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.”
Nuthin On Ya
Gucci Mane Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
They ain't got nothin' on ya...
They ain't got nothin' on ya (they ain't got nothin' on ya)
I swear them hoes, they ain't got nothin' on ya
That nigga broke, he ain't got nothin' for ya
I swear these hoes, they ain't got nothin' on ya
I fuck with you cause you're very loyal
And you're so fine, you make my blood boil
She took the charge, they ain't got nothin' on her
I swear to God they ain't got nothin' on her
We in the airport, she got somethin' on her
We ball out in the mall in California
We might just pull up in twin Californians
(Hook: Gucci Mane)
They ain't got nothin' on ya
They ain't got nothin' on ya
They ain't got nothin' on ya
Hoes, ain't got nothin' on ya
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 nothin' on ya
(Verse 2: Wiz Khalifa)
It's nothin' - claimin' y'all, but they bluffin'
Come home and I hit it hard, and she give me head, that's concussion
I'm stuntin' - OG kush what I'm puffin'
In the club you know me, I'll spend it all,
And 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 nothin' on her
She don't want no other niggas, she fuckin' with a stoner
And if I'm up in this bitch then I'm probably with the owner
Hella bottles, hella marijuana, anything you want, my niggas got it
We got liquor, we got mollies,
We got bitches tryin' to ride, takin' pictures
We just standing on the couches, they could try but...
(Hook: Gucci Mane)
(Verse 3: Gucci Mane)
I fuck with shorty 'cause she very loyal
We can tie the night like Memph and Toya
I won't ignore you and I won't divorce you
Let's have two girls to his column - Rose and Portia
I respect that girl, I accept that girl
I'll do everything I can to protect that girl
If I could do it all again, would've kept that girl
But I'm unhealthy for you baby, I fuck up your world
You your daddy's little girl, but you's a grown lady
And I don't see it like he see it 'cause we not related
We got faded at my spot, I swear we so wasted
After the twelfth shot of Patron, I swear I can't even taste it
(Hook: Gucci Mane)
In "Nuthin On Ya," Gucci Mane boasts about his girl, stating that no other woman can compare to her. He praises her loyalty throughout the song, highlighting her beauty and how much he cares for her. In the first verse, Gucci Mane talks about how other women don't measure up to his girl and how he appreciates her because she's loyal. He also mentions how they had to hire another lawyer because of a situation his girl went through and how she took the charge, but they don't have anything on her.
In the second verse, Wiz Khalifa joins Gucci Mane by coming in with his own verse, talking about how he's spending money and his girl is the only one for him. He states that there's nothing anyone can say or do to convince him to be with someone else because he's madly in love with his girl. He finishes by saying the two of them are on cloud nine and are loving every minute of their time together.
Overall, "Nuthin On Ya" is a song about loyalty and how important it is in a relationship. It emphasizes that when you have that one special person, you should never let them go, and nothing anyone else does or says should ever sway you from that person.
Line by Line Meaning
They ain't got nothin' on ya...
No one compares to you, you are one of a kind
They ain't got nothin' on ya (they ain't got nothin' on ya)
Nobody has anything on you, you are unique and special
I swear them hoes, they ain't got nothin' on ya
Other women don't compare to you, you are the best
That nigga broke, he ain't got nothin' for ya
Other guys can't offer you anything because they don't have anything
I swear these hoes, they ain't got nothin' on ya
Other women can't compete with you, you are superior
I fuck with you cause you're very loyal
I like you because you are trustworthy and faithful
And you're so fine, you make my blood boil
You are very attractive and sexy, you turn me on
I have to go and get another lawyer
I have to find a new lawyer to represent me
She took the charge, they ain't got nothin' on her
She took the blame for something and they can't prove anything against her
I swear to God they ain't got nothin' on her
I'm certain that they don't have any evidence against her
We in the airport, she got somethin' on her
We are at the airport and she is carrying something
We ball out in the mall in California
We spend a lot of money in the mall in California
We might just pull up in twin Californians
We might arrive in identical cars in California
Hoes, ain't got nothin' on ya
Other women don't compare to you, you are the best
I think that shit just paranoia
I think it's just my imagination and not real
She think I'm with another woman
She thinks I am cheating on her with another woman
Another woman that gon' keep me comin'
Another woman who can satisfy me sexually
Dirty hoes, they ain't got nothin' on ya
Other promiscuous women don't compare to you, you are the best
It's nothin' - claimin' y'all, but they bluffin'
It's nothing - they are claiming something but they are lying
Come home and I hit it hard, and she give me head, that's concussion
When I have sex with her, she does it so intensely that it's like a concussion
I'm stuntin' - OG kush what I'm puffin'
I'm showing off - I'm smoking high quality marijuana
In the club you know me, I'll spend it all,
In the club, people know that I will spend all my money
And my homies gon' get to bustin'
My friends will start shooting if there's a problem
Got a quarter million to spend
I have 250,000 dollars to spend
Just came home from tour and I crushed it
I just finished a successful tour
Just bought my wife a pair of glass shoes
I just bought my wife some expensive shoes
'Cause her ass thick as a pumpkin
Because she has a very curvy behind
She don't want no other niggas, she fuckin' with a stoner
She doesn't want to be with anyone else, she is sleeping with a marijuana smoker
And if I'm up in this bitch then I'm probably with the owner
If I'm in this place, then I'm probably hanging out with the owner
Hella bottles, hella marijuana, anything you want, my niggas got it
We have a lot of alcohol, a lot of marijuana, and anything you could possibly want, my friends have it
We got liquor, we got mollies,
We have alcohol and the drug MDMA
We got bitches tryin' to ride, takin' pictures
We have women trying to have sex with us, and they are taking pictures
We just standing on the couches, they could try but...
We are standing on the couches and people might try to make us stop, but we don't care
We can tie the night like Memph and Toya
We can have a great time together like the celebrities Memphitz and Toya Wright
I won't ignore you and I won't divorce you
I will pay attention to you and I won't break up with you
Let's have two girls to his column - Rose and Portia
Let's have two women join us - their names are Rose and Portia
I respect that girl, I accept that girl
I admire that girl and I appreciate her
I'll do everything I can to protect that girl
I will do everything in my power to keep her safe
If I could do it all again, would've kept that girl
If I had the chance to do it over, 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 little girl, but you's a grown lady
You used to be your father's little girl, but now you are an adult woman
And I don't see it like he see it 'cause we not related
I don't have the same perspective as your father because we are not family
We got faded at my spot, I swear we so wasted
We got drunk and high at my house, we were very intoxicated
After the twelfth shot of Patron, I swear I can't even taste it
After drinking twelve shots of tequila, I can't even taste it anymore
Contributed by Chase R. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@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????