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.”
Servin
Gucci Mane Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Who is this?
Oh that's whatcha-ma-call-it
Nigga, this Guwop nigga
Oh, oh that's Guwop!
Shut the fuck up nigga
Slap the shit out you nigga
I said it's Guwop nigga,
Aye Man
King of Fendi
I think one too many blunts today
Too many beers now I’m drunk today
I drunk a pint of lean so I'm wasted mayne
I got that gangsta in nigga you can taste it mane
I'm servin', I'm servin'
All of my niggas be servin'
Pull up to the curb, then curb service
Whatchu want nigga we working
I’m servin' , I'm servin'
Come through in my Bentley I’m swerving
Hoes say I look better in person
Maybach I'ma close the fuckin' curtains
What's Happnin'
It's Guwop
The legend
Shout out to Zone 6
It's Big Gucci
Diamonds hittin' so hard
You see me
I know you hear me
That strong in, I know you smell me
Y'all niggas some fuck niggas, I know you tellin'
And I don't need ya, cause I'm a felon.
Touch down in ya city where the pass at
Where the pass at? You make a nigga laugh black
Need a pass for you nigga, you'll get blast at
You just a mid-grade nigga like my last pack
I'm just a money makin' nigga you can call ASCAP
You waiting on me to fall you need to wait on your income tax check
I got so much money I left the mall with every damn bitch
And for the Panthers raise your arm up then you make a balled fist
They moved my nigga so far away cause they say he was high risk
His folks can't even come down to see him, barely can pay they damn rent
And now he frustrated, incarcerated and it got us all tense
And if them folks try to give me forty I'ma jump the damn fence
I'm chargin' $3900 for it I got them bags in
$850 you know I got that swag in
I got that Mexican weed them bricks you know that trash shit
And all you gotta do is drive this shit to Athens
Bricks Squad in this bitch we known for takin'
I got a couple more 'dem squares they goin' to Macon
I'ma stop by savannah then Augusta
And I'm a multimillionaire but I'm from custer
These niggas tryna hold me back
But a nigga can't never hold me back
Gucci Mane I'ma get up I'ma walk round and I'ma get me a stack
Walk around with these thigh pads
Damn my nigga that my bad
That you broke so damn fast
Had the same chance that I had
You feel bad but I'm not sad
You can talk trash but I moved on
Three homes, ten phones
Tell me where did it go wrong
All the money that I have
Aka that’s my stash
Nigga try to take my cash
Bet the nigga gon' die fast
50 bands in the brand new pants
Take $5000 and I wipe my ass
Gucci Mane fear no man
I’m a tough guy like Conan
Mojo my right hand
And Yunan was our dope man
I know he lookin' down from Heaven.
I'm chargin' $3900 for it I got them bags in
$850 you know I got that swag in
I got that Mexican weed them bricks you know that trash shit
And all you gotta do is drive this shit to Athens
Bricks Squad in this bitch we known for takin'
I got a couple more 'dem squares they goin' to Macon
I'ma stop by savannah then Augusta
And I'm a multimillionaire but I'm from custer
The lyrics of Gucci Mane's song, Servin, primarily revolve around the lifestyle that the rapper associates himself with. Throughout the song, Gucci Mane mentions his affinity for drugs, alcohol and his willingness to serve others even at the cost of self-care. Gucci Mane is self-proclaimed "King of Fendi," suggesting that he enjoys luxury fashion and is perhaps very wealthy. The lyrics also mention "Brick Squad," which refers to a group of rappers from Atlanta that Gucci Mane is associated with.
In the first verse, Gucci Mane talks about being drunk on alcohol and lean, a mixture of cough syrup, soft drinks, and candy containing codeine, which is widely used in the hip-hop industry. He then boasts that he and his team are "serving" or selling drugs, and he has enough money to spend on expensive cars and clothes. The second verse continues Gucci Mane's self-praise, mentioning his high status as a rapper and a felon, which informs the authority he holds over his team and those who act against him.
Finally, in the last verse, Gucci Mane raps about moving a large amount of a variety of drugs from one city to the other. He emphasizes that he and his gang of "Brick Squad" are known for their business and are willing to transport goods wherever necessary.
Line by Line Meaning
Who it is?
Who are you?
Who is this?
Who are you?
Oh that's whatcha-ma-call-it
Oh, that's who you are
Nigga, this Guwop nigga
I am Gucci Mane
Oh, oh that's Guwop!
Oh, you're Gucci Mane!
Shut the fuck up nigga
Stop talking
Slap the shit out you nigga
I will hit you
I said it's Guwop nigga,
I am Gucci Mane
Turn Up
Let's party
Aye Man
Hey there
King of Fendi
I am fashionable and powerful
I think one too many blunts today
I have smoked too much marijuana today
Too many beers now I’m drunk today
I have consumed too many beers and am now intoxicated
I drunk a pint of lean so I'm wasted mayne
I drank cough syrup mixed with soda and am now heavily intoxicated
I got that gangsta in nigga you can taste it mane
I exude a strong gangster vibe
I'm servin', I'm servin'
I am selling drugs
All of my niggas be servin'
All of my friends are selling drugs
Pull up to the curb, then curb service
I will sell drugs to you from my car
Whatchu want nigga we working
What would you like to buy?
