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.”
Trap House
Gucci Mane Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Trap House 3, fuck nigga
What's happenin'?
Ayy, T come out man
Man, we outta cut again?
Fuck
I told partner bring the presser, huh
I got a thousand keys uncut, nigga
Guaranteed I make this money stack, nigga
I'm tryna make this money fast, nigga
I'm tryna keep this shit together
I call that boy Eggbeater Fat
I cook good, but he cook way better
Sippin' Coronas with my vato
Me casa you know es su casa
Big cat we used to call El Gato
Now GuWop they call me El Chapo, nigga
I usde to trap out all the bandos
Abandoned homes with boarded windows
Who the fuck that is peepin' in my window?
Fuck boys know I keep that extendo (Wop)
Trap House 3 got a K with me
And three young niggas that stay with me
Trap House 3 got a K with me
And three young niggas that stay with me
Hope these niggas don't play with me
Hope these niggas don't play with me
Hope these niggas don't play with me
'Cause my MAK-90 stay with me
Trap House 3 got a K with me
And three young niggas that stay with me
Trap House 3 got a K with me
And three young niggas that stay with me
Hope these niggas don't play with me
Hope these niggas don't play with me
Hope these niggas don't play with me
'Cause my MAK-90 stay with me
Trap house, trap house, trap house, trap
Trap house, trap house, trap house, trap
Trap house, trap house, trap house, trap house
Trap house, trap house, trap house, trap
Trap house, trap, trap house, trap
Trappin' off a pack, I'm trap house trap
Trap house, trap, trap house, trap (Maybach Music)
Trappin' off a pack, I'm trap house trap
You know I got me an agenda (yeah)
Break that thing up in my blender
Got a warrant, no surrender (haha)
Sub-machine with that extender
I came up on a pissy mattress
I got more money then all these rappers
Tried to hit me up in traffic
But I had to work my magic
I'm ridin' 'round with my lieutenant
I let 'em count it and I spend it
Bitches come after my business (boss)
Catchin' bodies in these trenches (Maybach Music)
Trap House 3 got a K with me
And three young niggas that stay with me (oh Lord)
Trap House 3 got a K with me
And three young niggas that stay with me
Hope these niggas don't play with me (oh God)
Hope these niggas don't play with me (oh God)
Hope these niggas don't play with me
'Cause my MAK-90 stay with me (oh, oh, oh)
Trap House 3 got a K with me
And three young niggas that stay with me
Trap House 3 got a K with me (we got so much money, nigga)
And three young niggas that stay with me
Hope these niggas don't play with me
Hope these niggas don't play with me (niggas hatin' on me and I still could laugh, nigga)
Hope these niggas don't play with me
'Cause my MAK-90 stay with me
Trap House 3
The lyrics to Gucci Mane's song Trap House depict the life of a successful drug dealer who operates out of his trap house, which is a house where drugs are sold. The rapper talks about his illegal activities such as having a thousand uncut keys, which are commonly known as undiluted drugs. He mentions that he is trying to make money fast and keep his business and life in order.
The chorus of the song emphasizes the importance of having protection in the trap house. Gucci Mane mentions that he has a K and three young men who stay with him. He hopes that no one would try to play games with him because he has a Mak-90, which is a sub-machine gun with an extender that could cause harm. The rapper is aware of the dangers involved in his trade and is ready to protect himself and his property.
The song Trap House 3 is a reflection of the life of a drug dealer; it glorifies the dangerous and illegal actions that Gucci Mane participates in. Despite the negativity in the lyrics, the rapper's delivery is entertaining and catchy, which has made it a popular song.
Line by Line Meaning
What's happening nigga
An informal greeting to his fellow individuals
Trap House 3, fuck nigga
Referring to the location where drug dealings take place, and showing aggression towards anyone who opposes him
I told partner bring the presser, huh
Asking his partner to bring the tool used for pressing drugs before selling them
Apply some pressure to the jack, yeah
Applying force on the telephone line to ensure the quality of the communication during the drug deal
I got a thousand keys uncut, nigga
Possessing a large number of drugs that hasn't been cut yet
Guaranteed I make this money stack, nigga
Assuring that he will make a large amount of money from selling these drugs
I'm tryna make the money fast, nigga
His goal is to earn money quickly
I'm tryna keep this shit together
Trying to maintain the organization and flow of his illegal operations
I call that boy Eggbeater Fat
Referring to his partner as an expert at cooking cocaine
I cook good, but he cook way better
Acknowledging his own ability to cook drugs, but recognizing that his partner is much better at it
Sipping'Coronas with my vato
Drinking beer with his close friend or comrade, probably of Hispanic origin
Me casa you know es su casa
Extending an invitation to his home, as it is also the guest's home
Big cat we used to call El Gato
Referring to his associate who he previously called 'Big Cat,' but now goes by the nickname 'El Gato'
Now GuWop they call me El Chapo, nigga
Comparing himself to infamous drug lord El Chapo, and boasting about his own reputation and power
I use to trap out all the bandos
Referring to when he used to sell drugs out of abandoned buildings
Abandoned homes with boarded windows
Describing the locations where he used to sell drugs
Who the fuck that is peeping in my window?
Feeling threatened and questioning who is trying to spy on him
Fuck boys know I keep that extendo (Wop)
Warning his enemies that he carries a gun with a long clip, and using his nickname 'Wop'
You know I got me an agenda (yeah)
Having an organized plan for his drug operation
Break that thing up in my blender
Breaking down the drugs using a blender
Got a warrant, no surrender (haha)
Knowing law enforcement has an arrest warrant for him, he won't give up without a fight
Sub-machine with that extender
Using a sub-machine gun with an extended clip for protection during his illegal activities
I came up on a pissy mattress
Starting from the bottom, and rising to where he is now through illegal means
I got more money than all these rappers
Earning more money than most rappers do legally
Tried to hit me up in traffic
Being attacked by unknown assailants while driving
But I had to work my magic
Using his street smarts and quick thinking to get out of that dangerous situation
I'm riding 'round with my lieutenant
Traveling with his trusted right-hand man
I let 'em count it and I spend it
Letting his associate count the money, but ultimately it's Gucci Mane who spends it
Bitches come after my business
Having female admirers who are attracted to his money and power
Catching bodies in these trenches (Maychbach Music)
Killing people in the streets during his drug dealings
Trap house, trap house, trap house, trap
Reiterating the title of the song
Trap house, trap, trap house, trap
A shorter version of the previous line
Trapping off a pack, I'm trap house trap
Dealing drugs is his profession and he excels at it
Trap House 3 got a K with me
Confirming that he has a firearm in his possession
And three young niggas that stay with me
Referring to his close associates that always have his back
Hope these niggas don't play with me
Warning anyone who tries to mess with him or his associates
'Cause my MAK-90 stay with me
Holding onto his firearm for protection
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Radric Davis, Joshua Luellen, Bryan Simmons, William Roberts
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind