Crib Notes

GUCCI MANE: The Atlanta rapper keeps it way too real on the cover of upcoming album, The State vs. Radric Davis.

With Gucci Mane once again headed back to jail, his new song, “My Own Worst Enemy,” feels particularly apropos. Over a melancholy synth beat from Drumma Boy, Gucci touches on his near-deadly beef with Young Jeezy, his conversations with the currently incarcerated T.I., and his own frequent brushes with the law: “Me, Jeezy and T.I. share one thing in common/All are poets/Role models to young people/Though at times man we still ignore it.”

On Nov. 12, Gucci (née Radric Davis) was sentenced to 12 months behind bars for violating his probation and was removed from a Fulton County courtroom in handcuffs. He is expected to serve about half of that time. A judge ruled that he had not completed community service requirements, that he failed drug tests and that he did not secure permission to travel. The case dates back to a 2005 conviction for attacking a club promoter, and this is the second time he has failed to meet the terms of his probation – the first time last year, sent him to jail for seven months.

The setback seems to come at a bad time for him. The Atlanta-bred rapper is more popular than ever, and his highly anticipated new album, The State vs. Radric Davis, is due Dec. 8. But it has already caused chaos with fans and concert promoters around the country. His past incarceration and probation terms have led to the cancellation of about a dozen shows this year. His absences have left promoters squabbling with his manager and booking agent — and threatening to file lawsuits.

But beyond the allegations lies the allegory. If Gucci is the frog prince of Atlanta trap-rap, impatiently waiting as he has for the better half of a decade to take his turn on the throne, he doesn’t need anything else to stunt his growth. Despite collaborating in 2009 with the likes of Mariah Carey, Black Eyed Peas, Mario and Usher – who’s featured in the current single “Spotlight” from his upcoming album – Gucci’s transition from ‘hood star to pop star remains fraught with hiccups. It’s something the industry may have to come to terms with, warts and all.

Continue Reading “The case of the canceled Gucci Mane concerts”

(Photo Courtesy So Icey/Asylum/Warner Bros)

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Which came first, the BET Hip-Hop Awards or Atlanta’s steady flow of garbage-ass rap music?

The chicken-or-the-egg question occurred to me as I watched last night’s broadcast of the awards show, which should’ve been renamed the Gucci Mane Awards for the number of performances (3?) featuring the East Atlanta-bred MC.

It typified a night in which the show took every possible opportunity to reference Atlanta — which is odd considering the crowd is made up entirely of industry fucks (artists, publicists, label reps, promoters, radio heads, etc.) and almost zero fans. (more…)

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“I would fuck Gucci Mane so hard!”

Need I remind anyone that this is still the South, where, for hundreds of years, black men were lynched for less? Only Gucci Mane, with his steady diet of confectionary, unconscionable trap rap, could potentially set African-Americans so far back and simultaneously level the playing field.

I don’t know whether to laugh or run.

Apparently Decatur rapper Playboy Tré, seen egging the chicks on in the video along with TJ of TJ’s DJ’s, was plagued by no such a dilemma. Lying dead and disfigured in his grave, Emmett Till must be totally flabbergasted right about now.

(Spotted at NahRight.com)

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FREE GUCCI? Not quite.

Walter Cronkite dies on Friday, and then by Sunday we’re all getting our news from an uniformed 18-year-old typing away on his Sidekick.

That’s pretty much what happened this weekend when Soulja Boy announced via Twitter that his much-incarcerated homie Gucci Mane was going back to the slammer.

Just woke up to some bullshit… my nigga Gucci back in jail.. Free Gucci…

Word on the street (er, the blogs) was that Gucci had violated his probation with some cloudy piss, and within hours “Free Gucci” was a trending topic on Twitter. (Leaving plenty of folks wondering where to pick up their gratis clutches.)

But not only were there no free bags, but Gucci was not locked up, at least according to his lawyer. (more…)

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A rather peculiar blog war has broken out in recent weeks. Hip hop writers are taking sides. Although no fatalities have been reported, there’s been some serious name calling.

At the crux of the dispute is Gucci Mane’s merit as a rapper. His populist appeal is not in doubt, but bloggers like Noz and Brandon Soderberg insist that he’s underappreciated by hip hop tastemakers. A couple of weeks ago Soderberg wrote a well-considered treatise on what writers talk about when they talk about Gucci, although Soderberg goes a bit far in my opinion when he claims that white people can’t properly evaluate the emcee’s merits.

