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.”
Reckless
Gucci Mane Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I hit sax so much that I ain't going back
I drop stack up, after stack, after stack, after stack,
At the rac' everyday and they knowin' that
Well I'm blowing that and I'm doing this and my reg flag got the haters pissed
I'm goin' reckless, this not a diss, this not a threat, this real shit
Don't mean that, I'm stopping me, and no topping me and no robbing me
Cause the robbers out I brought the goons out we reckless, we OG
I'm blood in and blood out on flash shows with big sound
And wack flocka say flocka wacka
2 times commit 2 crimes
2 bloods and 2 rise with four knives and gang signs
So what's up, lil' Price T I'm icy as Ice T
On the king of diamonds at the prince is shining and all mine behind me
Let's get reckless, let's get reckless
Let's get reckless, let's get reckless
Let's get reckless, let's get reckless
Let's get reckless, let's get reckless
Let's get reckless, let's get reckless
Let's get reckless, let's get reckless
Let's get reckless, let's get reckless
Let's get reckless, let's get reckless
I'm in beast mode hell yeah I'm reckless
If you don't like a pussy nigger come check this, respect this
And let meet your death wish
South team burn on my necklace,
I fuck with them and they fuck with me
Gonna fuck with us, get the fuck from 'round
Cause I lollipop and we sucker free
Reckless, reckless, everybody goin' ham
Don't test this, cause if you do, that smith and wess' is goin' blam, down
Look what the fuck done happen
Just cause you heard that a nigga started rapping
That I'm worried bout the ass pulled dark
No talking I'm clapping
Clear the whole scene I'm smashing boy, gone
Boy you better catch up nigger get hit from your neck up nigger
Nobody gon' fess up
Get your block wet up
Leave the whole scene full of ketchup nigga
Hey I'm wildin' I'm wildin'
I'm ballin', they fallin'
I got the little man syndrome
Catch me in the end zone signing autographs I'm stylin'
Let's get reckless, let's get reckless
Let's get reckless, let's get reckless
Let's get reckless, let's get reckless
Let's get reckless, let's get reckless
Let's get reckless, let's get reckless
Let's get reckless, let's get reckless
Let's get reckless, let's get reckless
Let's get reckless, let's get reckless
Vacation in Miami, they say I'm swag surfing
Your girl with ya she ain't looking but her ass flirtin'
See I'm a classy nigger a thousand dollar curtains
And I just made your nigger mad cause his pocket hurting
And I don't mean I'm jacking off when I say I'm choking chickens
I mean when we rap 'em up, we call that choking chickens
I got her talking code for all he these nosy folks
Two buck to be on probation too rich to be on parole
My dog love me on I'm on the mic talking reckless
Stunting, balling million dollar flexing
My doll love me on I'm on the mike talking reckless
Stunting, balling millionaire flexing
Let's get reckless, let's get reckless
Let's get reckless, let's get reckless
Let's get reckless, let's get reckless
Let's get reckless, let's get reckless
Let's get reckless, let's get reckless
Let's get reckless, let's get reckless
Let's get reckless, let's get reckless
Let's get reckless, let's get reckless
The lyrics to Gucci Mane's song "Reckless" depict a lifestyle of excess, indulgence, and disregard for consequences. Gucci Mane proudly declares his tattoos and drug habits, boasting about his wealth and his ability to spend recklessly. He also references his gang affiliation and the potential danger that comes with it, declaring himself unstoppable and untouchable. The chorus of the song repeats the phrase "let's get reckless," emphasizing the theme of living life to the fullest with no regard for caution or consequence.
Throughout the verses, Gucci Mane's lyrics paint a picture of a dangerous and extravagant lifestyle. He references his time spent at the racetrack, blowing money and smoking weed. He also mentions his blood affiliation and his disregard for those who oppose him. He suggests that his wealth and power protect him from any potential harm or repercussions for his actions.
Overall, "Reckless" is a celebration of excess and a rejection of conventional morality. Gucci Mane's lyrics promote a lifestyle of indulgence and disregard for consequences, making clear that the only thing that matters is living life to the fullest in the moment.
