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.”
Haterade
Gucci Mane Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And shall not stall, been flying too long
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa girl
I be sippin' on haterade
That deep-down getcha paid
It tastes like lemonade
Scrunch your face when you see me paid
I be sippin' on haterade
That deep-down getcha paid
That flavor is lemonade
Scrunch your face when you see me paid
I'm not listening, I'm not interested
My attention only focused on what I get
Diamond’s glistening, they call me Mr. Check
White ice lemonade, Black ice she thick
I got general ambition bitch, and life's a bitch
So I treat it real good like hoes is squeezed
My whole life, I ain't never seen a car like that
And she probably won't see the next shit I get
And a seventeen fresh, I say I guess
Successful, healthy, I live no stress
So today is the day that if it was shot
Drop tops everywhere, I wouldn't know how to rock
Got the titties out today showing off tan lines
Bands bending in my pocket, no it's not drumline
Me and Skateboard P in the club on time
No, not on time, but it just in time
(It's Gucci!)
We've evolved from small to tall
And shall not stall, been flying too long
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa girl
I be sippin' on haterade
That deep-down getcha paid
It tastes like lemonade
Scrunch your face when you see me paid
I be sippin' on haterade
That deep-down getcha paid
That flavor is lemonade
Scrunch your face when you see me paid
Uh, yo, this one goes out to all of my critics
Don't you feel stupid? Look how I did it!
Look how it came to pass when I said it
We can do debit, cuz I don't need credit
Yes, I'm epic, look how I rep it
It's been eight years, but I broke the record
Yup, the record... yup, the record... yup, the record
(Just for the record)
Uh, I'm all that I can be
And I'll admit, I'm appalled when you envy
Cuz you can do it, too, and you can do it, too
I just happen to be the girl that they threw it to
So I'mma bounce back, and I'mma ball out
And every time that you see me I go all out
And I'mma win till the ending
Don't be mad when you see me transcendin'... Gucc!
We've evolved from small to tall
And shall not stall, been flying too long
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa girl
I be sippin' on haterade
That deep-down getcha paid
It tastes like lemonade
Scrunch your face when you see me paid
I be sippin' on haterade
That deep-down getcha paid
That flavor is lemonade
Scrunch your face when you see me paid
I ball hard, I should be in Sports Illustrated
Cooler than a motherfucka in a Porshe lemonade coupe
Pull up in a Ferrari in your hood, get intimidated
Mutilated, Maserati, Lamborghini (are) decapitated
Feds investigation on what I accumulated, insinuated
That I'm not the man that I say I am
Like I I give a damn
But I just run around town pickin' up stacks
Some like Louis, some like Gucci
I love money, ya I love solutions
And my teenage karat ring, baby girl choosin
And I ain't hard to please baby come choose me
Lounge around, round the town with the top chopped off
You can call it lost and found ’cause my top stay down
And I ain’t seen a muthafucka since I bought this car
I ain’t seen a muthafucka since I bought the car
It’s Gucci!
We've evolved from small to tall
And shall not stall, been flying too long
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa girl
I be sippin' on haterade
That deep-down getcha paid
It tastes like lemonade
Scrunch your face when you see me paid
I be sippin' on haterade
That deep-down getcha paid
That flavor is lemonade
Scrunch your face when you see me paid
You know what I"m talkin' bout?
Just lift ya glass, gon' lift ya glass
Let's think about the future and forget the past
If a nigga key, hate 'em, just kick ya ass
If a nigga, go hard, don't make me laugh--it's Gucci
The lyrics to Gucci Mane's song "Haterade" speak to the rapper's success and how he deals with those who are envious or jealous of him. He explains that he sips on "haterade" - a metaphorical drink that represents the negativity and jealousy of others - and turns it into something positive that gets him paid. He also talks about his focus on achieving success, ignoring critics and only paying attention to what benefits him. He brags about his expensive cars, jewelry and his general ambition, which has helped him live a life with no stress.