Come through in my Bentley I’m swerving
I will arrive in my luxury car while driving erratically
Hoes say I look better in person
Women find me more attractive in real life
Maybach I'ma close the fuckin' curtains
I will arrive in my fancy car and then close the curtains for privacy
What's Happnin'
What's going on?
It's Guwop
I am Gucci Mane
The legend
I am famous and respected
Shout out to Zone 6
Greetings to my home neighborhood
It's Big Gucci
I am Gucci Mane
Diamonds hittin' so hard
My jewelry is very flashy
You see me
You can see me
I know you hear me
You can hear me
That strong in, I know you smell me
You can smell the marijuana on me
Y'all niggas some fuck niggas, I know you tellin'
You are untrustworthy and likely to inform on others
And I don't need ya, cause I'm a felon.
I don't need your assistance because I have a criminal record
Touch down in ya city where the pass at
I am arriving in your city and need to know where to buy drugs
Where the pass at? You make a nigga laugh black
Where can I find drugs? That question is amusing to me
Need a pass for you nigga, you'll get blast at
If you do not provide me with drugs, I will harm you
You just a mid-grade nigga like my last pack
You are an average, unimpressive person
I'm just a money makin' nigga you can call ASCAP
I am a financially successful person
You waiting on me to fall you need to wait on your income tax check
You are expecting me to fail, but should focus on your own financial situation instead
I got so much money I left the mall with every damn bitch
I am so rich that I have a lot of women with me
And for the Panthers raise your arm up then you make a balled fist
Show support for the Carolina Panthers football team by raising your arm and making a fist
They moved my nigga so far away cause they say he was high risk
My friend was moved to a distant location because the authorities considered him dangerous
His folks can't even come down to see him, barely can pay they damn rent
His family is financially struggling and cannot afford to visit him
And now he frustrated, incarcerated and it got us all tense
My friend is upset and in prison, causing stress for everyone involved
And if them folks try to give me forty I'ma jump the damn fence
If I am offered a 40-year sentence, I will attempt to escape prison
I'm chargin' $3900 for it I got them bags in
I am selling drugs for $3,900
$850 you know I got that swag in
I am selling drugs for $850
I got that Mexican weed them bricks you know that trash shit
I am selling low-quality marijuana
And all you gotta do is drive this shit to Athens
All you have to do is transport the drugs to Athens
Bricks Squad in this bitch we known for takin'
My group is known for being violent and aggressive
I got a couple more 'dem squares they goin' to Macon
I have a few more packages of drugs that I am transporting to Macon
I'ma stop by savannah then Augusta
I will make stops in Savannah and Augusta
And I'm a multimillionaire but I'm from custer
I am a wealthy person who comes from a poor background
These niggas tryna hold me back
People are trying to prevent me from succeeding
But a nigga can't never hold me back
No one can truly stop me
Gucci Mane I'ma get up I'ma walk round and I'ma get me a stack
I will continue to work hard and make money regardless of the obstacles in my way
Walk around with these thigh pads
I wear protective gear for football, including thigh pads
Damn my nigga that my bad
I feel bad for what happened to you
That you broke so damn fast
You became poor very quickly
Had the same chance that I had
You had the same opportunities for success that I did
You feel bad but I'm not sad
You regret your mistakes, but I am not affected by them
You can talk trash but I moved on
You can insult me, but I don't let it bother me
Three homes, ten phones
I have three houses and ten phones
Tell me where did it go wrong
What led to your failures?
All the money that I have
I have a lot of money
Aka that’s my stash
My money is my savings
Nigga try to take my cash
If someone tries to steal from me, they will be harmed
Bet the nigga gon' die fast
I will kill anyone who tries to steal from me
50 bands in the brand new pants
I have $50,000 in my new pants
Take $5000 and I wipe my ass
I easily spend $5,000 without thinking twice
Gucci Mane fear no man
I am not afraid of anyone
I’m a tough guy like Conan
I am a strong and tough person
Mojo my right hand
Mojo is my close associate
And Yunan was our dope man
Yunan supplied us with drugs
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, O/B/O CAPASSO, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: RADRIC DAVIS, STACKS TARENTINO
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Max EAV
Who up in this mf 2023?☝🏿😈
@theunoffcialwife TM
It's meee😅
Big Ripp
ALL OF NIGGAS BE SURVIVING FOREVER 😂😂💪🏾
Juan Corona
Yeah
Drustevens Drukens
Yessir 🔥
Jordan Williams
Burrrrr
Gregory Cripotos
Now whenever I bring plates of food to the tables at my restaurant I always have this song in my head lol
Daniel Tanchev
This is the Gucci Mane that gave me strenght in all my tough moments ! Made me feel strong from feeling weak after just a song :) Im seervin Im seeervin !
Nathan Ross
@Alec Zander 😂💀
Rory Hall
Facts King ✊🏿