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.”
Nothin on Ya
Gucci Mane Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I swear them hoes, they ain't got nothing on you
That nigga broke, he ain't got nothing for you
I swear these hoes, they ain't got nothing on you
I fuck with you 'cause you're very loyal
And you're so fine, you make my blood boil
I have to go and get another lawyer
She took the charge, they ain't got nothing on her
Huh, wiz in the airport, she got something on him
We ball out in the mall in California
We might just pull up in twin Californias
They ain't got nothing on you,
They ain't got nothing on you,
They ain't got nothing on you,
Hoes ain't got nothing on you
I think that shit just paranoia
She think I'm with another woman
Another woman that gon' keep me comin'
Dirty hoes, they ain't got nothing on you
It's nothing, claim they are, but you bluffin'
Come home and I hit it hard, and she gives me head that's concussion
I'm stunting, og kush what I'm puffin
In the club you know me, I spend it all my homies gon' get to bustin'
Got a quarter million to spend just came home from tour and I crushed it
Just bought my wife a pair of glass shoes, 'cause her ass thick as a pumpkin
They ain't got nothing on her
She don't want no other nigga, she fuckin' with a stoner
And if I'm up in this bitch, then I'm prolly with the owner
Hella bottles, hella marijuana, anything you want, my niggas got it
We got liquor, we got mollies, we got bitches tryna ride, taking pictures
We just standing on the couches, they could try but
They ain't got nothing on her,
They ain't got nothing on you,
They ain't got nothing on you,
Hoes ain't got nothing on you
I think that shit just paranoia
She think I'm with another woman
Another woman that gon' keep me comin'
Dirty hoes, they ain't got nothing on you
I fuck with Shawty 'cause she very loyal
We can tie the knot like Memph and Toya
I won't ignore you and I won't divorce you
Let's have two girls and call them Rose and Porsche
I respect that girl, I accept that girl
I'll do anything I can to protect that girl
If I could do it all again, would have kept that girl
But I'm unhealthy for you baby I fuck up your world
You your daddy's lil' girl, but you's a grown lady
And I don't see you like he see you 'cause we not related
We got faded at my spot, I swear we're so wasted
After the third shot of Patrón, I swear can't even taste it
They ain't got nothing on you,
They ain't got nothing on you,
They ain't got nothing on you,
Hoes ain't got nothing on you
I think that shit just paranoia
She think I'm with another woman
Another woman that gon' keep me comin'
Dirty hoes, they ain't got nothing on you
In Gucci Mane's song Nothin on Ya, he is reflecting on his relationship with a woman. He refers to her as loyal and beautiful, and says that other women have nothing on her. Despite rumors and accusations, he insists that he is faithful to her and perceives any doubts or jealousy as paranoia. He calls out other men who may be interested in her but "don't got nothing for her" and also praises her for taking a charge, likely referring to a legal situation, and having nothing that can be used against her.
The song also includes Gucci Mane's signature lyrical style, with references to money ("Got a quarter million to spend just came home from tour and I crushed it") and drugs ("og kush what I'm puffin"). He also professes his love and admiration for the woman, saying that he would do anything to protect her and regrets past mistakes that may have hurt her.
Line by Line Meaning
They ain't got nothing on you,
No other women can compare to you.
I swear them hoes, they ain't got nothing on you
Other girls can't measure up to you.
That nigga broke, he ain't got nothing for you
Other guys are broke, they can't provide for you like I can.
I fuck with you 'cause you're very loyal
I like you because you're faithful.
And you're so fine, you make my blood boil
You're incredibly beautiful and make me excited.
I have to go and get another lawyer
I had to hire another lawyer for a legal issue.
She took the charge, they ain't got nothing on her
She took the blame, but they don't have any evidence against her.
Huh, wiz in the airport, she got something on him
Wiz Khalifa got in trouble at the airport, but she has information to help him.
We ball out in the mall in California
We spend a lot of money in California malls.
They ain't got nothing on you,
Other girls can't compete with you.
Hoes ain't got nothing on you
Other girls can't measure up to you.
I think that shit just paranoia
I think I'm just being paranoid about other women.
She think I'm with another woman
She thinks I'm cheating on her.
Another woman that gon' keep me comin'
Another woman that will keep me interested.
Dirty hoes, they ain't got nothing on you
Other girls are dirty, but you're better than them.
It's nothing, claim they are, but you bluffin'
Other girls claim to be better, but they're lying.
Come home and I hit it hard, and she gives me head that's concussion
When we have sex, it's intense and she gives me great oral.
I'm stunting, og kush what I'm puffin
I'm showing off and smoking high-quality marijuana.
In the club you know me, I spend it all my homies gon' get to bustin'
I spend a lot of money in the club and my friends will defend me if needed.
Got a quarter million to spend just came home from tour and I crushed it
I earned a lot of money from my tour and now I can spend it.
Just bought my wife a pair of glass shoes, 'cause her ass thick as a pumpkin
I bought my wife expensive shoes because she has a great body.
She don't want no other nigga, she fuckin' with a stoner
She only wants me because I'm a stoner.
And if I'm up in this bitch, then I'm prolly with the owner
If I'm in a place, I'm likely with the owner.
Hella bottles, hella marijuana, anything you want, my niggas got it
We have lots of alcohol and marijuana, and my friends can get you whatever you want.
We got liquor, we got mollies, we got bitches tryna ride, taking pictures
We have alcohol and drugs, and girls are trying to be with us and take pictures.
We just standing on the couches, they could try but
We're standing on the couches and having a great time, others can try to stop us but can't.
We can tie the knot like Memph and Toya
We can get married like Memphitz Wright and Toya Johnson.
I won't ignore you and I won't divorce you
I won't ignore you or divorce you.
Let's have two girls and call them Rose and Porsche
Let's have two daughters named Rose and Porsche.
I respect that girl, I accept that girl
I respect and accept you for who you are.
I'll do anything I can to protect that girl
I'll do anything to keep you safe.
If I could do it all again, would have kept that girl
If I could go back in time, I would have stayed with her.
But I'm unhealthy for you baby I fuck up your world
But I'm not good for you, I cause problems in your life.
You your daddy's lil' girl, but you's a grown lady
You're still your father's daughter, but you're now an adult woman.
And I don't see you like he see you 'cause we not related
I don't see you like your father does because we're not related.
We got faded at my spot, I swear we're so wasted
We got drunk at my place and were very intoxicated.
After the third shot of Patrón, I swear can't even taste it
After having three shots of Patrón, I can't even taste it anymore.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: CAMERON THOMAZ, GARY RAFAEL HILL, RADRIC DAVIS, RODRIGUEZ DEJUAN YANCY
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@sweetsweetz
If you seeing this it’s 2023 and they ain’t got nuthin on you 🆙🤑🤑🤑
@ashleymuchison4429
I’m listening to this and it’s 2023 and we turning up!!!! I love this song❤❤❤
@ruthlessbitch548
Same here !!!
@user-ru8ko4xg4s
!!!!!!!
@user-ky7oh6of1n
Hey turning up got that ice cream
@asiacollege12
The year bout gone✌️ 2024 otw💋
@louisinese
Yesserrr 😂
@dotcom721
We makin it outta church w this one
@leftianleka5275
2024 and still bumping this shit, those church bells slappin
@victorcastano4571
I thought I was 2022????