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.”
Love Ft. MPA Duke
Gucci Mane Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Wanna make love, love, love
King of the skreets
And when these suckas see me, they should bow to my feet
And kiss the ground underneath
I look down at the beef
That shit childish to me
And it's been sold out for weeks
Can't brush shoulders with me
These stones in my choker are 2 karats apiece
Look like boulders to me
Damn, who colder than me?
You think he colder than me?
You more bipolar than me
You talkin' crazy
I'm tryna book Beyoncé for my wedding day
I'm the type of nigga, spend a million on a wedding cake
Niggas hate, but hesitate
They hate to see ya elevate
I just left out the gym
I'm 'bout to take a swim and meditate
Woo!
Now it's time to celebrate
Ask me why I'm smilin'
I say, "'Cause I make two mil' a day"
And I might take your bitch and pay her bills
That's how I feel today
And I just wanna fuck
Don't wanna chill, that's how I feel today
I'm makin' money like I'm makin' sweet love
I wanna make love, love, love
She say the money make her wanna make love
Wanna make love, love, love, huh
Ay yo, ain't talkin' housewives, but I'm in the Porsche
First I'mma scorch her, then I'mma torch her
Then I'mma torture her, then I'mma off her
A million dollars for a show, they made their off-er
Go against Nicki, it's gon' cost ya
'Cause now it's fuck ya, intercourse ya
I rep Queens where they listen to a bunch of Nas
I'm a yes and these bitches is a bunch of nahs
Tryin' to win a gunfight with a bunch of knives
I win, get off the bench and give a bunch of fives
I don't see her
Bitch I'm the greatest, no Kendrick and no Sia
I'm the iPhone, you the Nokia
Everybody know you jealous, bitch it's so clear
Tell them bum ass bitches to play their role
She see my sexy ass every time she scroll
I got it in the can, Dole
Your career gon' be with Anna Nicole
Witcha dumbass face
She ain't eatin' but I swear she got some bum ass taste
Text her man like, "Dawg, how that bum ass taste?"
Pay your rent! And stay in your bum ass place
Oooohhh, oh you the qu-e-e-the queen of this here?
One platinum plaque, album flopped, bitch, where? (bitch, where?)
Hahaha, ahhhhh
I took two bars off just to laugh
You see, silly rabbit, to be the queen of rap
You gotta sell records, you gotta get plaques
S, plural like the S on my chest
Now sit your dumbass down
You got an F on your test
I'm makin' money like I'm makin' sweet love
I wanna make love, love, love
She say the money make her wanna make love
Wanna make love, love, love, huh
I love to see the money stack up
Hope that we don't ever, ever break up (up)
Wanna make love, love, love
The song "Love" by Gucci Mane featuring Mpa Duke talks about the relationship between two people who are deeply in love. The song portrays the rapper's affection towards his girlfriend, and how her presence brings out the best in him. The rapper emphasizes his love for his girlfriend's personality, as well as her physical attributes. The lyrics suggest that the rapper is deeply committed to the relationship and that he is willing to protect her at all costs.
Throughout the song, Gucci Mane seems to be pondering whether he loves his girlfriend for who she is or just her body. This is emphasized in the repeated phrase, "Do I love my bitch, or am I in love with her body?" This could suggest that Gucci Mane is grappling with the idea of true love and physical attraction.
The song also speaks about the rapper's jealousy towards other men who want his girlfriend. He acknowledges that other men find her desirable, but he asks for her to wait for him. This shows that Gucci Mane is possessive of his girlfriend, which could further suggest his love for her.
In summary, the song showcases Gucci Mane's love and protective nature towards his girlfriend, as well as his uncertainty about whether his feelings towards her stem from a true emotional connection or just physical attraction.
Line by Line Meaning
You know I'm a gangster I'mma need for you to pay for me
As a gangster, I expect my woman to cover my expenses and take care of me financially.
I know these niggas want you
I'mma need for you to wait for me
I know there are other men interested in you, but I need you to stay loyal and wait for me.
Love and loyalty, its not a day she goes unfaithfully
'Cause can't nobody fuck you like me, it ain't no replacing me
My woman shows me love and loyalty every day, knowing that no one can satisfy her like I can and there is no replacement for me.
Girl you're more than beautiful you put your trust in me
Know I keep that blammer on me, know I'm your security
My woman is not just beautiful, but she also trusts me and I keep a weapon on me for her protection.
Girl you got me invested in you, this is our community
Thankful for this opportunity, treat you like family
I am invested in my relationship with my woman, and we are building a community together. I am thankful for her and treat her like family.
I can't even explain it but lil mama bring out the best in me
I can't break this shit off if I wanted to it's destiny
My woman brings out the best in me, and I feel like we are meant to be together. I can't imagine breaking up with her.
I can't even explain it but lil mama bring out the freak in me
I'mma break her off in the back seat of my Bentley
My woman brings out my sexual side, and I am going to have sex with her in the back seat of my car.
Do I love my bitch or am I in love with her body
Do I love my bitch or am I in love with her body
Do I love my bitch or am I in love with her body
Do I love my bitch or am I in love with her body
Do I love my bitch or am I in love with her body
Do I love my bitch or am I in love with her body
Do I love my bitch or am I in love with her body
Do I love my bitch or am I in love with her body (Body)
I am questioning if I love my woman for who she is or if I am only attracted to her physical body.
Baby you a goddess and I'm not being dishonest
I can't even be modest, 'cause I'm in love with your body
I believe my woman is a goddess, and I am not lying when I express my love for her body.
You worth more than money and you taste sweeter than honey
Your walk is so hypnotic, you erotic plus exotic
My woman is priceless, and she is more enticing than even the sweetest honey. Her walk is mesmerizing, and she has an exotic yet erotic appeal.
People say I'm trippin' I ain't thinkin' 'bout these bitches
We can share my rise, I give a damn they say I'm trippin'
Others may think I am foolish for being committed to my woman, but I do not care. We will ride out this journey together, despite what others say.
Super bad bitch, I need it, first time I just did it did it
I can turn you up I'm filthy, make you laugh I'm super silly
My woman is super hot, and I needed her from the moment I met her. I can make her feel good in every way, and I have a funny and silly personality.
We can hold hands in Lenox
I don't give a damn who with me
These haters need mind their business
Tell the valet bring my Benz
We can show public displays of affection in a well-known mall, and I do not care who sees us. Haters need to stop interfering with our relationship, and I want the valet to bring my luxury car.
Beg my pardon, this not Dolly
I'm the Trap God she the goddess
Good brain like she went to college
These hoes jellyfish she can't be solid
Sorry if I offended anyone, but my woman is my goddess and I am the Trap God. She has a smart and intelligent mind, and other women are envious of her sincere and solid nature.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: ONIKA TANYA MARAJ, RADRIC DELANTIC DAVIS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind