate that $1,300 is a fair price for a baby
Tractor-trailer truck and its full of that mid (wow)
I have a large truck filled with high-quality marijuana
Caravan baby and its loaded down with bricks (wow)
I also have a car filled with bricks of drugs
Kilos stacked up, Thirty's on my lack-truck
I have a lot of kilograms of drugs and 30-inch wheels on my car
Re-up half a mil, Pills Imma vacuum seal
I'm going to re-stock with $500,000 worth of drugs and vacuum seal them
Gucci, Truly, Life of my movie
I am the star of my own life's movie, Gucci Mane
Woke up this morning bought an 08 dually
I woke up this morning and bought an 2008 dually truck
07 Charger SRT bitch
I drive a 2007 Dodge Charger SRT
Sittin' on Ashanti's, Trunk just beatin'
I have Ashanti wheels and a loud subwoofer in my trunk
Dubs just breathin', Old folks peekin'
My rims are shining and old people are looking at me
Somebody bitch gettin' fucked this evening
I am going to have sex with someone's girlfriend tonight
Gucci got clugs, That's the slang in Cleveland
I have a lot of drugs, and people in Cleveland call them 'clugs'
I'm so gangsta, He so corny
I am very cool and tough, while someone else is not
I'm so hood that ya bitch got horny
I am so tough and cool that even someone's girlfriend is attracted to me
Cookin' up a brick 7:30 in the morning (It's Gucci)
I am making drugs at 7:30 in the morning
My vette burgandy, Hummer snow white
My Corvette is burgundy, and my Hummer is white
And I bought em same day, True story real light
I bought them on the same day, it's a true story and it was easy for me
See my right wrist ice me out like a bitch
I have a lot of ice on my right wrist
I got so much money I can ice my clique
I have so much money that I can buy a lot of expensive things for my friends
Put ice on the bitch, Put ice on my fists
I put a lot of ice on my jewelry and my fists
See them diamonds on my rims, That's some million dollar slims
The diamonds on my rims are worth millions of dollars
I'm a cocaine chef, and I love myself
I am good at making cocaine, and I love myself
Waiting on Gucci to fall off, Better hold your breathe
People are waiting for me to fail, but they will be disappointed
Cus the donk look clear, Malibu look stealth
My cars look great
Got so much money Imma ice my belt
I have so much money that I can put a lot of ice on my belt
Call me Pizza Hut cus I sell a lot of pies
People call me Pizza Hut because I sell a lot of drugs
In the drought, I might get 23 of them guys
In a drug drought, I might be able to buy 23 people's entire stash
23 of them grams? That's a whole lot of mans
23 grams of drugs is a lot of drugs for one person
See my plug Afghanistan, Get my pills from Pakistan
I get my drugs from people in Afghanistan and Pakistan
Sold a lot of grams, Got them graham crackers man
I sold a lot of drugs and made a lot of money
Green and yellow donk, Its my Green Bay Packer Van
I have a green and yellow car that is inspired by the Green Bay Packers
I don't really like the chicks
I am not interested in women
See I'm known in the 6 for selling all them fuckin' bricks (Gucci)
I am famous in the 6 (Cleveland) for selling a lot of drugs
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: RADRIC DAVIS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
TRanks7
Still a banger in 2020!
Go Ham Gucci
True
Justin Murray
this the best version of this song, love how the DJ chops it up
5616steph
Still my shit
Dejuan Bradner
Be rocking wit Gucci since 05…..do the math Burr Burr
Marvin Grant
Tractor trailer trucks and they full of that mid!!! Classic
Curt Gee
Classic bumping in 2018
Dank Hill
*2019
Ocean Wolf
@Dank Hill 0
Dank Hill
@Ocean Wolf 2021