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.”
Im A Street Nigga
Gucci Mane Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
So a hater get smashed, bond money on deck
Gave my dog half a brick for a '73 donk
Got that bullfrog yay, 'cause I know it's gon' jump
I'm a real street nigga, do you understand me?
I'm a walking bankroll, breezy, rubber-band me
Red Monkeys on my ass, Gucci frames on my face
Got that "Tony Tiger Kush," man, pimpin' smoke great
Only problem that I have is what car I'm gon' drive
I'm a real street nigga, I ain't never had shit
Man, this chain 'round my neck cost four or five bricks
I'm a street nigga, dog, I don't love no bitch
I ain't talkin' to you, baby, 'less you buyin' ten bricks
Bought an '06 Lamb' with the butterfly doors
That's a quarter-million dollars gone, just to pull hoes
I'm a street nigga, dog
I'm a street nigga, dog
You a street nigga, just like me
I'm a street nigga, dog
I'm a street nigga, dog
No industry, I'm in these streets
I'm a street nigga, dog
I'm a street nigga, dog
You a street nigga, just like me
I'm a street nigga, dog
I'm a street nigga, dog
No industry, I'm in these streets
I'm a street nigga, dog, hoes love my swag
And the Jacob on my wrist, that's a drop-top Jag
Bought a drop-top Vette, and a super-bad bitch
How much you think you worth?
'Bout 95 bricks
Way back in '94, it was 95 cents
Now I'm 95 south, with an R&B bitch
Every time I leave the house, bring at least ten grips
'Cause it's two or three stacks just to park my whips
Got a small amount of niggas, but a large amount of clips
And a blue Bent' Coupe same color as the Crips
Mean mug on my face, nigga, ain't nothin' funny
60 Grand on the Jacob, nigga, time costs money
Got a quarter million plate, that's eighteen blocks
When the cops try to whip me, man, I ain't gon' stop
I'm a real street nigga, dog, I ain't gon' lie
Bought a pound of Bubba Kush, just to get the clique high
I'm a street nigga, dog
I'm a street nigga, dog
You a street nigga, just like me
I'm a street nigga, dog
I'm a street nigga, dog
No industry, I'm in these streets
I'm a street nigga, dog
I'm a street nigga, dog
You a street nigga, just like me
I'm a street nigga, dog
I'm a street nigga, dog
No industry, I'm in these streets
I'm a street nigga, dog, so I love my whip
Car-jack a street nigga, that's how niggas get killed
I'm a street nigga, dog, so I love my block
Paid a junkie three grand just to wash my drop
Street niggas love me, and I love street niggas
Got an out of town trap, come twice a week, nigga
I'm an East Atlanta vet, man, I ain't done yet
Bitches standin' in line just to wipe my sweat
If you make a good count, then you under good check
Never beef with street niggas, dog, that's ya best bet
We niggas make a college bitch's panties so wet
To a project bitch, I'm the best it's gon' get
Street nigga of the year, dog, yeah, that's me
Just to see my wrist twirl, man, it's eighteen G's
Gucci eatin' real good, dog, what about you?
I'm a street nigga, dog, you a street nigga too
I'm a street nigga, dog
I'm a street nigga, dog
You a street nigga, just like me
I'm a street nigga, dog
I'm a street nigga, dog
No industry, I'm in these streets
I'm a street nigga, dog
I'm a street nigga, dog
You a street nigga, just like me
I'm a street nigga, dog
I'm a street nigga, dog
No industry, I'm in these streets
In "A Nigga," Gucci Mane and Rich Homie Quan highlight their identities as street niggas. They express pride in their status as street niggas by boasting about their money, cars, and women. The rappers emphasize the importance of money in the streets and how it influences their daily lives by talking about cash being on deck, spending a quarter-million dollars on a Lamborghini, and bringing at least ten grand when they leave the house. They also talk about dodging the police and making sure they're armed with Large amounts of Clips, indicating that they live on the edge every day. They believe that living in the streets will always be a part of them, and they will always belong there.
The chorus of the song repeatedly emphasizes the phrase “I’m a street nigga, dog” to signify their pride and emphasize their authenticity. The lyrics of the song also includes direct references to Gucci Mane’s “Tony Tiger Kush” and Rich Homie Quan’s “Bullfrog Yay,” which are believed to be specific strains of marijuana. Furthermore, the rappers go on to use coded language when talking about drug deals, cost, and quantity. In this, they are trying to conceal their illegal activities without explicitly discussing them.
Overall, "A Nigga" creates an intricate picture of the street life from two different angles. It's a homage to authenticity and toughness, individuality, and struggle.