Line by Line Meaning
Hey yea I'm tatted up and they know knowin' that
I have many tattoos and everyone knows it
I hit sax so much that I ain't going back
I've had so much success that I won't go back to my previous lifestyle
I drop stack up, after stack, after stack, after stack,
I'm making a lot of money and stacking it up
At the rac' everyday and they knowin' that
I go to the racetrack every day and people know it
Well I'm blowing that and I'm doing this and my reg flag got the haters pissed
I'm living my life and doing what I want and my affiliation with a specific gang is making people upset
I'm goin' reckless, this not a diss, this not a threat, this real shit
I'm being reckless and this is not a diss or a threat, it's just how I live
Don't mean that, I'm stopping me, and no topping me and no robbing me
No one can stop me, no one can top me, and no one can rob me
Cause the robbers out I brought the goons out we reckless, we OG
I brought my crew with me and we're being reckless, we're original gangsters
On activists they taxing us but who gives a fuck who gives a damn
We're being charged for drugs but we don't care
I'm blood in and blood out on flash shows with big sound
I'm a part of a gang and I'm committed for life, performing at flashy shows with a big sound
And wack flocka say flocka wacka
My friend Wack Flocka says that his name is stupid
2 times commit 2 crimes
I've committed two crimes two times
2 bloods and 2 rise with four knives and gang signs
There were four of us, two with knives, and we were all members of a specific gang
So what's up, lil' Price T I'm icy as Ice T
What's up, Lil Price T? I'm as cool as Ice T
On the king of diamonds at the prince is shining and all mine behind me
I'm at the King of Diamonds strip club where Prince is performing and all my friends are with me
I'm in beast mode hell yeah I'm reckless
I'm in beast mode and being reckless
If you don't like a pussy nigger come check this, respect this
If you have a problem with me, come tell me and respect me
And let meet your death wish
You'll regret it if you try to harm me
South team burn on my necklace,
I have a necklace with the name of my gang on it
I fuck with them and they fuck with me
I'm friends with them and they're friends with me
Gonna fuck with us, get the fuck from 'round
If you have a problem with us, stay away from us
Cause I lollipop and we sucker free
I have drugs and we don't get tricked or robbed
Reckless, reckless, everybody goin' ham
We're all being reckless and having fun
Don't test this, cause if you do, that smith and wess' is goin' blam, down
Don't test me or I'll shoot you
Look what the fuck done happen
See what has happened
Just cause you heard that a nigga started rapping
Just because you heard I started rapping
That I'm worried bout the ass pulled dark
That I'm worried about someone plotting against me
No talking I'm clapping
I'll shoot without warning
Clear the whole scene I'm smashing boy, gone
I'm causing chaos and leaving the situation
Boy you better catch up nigger get hit from your neck up nigger
You better be prepared, or you'll get shot in the head
Nobody gon' fess up
No one will confess
Get your block wet up
I'll shoot up your neighborhood
Leave the whole scene full of ketchup nigga
I'll leave the entire area covered in blood
Hey I'm wildin' I'm wildin'
I'm acting crazy
I'm ballin', they fallin'
I'm making money and others envy me
I got the little man syndrome
I have a complex about my height
Catch me in the end zone signing autographs I'm stylin'
You can find me in the end zone signing autographs and looking cool
Vacation in Miami, they say I'm swag surfing
I'm on vacation in Miami and people say I have great style
Your girl with ya she ain't looking but her ass flirtin'
Your girlfriend is with you but she's flirting with me with her body language
See I'm a classy nigger a thousand dollar curtains
I'm a classy person with expensive taste
And I just made your nigger mad cause his pocket hurting
I just made your friend angry because he's broke
And I don't mean I'm jacking off when I say I'm choking chickens
When I say I'm choking chickens, I'm not talking about masturbating
I mean when we rap 'em up, we call that choking chickens
When we wrap up drugs, we call that choking chickens
I got her talking code for all he these nosy folks
I have a girl talking in code so no one can overhear us
Two buck to be on probation too rich to be on parole
I pay money to stay out of jail because I'm too rich to be on probation and too rich to be put in jail
My dog love me on I'm on the mic talking reckless
My friends support me when I'm rapping and being reckless
Stunting, balling million dollar flexing
I'm showing off my money and living a lavish lifestyle
My doll love me on I'm on the mike talking reckless
My female friends support me when I'm rapping and being reckless
Stunting, balling millionaire flexing
I'm showing off my money and living a lavish lifestyle
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: CHRISTOPHER GHOLSON, CHRISTOPHER JAMES GHOLSON, DONOVAN WINTERS, RADRIC DAVIS, RADRIC DELANTIC DAVIS, WILLIE PRITCHA
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind