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.”
I
Gucci Mane Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Gucci always talkin' 'bout he love somebody (hey, hey)
He don't love nobody (uh-uh, hey)
Matter fact, nigga, you owe me some money don't you? (Hey, hey)
Let me show you how I do this shit (get money)
Yellow Benz with a spoiler kit, with my spoiled lil' chick (huh)
Yellow diamonds on my neck and wrist, match this yellow bitch (brr)
If you don't buy her what she want then she throw a fit (brr)
She a bitch, shawty, mean as shit but she super thick (huh)
And she act silly like a kid, give her candy stick (brr)
She a pit, make her flip a brick, make her sick a chick (huh)
Since a jit, I've been slangin' dick, Gucci Mane the shit (brr)
I met a girl name Susie, I let her join my group
I know she not a groupie, so I let her in my coupe (get in)
I stashed her in my Fendi wallet, stashed her in my tire (racks)
Susie is a money maker but that bitch a liar (huh)
Susie roll in '08 'Rari but that girl on fire
Pull us over Calender Road, said she had some priors
Ten bricks in my car, shawty singin' like Mariah
Singin' like the choir, better yet singin' like Mya (bitch)
Well, my name is Susie and Gucci think I love him
That sucka think I'm loyal but I fucks with all the hustlers
I be wit all the ballers, I be at all the spots
I might be in yo' kitchen, nigga, cookin' with yo' pots
I think I love her
(Nigga, you don't love me)
(Nigga, you don't love me)
(Nigga, you don't love me)
I think I love her
(Nigga, you don't love me)
(Nigga, you don't love me)
(Nigga, you don't love me)
I know I love her
(Nigga, you don't love me)
(Nigga, you don't love me)
(Nigga, you don't love me)
I know I love her
(Nigga, you don't love me)
(Nigga, you don't love me)
(Nigga, you don't love me)
I think I love her
Told my boy, man, Polow Da Don
I think I love this girl, man, huh, why? (Polow and drum, man)
She sweet but keep kief, she stains her Irene
Two piece, she dime piece in jeans, they dead meat
She sweet, she so deep, she read with good teeth
Two jobs, she get cheese, her dates, are my treat
How neat, she loves to eat, we eat bon appétit
We feed, she's so neat and like me, she so neat
Nigga always talk, but I run the block
This bitch is so hot, my clique, I close shop
My wrist froze with rocks, I cop all the drops
Unfold all the knots, expose the have nots
My hoes pose with pots like Young Goldilocks
We got white bulgin' rocks, Ziploc stocks to cop
We never closin' shop, we hot, steamin' hot
I'm Susie Sarah plot, a click-clack, p-pop-pop
I think I love her
(Nigga, you don't love me)
(Nigga, you don't love me)
(Nigga, you don't love me)
I think I love her
(Nigga, you don't love me)
(Nigga, you don't love me)
(Nigga, you don't love me)
I know I love her
(Nigga, you don't love me) yeah
(Nigga, you don't love me) hey
(Nigga, you don't love me) hey, hey
I know I love her (uh-uh, hey)
(Nigga, you don't love me) hey
(Nigga, you don't love me) hey, hey
(Nigga, you don't love me) hey, hey
I think I love her (hey, hey, hey, hey)
The song "I Think I Want Her" by Gucci Mane is a typical hip hop track with a mix of piercing beats and rap verses. The song is actually about a girl named Susie who has caught Gucci's attention. He introduces her as his spoiled little girl who demands things and throws tantrums if she doesn't get what she wants. Additionally, the song talks about how Susie is involved in illegal activities such as carrying ten bricks in a car and singing like Mariah when pulled over by the cops. However, Gucci loves Susie for who she is despite her flaws.
The chorus of the song, "I think I love her, Nigga you don't love me," shows Gucci's mixed emotions towards Susie. While he believes he loves her, he's aware that she may not feel the same way about him. The second verse of the song is a contribution from Polow Da Don, who admires Susie for her street smarts and the fact that she's a dime piece in jeans. The verse also describes how Gucci's girls pose with pots, and they have white bulging rocks to cop. Susie is depicted as a money maker, a liar, and a temptress, but despite all that, Gucci can't help but love her.
Overall, the song "I Think I Want Her" is about Gucci Mane's love for Susie. He knows she's not perfect and has flaws, but he accepts and loves her for who she is. The lyrics also depict how the girl likes to live her life, and her involvement in illegal activities is her way of making money.
Line by Line Meaning
Yeah (yeah), hey
Gucci Mane greets his audience
Gucci always talkin' 'bout he love somebody (hey, hey)
Gucci Mane claims he loves someone
He don't love nobody (uh-uh, hey)
But in reality he doesn't love anyone
Matter fact, nigga, you owe me some money don't you? (Hey, hey)
He reminds someone that they owe him money
Let me show you how I do this shit (get money)
He boasts about his ability to make money
Yellow Benz with a spoiler kit, with my spoiled lil' chick (huh)
He has a yellow Benz with a spoiled girlfriend
Yellow diamonds on my neck and wrist, match this yellow bitch (brr)
He has yellow diamond jewelry to match his girlfriend
She a trip, shawty, she the shit, she know she the shit (huh)
His girlfriend is confident and knows her worth
If you don't buy her what she want then she throw a fit (brr)
If he doesn't buy her what she wants, she throws a tantrum
She a bitch, shawty, mean as shit but she super thick (huh)
His girlfriend is thick and can be mean
And she act silly like a kid, give her candy stick (brr)
She acts silly like a kid and he spoils her with candy
She a pit, make her flip a brick, make her sick a chick (huh)
She's a 'pit' (someone who can be dangerous) and helps him sell drugs
Since a jit, I've been slangin' dick, Gucci Mane the shit (brr)
Since he was young, he's been having sex and he's proud of it
I met a girl name Susie, I let her join my group
He met a girl named Susie and let her into his inner circle
I know she not a groupie, so I let her in my coupe (get in)
He trusts Susie and lets her ride in his car
I stashed her in my Fendi wallet, stashed her in my tire (racks)
He hides Susie and money in his wallet and tire
Susie is a money maker but that bitch a liar (huh)
Susie makes money, but she's also a liar
Susie roll in '08 'Rari but that girl on fire
Susie drives a Ferrari and is doing well
Pull us over Calender Road, said she had some priors
The police pull them over and Susie has a criminal record
Ten bricks in my car, shawty singin' like Mariah
He has ten bricks of drugs in his car and Susie is singing like Mariah Carey (high-pitched)
Singin' like the choir, better yet singin' like Mya (bitch)
She's singing like a choir or the singer Mya
Well, my name is Susie and Gucci think I love him
Susie introduces herself and Gucci thinks she loves him
That sucka think I'm loyal but I fucks with all the hustlers
But in reality, she's not loyal and associates with other hustlers
I be wit all the ballers, I be at all the spots
She hangs out with athletes and goes to all the popular places
I might be in yo' kitchen, nigga, cookin' with yo' pots
She might even be in someone's kitchen cooking with their drugs
Told my boy, man, Polow Da Don
He tells his friend Polow Da Don
I think I love this girl, man, huh, why? (Polow and drum, man)
He tells Polow that he thinks he loves Susie
She sweet but keep kief, she stains her Irene
He describes Susie as sweet, but she uses drugs and stains her clothes
Two piece, she dime piece in jeans, they dead meat
She wears expensive clothes and looks great in jeans, but she's trouble
She sweet, she so deep, she read with good teeth
She's sweet but street-smart and can read people well
Two jobs, she get cheese, her dates, are my treat
She has two jobs, makes money, and he pays for their dates
How neat, she loves to eat, we eat bon appétit
He likes that she loves to eat and they enjoy fancy meals
We feed, she's so neat and like me, she so neat
They both have good etiquette and manners when eating
Nigga always talk, but I run the block
People talk, but Gucci Mane is the one in charge
This bitch is so hot, my clique, I close shop
His girlfriend is very attractive and they stop business to admire her
My wrist froze with rocks, I cop all the drops
He has a lot of diamond jewelry and buys all the new cars
Unfold all the knots, expose the have nots
He untangles all the problems and reveals those who don't have as much money
My hoes pose with pots like Young Goldilocks
His girls pose with drugs like the character Goldilocks from the fairy tale
We got white bulgin' rocks, Ziploc stocks to cop
They have drugs to sell and buy more Ziploc bags to package them
We never closin' shop, we hot, steamin' hot
Their business never closes and they're doing well
I'm Susie Sarah plot, a click-clack, p-pop-pop
Susie is a part of his plan and he makes a gun sound
I think I love her
He thinks he loves his girlfriend
(Nigga, you don't love me)
But in reality, he doesn't love anyone
I know I love her
He believes he truly loves his girlfriend
(Nigga, you don't love me) yeah
But others claim he doesn't love anyone
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Jamal F. Jones, Radric Delantic Davis, Christopher James Gholson
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@akirascarman
Seriously can't believe takeoff is gone this verse will go down as one of his greatest he is literally the originator of migos sound he is so fucking smooth . Rip man
@seismic6435
Not really, that would be Lord Infamous in the late 80s. Migos reintroduced and popularized the flow to Gen Z
@yunggoon1312
This is one of his best if not his best verse of all time
@bboost9249
His best verse is 100% in cross the country. 1:30 min straight bars
@blancasalazar4025
@@yunggoon1312 absolutely correct !!!! RIP LORD INFAMOUS
@ag2407
@@bboost9249 Bro I was just listening to that song because it was the first Migos song I’ve ever heard and takeoff smoked everyone.it wasn’t even close
@tgkrishnan2812
I remember this time period where migos were constantly dropping hits
@LohKeii
Yeah man. Now they not even on the radio
@atlshoota
Got to take time to spend all that money
@Zeru.
Their latest song slaps, ngl. But I get what you saying