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.”
Its Alive
Gucci Mane Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
When I hit the club everything goes
Bottles in the air put your lighters in the air
But when I'm in here I don't really care
Cause I ride on 'em I style on 'em
Yea I lean on 'em yea I flash on 'em
Yea I know that's the way you like it huh?
Yea that's the way you love me huh?
It's alive its alive rounds kill the eyes
I had to bring the bitch back like Frankenstein
I push weight but Gucci don't exercise
I get extra from whipping up extra pies
I'm in a hood like the mayor 'round election time
Here's a suggestion don't park your car next to mine
I'm a star when the light hit I'm supposed to shine
Your flow is garbage they let me out just in time
They got a section but none of the hoes are fine
They need to exit don't let the grind past you by
I run laps round lames with my shoes untied
I jump the line walk in and watch the crowd divide
Still stuck outside its the ugly side
Look Medusa in the eye and Medusa died
This top secret shit classified
Don't blame me swizz was the mastermind
Cant breath cant breath tone tony brush the time
I keep my chain moon walking Michael Jackson time
I keep on buying ice like I lost my mind
This little light of mine is supposed to shine
My pockets on swoll' my rims all grown
When I hit the club everything goes
Bottles in the air put your lighters in the air
But when I'm in here I don't really care
Cause I ride on 'em I style on 'em
Yea I lean on 'em yea I flash on 'em
Yea I know that's the way you like it huh?
Yea that's the way you love me huh?
Hurry up hurry up Gucci on the news
They said he walked out the chair rocking stupid jewels
They tried to find what it do they made that Jew confused
Too much cash on my hundred falling out my troops
A yellow wrist bright as piss bitch I'm the shit
Big Gucci called swizz lets make a hit
Two things in this world I ain't never seen
Are you a foreigner nigga I need to help to get me mean?
I hope you suffocate me totally baby let me breath
Cause I don't chase nothing but paper bitches chasing me
Excuse my french I'm Gucci I'm so fucking gutter
It don't make no sense to switch for none of these motherfuckers
My pockets on swoll' my rims all grown
When I hit the club everything goes
Bottles in the air put your lighters in the air
But when I'm in here I don't really care
Cause I ride on 'em I style on 'em
Yea I lean on 'em yea I flash on 'em
Yea I know that's the way you like it huh?
Yea that's the way you love me huh?
So not to say my life is it
I said no doc my wife is it
Now I'm back back going like I never never left
Plus the boy right here I'm fresh to death (whoo)
Chris Jones on my feet see I can't fall from Suzuki jeeps
Now I'm jumping off decks
The word about the haters they can be upset and
The black card in my back pocket
The corner sig' is looking like a speeding rocket
Yeah I'm zooming on a highway
And you should love me I did it my way
My pockets on swoll' my rims all grown
When I hit the club everything goes
Bottles in the air put your lighters in the air
But when I'm in here I don't really care
Cause I ride on 'em I style on 'em
Yea I lean on 'em yea I flash on 'em
Yea I know that's the way you like it huh?
Yea that's the way you love me huh?
In Gucci Mane's song "It's Alive," the rapper boasts about his wealth, success, and fame. He talks about his lavish lifestyle, from his swelled pockets to his grown rims. Gucci Mane claims that he rocks the club and doesn't care about anything when he is in there. He also talks about how he is able to make so much money from selling drugs without exercising.
Gucci Mane then references Frankenstein and his ability to bring his creations back to life. The rapper compares himself to Frankenstein - just as Frankenstein brought his monster to life, Gucci Mane brings his jewelry to life. He also portrays himself as someone who doesn't care about what other people think of him, and he keeps on doing his thing.
In the second verse, Gucci Mane brags about his wealth and fame, stating how he has too much money coming out of his pockets. He also collabs with Swizz Beatz and talks about his talent as a rapper. Gucci Mane shows pride in his hard work, which allowed him to achieve great things in his life.
Line by Line Meaning
My pockets on swoll' my rims all grown
My pockets are filled with money and my car rims are upgraded
When I hit the club everything goes
When I arrive at the club, everything becomes exciting
Bottles in the air put your lighters in the air
People in the club start lifting up bottles and lighters
But when I'm in here I don't really care
Even though I'm in the club, I don't really care about anything else
Cause I ride on 'em I style on 'em
I impress people by how I ride and how I look
Yea I lean on 'em yea I flash on 'em
I also look cool leaning and flashing
Yea I know that's the way you like it huh?
I know this is how you like me to be, right?
Yea that's the way you love me huh?
This is how you love me, correct?
It's alive its alive rounds kill the eyes
The music and atmosphere in the club are electrifying and captivating
I had to bring the bitch back like Frankenstein
I had to revive the party to keep it going
I push weight but Gucci don't exercise
I sell drugs, but I don't work out
I get extra from whipping up extra pies
I earn more money from making and selling more drugs
I'm in a hood like the mayor 'round election time
I am very popular in my neighborhood, like a mayor during an election
Here's a suggestion don't park your car next to mine
Don't park your car next to mine because mine is cooler
I'm a star when the light hit I'm supposed to shine
When I'm in the spotlight, I'm expected to shine and rise above everyone else
Your flow is garbage they let me out just in time
Your rapping sucks, luckily I am here to save the day
They got a section but none of the hoes are fine
The VIP area is not worth it, there are no attractive women
They need to exit don't let the grind past you by
They should leave and not miss out on the hard work and hustle
I run laps round lames with my shoes untied
I easily outdo and beat boring and weak rappers, even with my shoes untied
I jump the line walk in and watch the crowd divide
I skip the line and enter the club, the crowd parts to let me through
Still stuck outside its the ugly side
People who are not as cool as me are still waiting outside the club
Look Medusa in the eye and Medusa died
I am so cool that even Medusa would die if she looked at me
This top secret shit classified
This secret information is classified and cannot be shared
Don't blame me swizz was the mastermind
Don't blame me, Swizz Beatz came up with the idea
Cant breath cant breath tone tony brush the time
I'm so cool that I take people's breath away, and I use my Tony Montana persona to intimidate others
I keep my chain moon walking Michael Jackson time
I keep my flashy jewelry shining and sparkling like Michael Jackson's iconic dance move
I keep on buying ice like I lost my mind
I keep buying more and more jewelry, some might say I'm crazy
This little light of mine is supposed to shine
I'm supposed to be successful and shine in everything I do
Hurry up hurry up Gucci on the news
Quick, turn on the news because Gucci Mane is making headlines
They said he walked out the chair rocking stupid jewels
They reported that he left prison wearing expensive jewelry
They tried to find what it do they made that Jew confused
They tried to figure out how wealthy Gucci Mane is, but they were confused
Too much cash on my hundred falling out my troops
I have so much money I can't keep it all in my pocket
A yellow wrist bright as piss bitch I'm the shit
My expensive watch is so blindingly bright, it's like piss, and it represents my wealth and success
Big Gucci called swizz lets make a hit
Gucci Mane and Swizz Beatz are working together to make a successful song
Two things in this world I ain't never seen
There are only two things in this world I have never experienced
Are you a foreigner nigga I need to help to get me mean?
Do you need to be a foreigner to be mean and intimidating like me?
I hope you suffocate me totally baby let me breath
I hope you completely wrap yourself around me and let me breathe
Cause I don't chase nothing but paper bitches chasing me
I am only focused on money, while women are chasing after me
Excuse my french I'm Gucci I'm so fucking gutter
Excuse my bad language, I am Gucci Mane and I am very street and ghetto
It don't make no sense to switch for none of these motherfuckers
I have no reason to change who I am for anyone else
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: RADRIC DAVIS, KASSEEM DEAN
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind