Radric Davis (born February 12, 1980 in Birmingham, Alabama), better known … Read Full Bio ↴Radric Davis (born February 12, 1980 in Birmingham, Alabama), better known by his stage name Gucci Mane, is an American rapper and CEO of 1017 Brick Squad Records. In 2005 he released his independent debut album, Trap House, which featured the successful single "Icy" that he recorded with Young Jeezy. He has since released a further three albums including 2006's Hard To Kill, 2007's Trap-A-Thon and 2007's Back To The Trap House. His sixth studio album, The State vs Radric Davis, was released in December 2009, just weeks after he was sent back to prison for 12 months for violating his probation. He was released in May 2010 and will now release his seventh studio album, The Appeal: Georgia's Most Wanted, sometime at the end of 2010.

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.”

Out My Biz
Gucci Mane Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Shout out to my set
Shout out to my set
Shout out my connect
Shout out my connect
Shout out to my check
Shout out to my check
Shout out my wrist and neck
Shout out my wrist and neck

I'm a man of respect
Man of respect
And I'm a nigga with a check
Nigga with a check
I'm a man of respect
Man of respect
A nigga with a check
Nigga with a check huh

Shout out to your main bitch
Shout to her neck
It's cold outside I ain't got time to play so please don't get wet
It's just me with my young boy at your front door with the teck
Ain't shit for free
That's it for me I demand a check
Shout out to my weed man, I call him the geek squad
I smoke too much, I just lost my thoughts,
I'm feelin' like a retard
Got two bead freaks plus me riding in that two seater
They face to face
I'm by myself but they huggin' like a wife beater
Shout out to my OG for him I'm puttin' in work
Shout to them real killa's that's puttin' in that twerk
Whoo da kidd a real nigga
Shout out to my set
Shout out to my jeweler for my wrist and neck
Yes

Shout out to my set
Shout out to my set
Shout out my connect
Shout out my connect
Shout out to my check
Shout out to my check
Shout out my wrist and neck
Shout out my wrist and neck
I'm a man of respect
Man of respect
And I'm a nigga with a check
Nigga with a check
I'm a man of respect
Man of respect
A nigga with a check
Nigga with a check huh

Shout out to my accountant,
My attorneys and my manager
And shout out to my twenty six's dat sittin' up under my challenger
I'm a professional
Your an amateur
Your an artist
I'm an animal
I eat rapper
I'm Hannibal
Not cannibal
I'm a carnivore
I'm a dinosaur
Your a herbivore
I use verbs up verbs you ain't never heard before
Faith trapper never sold birds before
Probably never even use dirty words before
But not me
Can't stop me
Ain't no hood nigga gonna top me
I'm focus
Just watch me
I send out shout out to my posse
I send a shout out to my a-r
My tek-9 and my A-K
I don't play
Not a day
Not a way I'm Gucci
Salute me or shoot me
Make next move your best move
Every move around me is a chess move
Real goon's don't aim for the chest fool
It's Gucci!

Shout out to my set
Shout out to my set
Shout out my connect
Shout out my connect
Shout out to my check
Shout out to my check
Shout out my wrist and neck
Shout out my wrist and neck
I'm a man of respect
Man of respect
And I'm a nigga with a check
Nigga with a check
I'm a man of respect
Man of respect

A nigga with a check
Nigga with a check huh

Overall Meaning

In "Out My Biz," Gucci Mane is giving a shout out to his crew, his connections, his financial success, and his lavish accessories, including his wrist and neck. He believes that he is a man of respect because of his wealth and success, and he sees himself as superior to others who are less successful than him. However, he also recognizes the hard work of his team, including his accountant, attorneys, and manager.

Gucci Mane also boasts of his rapper status, claiming to be an animal that eats other rappers. He uses a lot of wordplay in the song, playing with the meanings of words and making puns, such as calling himself a carnivore and a dinosaur while referring to other rappers as herbivores.

The song overall has a confident and boastful tone, which is common in many of Gucci Mane's songs. It celebrates his success while also acknowledging the hard work and talents of his team.

Line by Line Meaning

Shout out to my set
Acknowledging and showing respect to his group or gang

Shout out my connect
Acknowledging and showing respect to his supplier or dealer

Shout out to my check
Acknowledging and showing respect to the money he earns or receives

Shout out my wrist and neck
Acknowledging the jewelry on his wrist and neck, which is a status symbol in his community

I'm a man of respect
Proudly portraying himself as a respectable member of his community and gang

Man of respect
Reiteration of his status as a respectable member of his community

And I'm a nigga with a check
Proudly stating that he has a lot of money and is financially successful

Nigga with a check
Reiteration of his financial success

Shout out to your main bitch
Addressing or mentioning the listener's girlfriend or partner

Shout to her neck
Complimenting the listener's partner's jewelry

It's cold outside I ain't got time to play so please don't get wet
Indicating that he is serious and has no time for games or distractions

It's just me with my young boy at your front door with the teck
Threatening the listener that he is at the listener's front door with a weapon

Ain't shit for free
Stating that his time and services are not free

That's it for me I demand a check
Insisting that he gets paid for his services or time

Shout out to my weed man, I call him the geek squad
Acknowledging and showing respect to his marijuana dealer

I smoke too much, I just lost my thoughts, I'm feelin' like a retard
Admitting that he has smoked too much marijuana and feels like he can't think straight

Got two bead freaks plus me riding in that two seater
Boasting about having two attractive, promiscuous women with him in a two-seater car

They face to face I'm by myself but they huggin' like a wife beater
Observing the women's interaction with each other and making a crude comparison to a violent undershirt

Shout out to my OG for him I'm puttin' in work
Acknowledging and showing respect to his elder or mentor who has taught him valuable skills or knowledge

Shout to them real killa's that's puttin' in that twerk
Acknowledging and showing respect to his fellow gang members who have a proven track record of violence

Whoo da kidd a real nigga
Asserting that he is a legitimate member of his community and gang

Shout out to my jeweler for my wrist and neck
Acknowledging and showing respect to his jewelry supplier or designer

Shout out to my accountant, My attorneys and my manager
Acknowledging and showing respect to his accountants, lawyers, and manager who help manage his finances and career

And shout out to my twenty six's dat sittin' up under my challenger
Acknowledging and showing off his expensive car rims

I'm a professional Your an amateur
Comparing himself to others and asserting that he is more skilled and experienced at what he does

Your an artist I'm an animal
Further emphasizing his superiority by comparing himself to others in the music industry, whom he views as inferior

I eat rapper I'm Hannibal
Using a metaphor to assert his dominance over other rappers by claiming to devour or destroy them, like the notorious serial killer Hannibal Lecter

Not cannibal I'm a carnivore
Correcting his earlier metaphor to clarify that he is a carnivore who only consumes animal flesh and not humans

I'm a dinosaur Your a herbivore
Using another metaphor to assert his superiority over others in the music industry by claiming to be a powerful and ancient creature

I use verbs up verbs you ain't never heard before
Showing off his lyrical skills by using uncommon or cleverly arranged words and phrases

Faith trapper never sold birds before Probably never even use dirty words before
Boasting about his past involvement in illegal activities, and suggesting that others who claim to be similar to him are likely exaggerating or lying

But not me Can't stop me Ain't no hood nigga gonna top me
Asserting his invincibility and unbeatable status within his community, while acknowledging that he is a product of his environment

I'm focus Just watch me
Claiming that he is highly focused and dedicated to his craft, inviting others to observe his success

I send out shout out to my posse
Acknowledging and showing respect to his group or gang, and inviting others to do the same

I send a shout out to my a-r My tek-9 and my A-K
Boasting about his collection of firearms and showing off his knowledge of their names and models

Not a day Not a way I'm Gucci Salute me or shoot me Make next move your best move Every move around me is a chess move Real goon's don't aim for the chest fool It's Gucci!
Making a series of bold assertions about his power and influence, warning others to respect him or suffer the consequences

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: RADRIC DAVIS, VANESSA REECE, CHRISTOPHER JOHN WHITACRE, JUSTIN HENDERSON

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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