Line by Line Meaning
We've evolved from small to tall
We've come a long way and grown in many ways
And shall not stall, been flying too long
We won't stop now, we've been successful for too long
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa girl
Expressing amazement or excitement towards a girl
I be sippin' on haterade
I am ignoring those who dislike or envy me
That deep-down getcha paid
Ignoring haters can create more success and wealth
It tastes like lemonade
Ignoring haters can be refreshing, like a sweet drink
Scrunch your face when you see me paid
Haters react negatively when they see me succeeding
That flavor is lemonade
Ignoring haters and succeeding takes on a sweet taste
I'm not listening, I'm not interested
I am not paying attention to those who dislike me
My attention only focused on what I get
I am focused on my own success and what I can gain
Diamond’s glistening, they call me Mr. Check
My expensive jewelry displays my success and wealth
White ice lemonade, Black ice she thick
My diamonds are sparkling and my female companion is attractive
I got general ambition bitch, and life's a bitch
I have an overall ambition to succeed and life can be tough sometimes
So I treat it real good like hoes is squeezed
I treat life well, like how one would treat a valuable possession
My whole life, I ain't never seen a car like that
I am impressed with my luxurious car and its uniqueness
And she probably won't see the next shit I get
My extravagant lifestyle is constantly changing and evolving
And a seventeen fresh, I say I guess
I am unsure if my expensive clothing is from last or current season
Successful, healthy, I live no stress
I am successful and living a healthy, stress-free life
So today is the day that if it was shot
Today is a good day to accomplish something significant
Drop tops everywhere, I wouldn't know how to rock
I have so many expensive cars to choose from, it's hard to decide which to drive
Got the titties out today showing off tan lines
My female companion is showing off her tan lines and curves
Bands bending in my pocket, no it's not drumline
I have a lot of cash in my pockets
Me and Skateboard P in the club on time
I am hanging out with Pharrell Williams at the club
No, not on time, but it just in time
I wasn't on time, but I arrived at a good moment
(It's Gucci!)
A shout-out to the artist Gucci Mane
Uh, yo, this one goes out to all of my critics
This song is directed towards all those who have criticized me
Don't you feel stupid? Look how I did it!
My success proves my critics wrong and should make them feel foolish
Look how it came to pass when I said it
My predictions and statements have come true
We can do debit, cuz I don't need credit
I pay for everything in cash, I don't use credit
Yes, I'm epic, look how I rep it
I am legendary, look how I represent myself and my success
It's been eight years, but I broke the record
I have been successful for a long time, breaking records along the way
Yup, the record... yup, the record... yup, the record
Reiterating my impressive record-breaking success
(Just for the record)
A play on words about the record-breaking success
Uh, I'm all that I can be
I am doing the best I can for myself
And I'll admit, I'm appalled when you envy
I am disappointed when people are envious of my success
Cuz you can do it, too, and you can do it, too
Others can be successful like me if they work hard enough
I just happen to be the girl that they threw it to
I was given opportunities and made the most of them
So I'mma bounce back, and I'mma ball out
I will keep going, bouncing back from any setbacks and continuing to be successful
And every time that you see me I go all out
I always put my all into everything I do
And I'mma win till the ending
I will continue to be successful till the end of my career
Don't be mad when you see me transcendin'... Gucc!
Don't be upset when you see me surpassing expectations and achieving more success - a shout-out to the artist Gucci Mane
I ball hard, I should be in Sports Illustrated
I am so successful and talented, I should be featured in Sports Illustrated
Cooler than a motherfucka in a Porshe lemonade coupe
I am more cool and stylish than anyone driving a Porsche convertible
Pull up in a Ferrari in your hood, get intimidated
If I drive my Ferrari in your neighborhood, people will be intimidated by my success and wealth
Mutilated, Maserati, Lamborghini (are) decapitated
My collection of expensive cars is impressive
Feds investigation on what I accumulated, insinuated
The government is investigating how I earned my wealth, insinuating that it may be illegal
That I'm not the man that I say I am
They are questioning whether I am genuinely a successful, wealthy person
Like I I give a damn
I don't really care what they think or say
But I just run around town pickin' up stacks
I am always busy collecting cash and being successful
Some like Louis, some like Gucci
I have a variety of fans who like different things about me
I love money, ya I love solutions
I enjoy making money and being successful
And my teenage karat ring, baby girl choosin
Even my teenage-style jewelry is attractive to women
And I ain't hard to please baby come choose me
I am open to women choosing me as their partner
Lounge around, round the town with the top chopped off
I drive my convertible with the roof down around town, relaxing and enjoying my success
You can call it lost and found ’cause my top stay down
My convertible top is always down as I drive, making it easy to spot me
And I ain’t seen a muthafucka since I bought this car
I am always alone when driving my new, impressive car due to its rarity and attractivenes to others
It’s Gucci!
A shout-out to the artist Gucci Mane
You know what I'm talkin' bout?
Do you understand what I am saying?
Just lift ya glass, gon' lift ya glass
Raise your glass and celebrate with me
Let's think about the future and forget the past
Let's look ahead and not dwell on the past
If a nigga key, hate 'em, just kick ya ass
If someone is being disrespectful, hate them back and fight them
If a nigga, go hard, don't make me laugh--it's Gucci
If someone is trying their best, don't make fun of them - a shout-out to the artist Gucci Mane
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: ONIKA TANYA MARAJ, PHARRELL L. WILLIAMS, RADRIC DELANTIC DAVIS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind