Mario Mims (born May 19, 1981 in Memphis, Tennessee), better known by his s… Read Full Bio ↴Mario Mims (born May 19, 1981 in Memphis, Tennessee), better known by his stage name Yo Gotti, is an American rapper signed to Cash Money Records. Formerly known as Lil Yo in the 90's, he released his first album, From Da Dope Game 2 Da Rap Game, in 2000. Since then he has released 2001's Self-Explanatory, 2003's Life, 2006's Back 2 Da Basics, 2008's Cocaine Muzik, 2009's CM2 (Cocaine Muzik 2 hosted by DJ Drama), and The Pyrex King: Street Runnaz Special Edition.
As one of the six epicenters of Southern hip hop, Memphis has always had a thriving underground capable of producing major platinum superstars such as Eightball & MJG, 3-6 Mafia and Project Pat,Skip a.k.a Gianni Booker. All of the above-mentioned artists at one point in time literally dominated the city’s underground rap scene before going on to become national superstars. Next up to bat is Yo Gotti, M-Town’s current underground rap kingpin. Like his namesake John Gotti, the Memphis based rapper has been running the Southern underground scene with an iron fist for the past. Known and respected throughout the South for his skill and finesse on the microphone, Yo Gotti is one the South’s most respected young rappers.
Born Mario Mims, Yo Gotti grew up in the infamous Ridge Crest Apartments in a North Memphis neighborhood called Frazier. His childhood was typical for a poor ghetto youth in the Deep South. Raised in a family of hustlers and exposed to hard times 24 hours a day the Tennessee rap titan soon turned to the only thing that he knew could get him paid, hustling. “Being from the hood things like hustling will come your way,” says Yo Gotti. “Everybody in my family hustled in some kinda way.” Ironically, hustling is what ultimately led Yo Gotti to rapping.
Taking his cue from Memphis rap legends such as Eightball & MJG, Al Kapone, Gangsta Black, Triple 6 Mafia and Kingpin Skinny Pimp, all of whom he lists as influences, Yo Gotti released his own underground tape entitled, Youngster on the Come Up and placed it on consignment at local mom & pop record stores as well as hustling it out the trunk. The tape sold like hotcakes on the street and made Yo Gotti the hottest rapper on the streets of Memphis. From the Dope Game to the Rap Game, Yo Gotti’s sophomore effort sold so well that Select-O-Hits, a local based independent distributor offered him a small deal and the Memphis rapper more than doubled his fan base with absolutely no marketing or promotions. Soon he found himself ranked among the city’s top rappers. In addition to being featured on the cover of Murderdog Magazine along side his idols Kingpin Skinny Pimp and Al Kapone his record From the Dope Game to the Rap Game made the list for the magazine’s top independent record for the year 2000.
Two years later he inked a distribution deal with TVT Records and released the critically acclaimed album Life, which did respectable numbers for an independent label. “It sold about 40 or 50,000, with no promotions or video,” says Yo Gotti. “That record did what it did on its own.” But as the old saying goes when one door is closed another opened. Gotti’s reputation as the king of Memphis continued to spread and that eventually led him to a production deal with Cash Money/Universal records for his group the Block Burnaz. With his TVT sophomore album entitled Back 2 Da Basics, Yo Gotti returns with the same hardcore street flavor that his die-hard fans have come to know and love, only this time around the true king of Memphis has elevated his game a bit. Given the fact that his last record didn’t do the type of big number he’d hope for you’d think that Yo Gotti would switch up his style to reach a larger audience. Right? Wrong! According to Gotti his street credibility with his underground fans means more to him than gold or platinum status.
“The one thing that you have to understand is that when you create a fan base off of street product the last thing you wanna do is disrespect them by changing because of the record companies and stuff like that. When you do that you change what created you. To me it is very important that I keep in tune with the people that helped to sell 40,000 records independently. That’s why I call my record Back 2 Da Basics.”
Produced by DJ Thoomp, Mannie Fresh, Carlos Brody and newcomers Street Tunes, Back 2 Da Basics offers fans a gritty, insider’s view into the real streets of Memphis as seen through the eyes of Yo Gotti. Nowhere is this viewpoint more intense than on “Full Time,” the amped up lead single –and featured in the MTV Films’ Hustle & Flow movie - with a thunderous bass and intoxicating beat that espouses Gotti’s formula to success –hustle full time.
“A lotta cats wanna be a rapper or a street hustler but they don’t wanna put in the time that it takes,” says Yo Gotti. “They want the money and the cars and the girls, but they don’t wanna work hard for it. But to be successful at anything you gotta grind for it.” On the song “Mama We Gone Be Alright,” he waxes introspective by reflecting on all of the hard times that he and his family have suffered through the years and offers her hope-filled words encouragement. “Mama We Gone Be Alright” along with the gripping tune “My Story” emerges as two of the most interesting songs on Back 2 Da Basics. These three titles along with club banging songs like “Shorty” featuring Baby make Back 2 Da Basics one of the best albums of the year.
As one of the six epicenters of Southern hip hop, Memphis has always had a thriving underground capable of producing major platinum superstars such as Eightball & MJG, 3-6 Mafia and Project Pat,Skip a.k.a Gianni Booker. All of the above-mentioned artists at one point in time literally dominated the city’s underground rap scene before going on to become national superstars. Next up to bat is Yo Gotti, M-Town’s current underground rap kingpin. Like his namesake John Gotti, the Memphis based rapper has been running the Southern underground scene with an iron fist for the past. Known and respected throughout the South for his skill and finesse on the microphone, Yo Gotti is one the South’s most respected young rappers.
Born Mario Mims, Yo Gotti grew up in the infamous Ridge Crest Apartments in a North Memphis neighborhood called Frazier. His childhood was typical for a poor ghetto youth in the Deep South. Raised in a family of hustlers and exposed to hard times 24 hours a day the Tennessee rap titan soon turned to the only thing that he knew could get him paid, hustling. “Being from the hood things like hustling will come your way,” says Yo Gotti. “Everybody in my family hustled in some kinda way.” Ironically, hustling is what ultimately led Yo Gotti to rapping.
Taking his cue from Memphis rap legends such as Eightball & MJG, Al Kapone, Gangsta Black, Triple 6 Mafia and Kingpin Skinny Pimp, all of whom he lists as influences, Yo Gotti released his own underground tape entitled, Youngster on the Come Up and placed it on consignment at local mom & pop record stores as well as hustling it out the trunk. The tape sold like hotcakes on the street and made Yo Gotti the hottest rapper on the streets of Memphis. From the Dope Game to the Rap Game, Yo Gotti’s sophomore effort sold so well that Select-O-Hits, a local based independent distributor offered him a small deal and the Memphis rapper more than doubled his fan base with absolutely no marketing or promotions. Soon he found himself ranked among the city’s top rappers. In addition to being featured on the cover of Murderdog Magazine along side his idols Kingpin Skinny Pimp and Al Kapone his record From the Dope Game to the Rap Game made the list for the magazine’s top independent record for the year 2000.
Two years later he inked a distribution deal with TVT Records and released the critically acclaimed album Life, which did respectable numbers for an independent label. “It sold about 40 or 50,000, with no promotions or video,” says Yo Gotti. “That record did what it did on its own.” But as the old saying goes when one door is closed another opened. Gotti’s reputation as the king of Memphis continued to spread and that eventually led him to a production deal with Cash Money/Universal records for his group the Block Burnaz. With his TVT sophomore album entitled Back 2 Da Basics, Yo Gotti returns with the same hardcore street flavor that his die-hard fans have come to know and love, only this time around the true king of Memphis has elevated his game a bit. Given the fact that his last record didn’t do the type of big number he’d hope for you’d think that Yo Gotti would switch up his style to reach a larger audience. Right? Wrong! According to Gotti his street credibility with his underground fans means more to him than gold or platinum status.
“The one thing that you have to understand is that when you create a fan base off of street product the last thing you wanna do is disrespect them by changing because of the record companies and stuff like that. When you do that you change what created you. To me it is very important that I keep in tune with the people that helped to sell 40,000 records independently. That’s why I call my record Back 2 Da Basics.”
Produced by DJ Thoomp, Mannie Fresh, Carlos Brody and newcomers Street Tunes, Back 2 Da Basics offers fans a gritty, insider’s view into the real streets of Memphis as seen through the eyes of Yo Gotti. Nowhere is this viewpoint more intense than on “Full Time,” the amped up lead single –and featured in the MTV Films’ Hustle & Flow movie - with a thunderous bass and intoxicating beat that espouses Gotti’s formula to success –hustle full time.
“A lotta cats wanna be a rapper or a street hustler but they don’t wanna put in the time that it takes,” says Yo Gotti. “They want the money and the cars and the girls, but they don’t wanna work hard for it. But to be successful at anything you gotta grind for it.” On the song “Mama We Gone Be Alright,” he waxes introspective by reflecting on all of the hard times that he and his family have suffered through the years and offers her hope-filled words encouragement. “Mama We Gone Be Alright” along with the gripping tune “My Story” emerges as two of the most interesting songs on Back 2 Da Basics. These three titles along with club banging songs like “Shorty” featuring Baby make Back 2 Da Basics one of the best albums of the year.
Countin' Money
Yo Gotti Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
(Fuck a rubber band a nigga need a buncha' birds)
(Fuck a rubber band a nigga need a buncha' birds)
(Fuck a rubber band a nigga need a buncha' birds)
(Fuck a rubber band a nigga need a buncha' birds)
[Chorus]
Money all day, count money all day
Count money all day, count money all, money all
Count money all day, count money all day, count money all
Money all, money all day
Say mane, no matter where I go, no matter what I do
If chillin' wit' myself, or ballin' wit' my crew
The skies is lookin' cloudy or Bahama water blue
I got that money on my mind, so tell me what it do
And if you be like me, then you already knew it
We goin' for the money then we goin' right through it
Take it to the table baby, chop it up and screw it
'Cause it ain't nothin' to it where come from, but to do it
We get it in our hands, and then it go right through the fingas
We standin' on the system in a fresh set of swangas
We pop a couple tags, put some fresh up on the hangas
That everyday struggle and can't nair nigga change us
Believe that I was famous 'fore I ever did a song
Believe I had a poppin' 'fore a label put me on
It's 2010 and I ain't seein' nothin' wrong
But niggas countin' money all day fuckin' long
[Chorus]
Money totin', pistol carrying young nigga thugged out
Very first song I ever dropped was in a drug house
Razor blades, sandwich bags, Louis shoes, stupid swag
Rubber bands, duffel bags, small bills, trash bags
Apple chain on my neck, you know that cost stupid cash
Maserati for the watch, that's that foolish cash
Penitentiary chances, '6's on a muscle car
Bun helped me keep it real and watch it take me far
My money don't fold, this money here
I ain't make it for no hoes, I ain't get this off of shows
Count money all day, count money all night
Just know I'm wit' my paper, so I got my paper twice
I be lonely wit' out my paper, so I sleep wit' it at night
Now I wake up wit' to my paper so I start my day off right
They call me Cocaine Gotti, and it's money over bitches
Mr. Everything White, he be always in the kitchen
[Chorus]
It's me Gucci
I'm the shit bitch you smell me
Ain't no need to check ya sneakers
Three bricks, plus a split wit' me, then bitch you got a hit
Big money on my leisure, pop bottles wit' top models
Wit' my goons in Puerto Rico,
Yo' girlfriend I'm a freak her
Believe me I'm a giant, you down best leave us to believe us
I own the team I play for, plus I coach 'em I'm the center
The hottest rapper that you know, people look like Cujo (Gucci)
A coward dies a million times a soldier dies with uno
So tune into East Atlanta uh,
Please don't change the channel ma
Roll the windows down back up
In my Phantom show my automa
Hangin' out my partner, naw
Don't you want this autograph?
Thinkin' that you angry
Ccause my neck look like the Mardi Gras
[Chorus]
(Fuck a rubber band a nigga need a buncha' birds)
(Fuck a rubber band a nigga need a buncha' birds)
(Fuck a rubber band a nigga need a buncha' birds)
[Chorus]
Money all day, count money all day
Count money all day, count money all, money all
Money all, money all day
Say mane, no matter where I go, no matter what I do
If chillin' wit' myself, or ballin' wit' my crew
The skies is lookin' cloudy or Bahama water blue
I got that money on my mind, so tell me what it do
And if you be like me, then you already knew it
We goin' for the money then we goin' right through it
Take it to the table baby, chop it up and screw it
'Cause it ain't nothin' to it where come from, but to do it
We get it in our hands, and then it go right through the fingas
We standin' on the system in a fresh set of swangas
We pop a couple tags, put some fresh up on the hangas
That everyday struggle and can't nair nigga change us
Believe that I was famous 'fore I ever did a song
Believe I had a poppin' 'fore a label put me on
It's 2010 and I ain't seein' nothin' wrong
But niggas countin' money all day fuckin' long
[Chorus]
Money totin', pistol carrying young nigga thugged out
Very first song I ever dropped was in a drug house
Razor blades, sandwich bags, Louis shoes, stupid swag
Rubber bands, duffel bags, small bills, trash bags
Apple chain on my neck, you know that cost stupid cash
Maserati for the watch, that's that foolish cash
Penitentiary chances, '6's on a muscle car
Bun helped me keep it real and watch it take me far
My money don't fold, this money here
I ain't make it for no hoes, I ain't get this off of shows
Count money all day, count money all night
Just know I'm wit' my paper, so I got my paper twice
I be lonely wit' out my paper, so I sleep wit' it at night
Now I wake up wit' to my paper so I start my day off right
They call me Cocaine Gotti, and it's money over bitches
Mr. Everything White, he be always in the kitchen
[Chorus]
It's me Gucci
I'm the shit bitch you smell me
Ain't no need to check ya sneakers
Three bricks, plus a split wit' me, then bitch you got a hit
Big money on my leisure, pop bottles wit' top models
Wit' my goons in Puerto Rico,
Yo' girlfriend I'm a freak her
Believe me I'm a giant, you down best leave us to believe us
I own the team I play for, plus I coach 'em I'm the center
The hottest rapper that you know, people look like Cujo (Gucci)
A coward dies a million times a soldier dies with uno
So tune into East Atlanta uh,
Please don't change the channel ma
Roll the windows down back up
In my Phantom show my automa
Hangin' out my partner, naw
Don't you want this autograph?
Thinkin' that you angry
Ccause my neck look like the Mardi Gras
[Chorus]
The lyrics in "Countin' Money" by Yo Gotti are essentially a declaration of his love for money and his extravagant spending habits. In the first verse, he explains that he would rather have a "buncha' birds" (slang for stacks of cash) than a rubber band, which is often used by people to hold their stacks of cash together. He talks about how his focus is always on money, whether he's alone or with his crew, whether the skies are cloudy or blue. He emphasizes how easy it is for him to make money and how quickly it flows through his hands. He states that he was famous and poppin' even before a record label put him on.
The chorus is a repetition of the phrase "count money all day" which serves to reinforce his love of money and the fact that he is always making, spending or counting it. In the second verse, he describes his life as a young, pistol-toting thug who made his first song in a drug house. He talks about the expensive brands he loves wearing and how much he's spent on jewelry, cars and other luxuries. He declares that he sleeps with his money because he's so attached to it. The chorus then repeats twice before an outro in which Gucci Mane brags about his wealth and tells people not to change the channel.
Line by Line Meaning
Fuck a rubber band a nigga need a buncha' birds
I don't care about rubber bands, I need stacks of money
Money all day, count money all day
I focus on getting money every day
Say mane, no matter where I go, no matter what I do
No matter my situation or activity, I'm thinking about money
Believe that I was famous 'fore I ever did a song
I had money before I became successful in music
Money totin', pistol carrying young nigga thugged out
I'm a tough guy with guns and money
Count money all day, count money all night
I never stop counting and making money
They call me Cocaine Gotti, and it's money over bitches
People know me for drug trafficking, and money is more important than women
It's me Gucci, I'm the shit bitch, you smell me
I'm Gucci Mane, and I'm great, can't you tell?
Big money on my leisure, pop bottles wit' top models
I spend a lot of money on leisure and enjoy the company of attractive women
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: BERNARD FREEMAN, BERNARD JAMES FREEMAN, MARIO MIMS, MARIO SENTELL GIDEN, RADRIC DAVIS, RADRIC DELANTIC DAVIS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
To comment on or correct specific content, highlight it
More Genres
No Artists Found
More Artists
Load All
No Albums Found
More Albums
Load All
No Tracks Found
Genre not found
Artist not found
Album not found
Search results not found
Song not found
@unknownspirit2-9
These old down south songs are golden
@mrahmed2900
Slaps 2023 burrrr for all the grinders get itttr ❤️
@Trappedclanyek
that hook still slaps hard in 2022
@youngphill9964
Bun b with the bape & supreme 🔥 way before these hype beast trend
@Chronos127
R.I.P. PIMP C MANE!!
@marshallyates853
Countin Money all day... <3
@Trappedclanyek
Gotti killed his verse 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
@johnnybravo1734
If you Mom and Dad and you know what you need to do stop sneaking and geeking.
@blubbdiblubb6573
I love Gotti's part it's too hard man
@RussellDavis-dv2gg
FRESHER THAN A PEPERMINT