Line by Line Meaning
I'm a street nigga, dog, everybody knows that
I am a rough and tough person and it is well-known to everyone.
So a hater get smashed, bond money on deck
I am ready to take on anyone who hates on me and I have the money to post bail if needed.
Gave my dog half a brick for a '73 donk
I gave my friend a considerable amount of drugs in exchange for a classic car model from 1973.
Got that bullfrog yay, 'cause I know it's gon' jump
I have some superior quality drugs which I am sure will sell fast and in great quantities.
I'm a real street nigga, do you understand me?
I am an authentic street person, can you comprehend that?
I'm a walking bankroll, breezy, rubber-band me
I carry a lot of cash, so much that I need a rubber band to hold it all together.
Red Monkeys on my ass, Gucci frames on my face
I am wearing expensive clothes and accessories, with Red Monkey jeans on my backside and Gucci glasses on my face.
Got that "Tony Tiger Kush," man, pimpin' smoke great
I possess some premium quality Kush known as "Tony Tiger" which I enjoy smoking.
Every time my phone ring, dog, it's eighteen-five
Whenever my phone rings, it is someone calling me to do business or make a deal for $18,500.
Only problem that I have is what car I'm gon' drive
My only concern is which car I should take out for a drive today.
I'm a real street nigga, I ain't never had shit
I am a genuine street person, who has never had anything good.
Man, this chain 'round my neck cost four or five bricks
This expensive chain on my neck costs the equivalent of four or five bricks of drugs.
I'm a street nigga, dog, I don't love no bitch
I am a street person, and I don't have feelings for any woman.
I ain't talkin' to you, baby, 'less you buyin' ten bricks
I won't even entertain you unless you are planning to buy ten bricks of drugs.
Bought an '06 Lamb' with the butterfly doors
I purchased a 2006 Lamborghini model that has unique butterfly doors.
That's a quarter-million dollars gone, just to pull hoes
I spent $250,000 just to impress and attract women.
I'm a street nigga, dog, hoes love my swag
I am a rough street person, but women are attracted to my overall style and demeanor.
And the Jacob on my wrist, that's a drop-top Jag
I am wearing a valuable wristwatch from Jacob & Co. while driving my convertible Jaguar.
Bought a drop-top Vette, and a super-bad bitch
I bought a convertible Corvette and started dating a very attractive and cool girl.
How much you think you worth?
How much do you currently value yourself?
'Bout 95 bricks
I am worth around 95 bricks of drugs.
Way back in '94, it was 95 cents
In 1994, my worth was only 95 cents.
Now I'm 95 south, with an R&B bitch
Currently, I am driving down the Interstate 95 South with a female companion listening to R&B music.
Every time I leave the house, bring at least ten grips
Whenever I leave the house, I always carry at least ten thousand dollars with me.
'Cause it's two or three stacks just to park my whips
It costs me about two to three thousand dollars just to park my cars, as they are expensive to maintain and insure.
Got a small amount of niggas, but a large amount of clips
I have only a few friends, but we have a sizable number of guns between us.
And a blue Bent' Coupe same color as the Crips
One of my cars is a blue Bentley Coupe which is the same shade as that of the notorious gang, Crips.
Mean mug on my face, nigga, ain't nothin' funny
I have a serious and stern expression on my face, and nothing is amusing me currently.
60 Grand on the Jacob, nigga, time costs money
I spent $60,000 on my Jacob & Co. wristwatch, and I value my time.
Got a quarter million plate, that's eighteen blocks
One of my cars has a license plate that costs $250,000 and can purchase eighteen city blocks of property.
When the cops try to whip me, man, I ain't gon' stop
If the police try to catch me while driving, I won't stop for them.
Bought a pound of Bubba Kush, just to get the clique high
I purchased a pound of Bubba Kush, a top-quality marijuana strain, to share with my friends and get high together.
You a street nigga, just like me
You are also a person from the street, just like me.
No industry, I'm in these streets
I don't belong to any professional field or industry, I am a part of the streets and its culture.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Ultra Tunes
Written by: Xavier Dotson
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@davidr2392
This will be how Gucci will always be remembered
@matteo512
yes, my kitchen and east 6 freestyl, no pad no pencyl
@kalsampsonite1158
Yea as a clown who fuckin sucks
@jordanosborne4383
@@kalsampsonite1158 you the clown he got more money then you lame ass nerd
@ab-yl3tj
blak
@thecookingshorts
he aint sound the same now lol i prefer this better tbh
@vladimir7350
I LIKE HOW HE MEASURES ANYTHING OF MONETARY VALUE IN BRICKS
@marlonmihail6225
lol
@danelyflores135
me too I love it.
@MrJimichael
This needed more like