…it’s only a matter of time before the mixed metaphor of bloggers/white writers as colonialists wanders into the debate or accusations of flat-out racism get tossed around when someone like Gucci’s given a good critical look-over, part of the debate really is Black and White. Not “Black vs. White” but rather, Gucci’s cultural context switches in a way that’s simply not available to white or essentially, non-black listeners.

The whole thing is made weirder by the fact that Soderberg is white himself. Not surprisingly, this proved irresistable for We Are Respectable Negroes blogger Gordon Gartrelle, who decided to give Gucci track “Booty Shorts” the full dissertation-style treatment by breaking down its lyrics.

How much ‘unh’ can one girl take
How many cakes can one man bake?

In this context, “unh” refers to penis. For Gucci, this rhetorical question is not a macho sexual boast; it is a nod to radical lesbian feminist awakening. Another way of framing the question is, how much rapacious male sexuality must a woman endure before she rebels against hegemonic patriarchy and becomes a fully realized, liberated human being?

(more…)

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Many hip hop beefs — 50 Cent vs. Rick Ross, say, or T.I. vs. Shawty Lo — are all bluster. But when Young Jeezy and Gucci Mane beef, people die. That’s why it is troubling that the two are at it again.

As reported on Miss Info’s blog, Jeezy apparently took issue with a recent Gucci song and fired off a diss track, “24 23,” which take aim at Gucci and associate OJ da Juiceman. “Tell him this ain’t what he want, not the boy Snow,” Jeezy raps of Gucci. “But between me and you, I think the boy slow.”

It’s not entirely clear what Gucci song Jeezy takes issue with. Sure, his recent Big Cat Records album Murder Was The Case contains plenty of Jeezy disses, but most of that material was recorded years ago. If there’s a shot taken at Jeezy on Gucci’s latest Writing On The Wall mixtape, I can’t pick it out. Anyone?

Finally, as Miss Info notes:

Mind you, this Friday, Gucci Mane, OJ da Juiceman and Young Jeezy are booked to perform at the 102 Jamz SuperJam in Greenboro, NC.

And then on Saturday…again…Gucci Mane, OJ da Juiceman and Young Jeezy are booked to perform at the Hot 107.9 Birthday Bash in Atlanta, GA.

hmmm…let’s hope both sides respect their radio sponsors and keep the peace.

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Our cover story on Gucci Mane this week is generating a lot of buzz, including a post on Vibe magzine’s number one hip-hop blog, Nah Right.

Unfortunately the commenters there aren’t focusing on all the scoops in the story — about how Gucci spent his time in jail, about his upcoming album, or about his recently-settled lawsuit.

Instead, everyone’s making fun of his haircut and his skin:

there are coded Mayan 2012 prophecies hidden on his scalp ….

[he] was trying to freestyle while getting his hair cut

Thats a scripture in OJ Da Juiceman’s [II] native language

Gucci looks like he’s cryptic member of the Komodo Dragon family. Like special edition Indonesian version….weird

He is a Komodo Dragon, period.

Gucci the only human being with pixels in his skintone

In his defense, the image posted on Nah Right is a bit pixelated. The one here should be a little better.

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Read this week’s CL cover story: Fresh from jail, Gucci Mane’s star has peaked. Can the combustible rapper take advantage?

Download Writing on the Wall, Gucci’s latest mixtape.

Listen + download a plethora of Gucci Mane mixtapes.

Gucci’s beginnings with Big Cat Records:

More of the Guc:
At home with Gucci, from Shawty Lo’s Raw Report DVD: The Real Bankhead Story:

(more…)

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ON THE GRIND: Only hours after being released from jail in March, Gucci Mane hit the recording studio.

DOWNLOAD Gucci’s latest mixtape, Writing On the Wall

During his latest stint in jail, Radric Davis spent much of his time contemplating how he could change his life. The veteran Atlanta rapper known as Gucci Mane had built a tremendous regional following based on his oft-autobiographical songs about partying, drug trafficking and street conflict. But the same lifestyle he rhymed about had repeatedly landed him behind bars, ironically stifling his hopes for national fame.

“I got a lot of ideas together,” he says of the six months he served for violating the terms of his probation, stemming from a 2005 incident in which he beat a promoter with a pool cue. “It was a time for me to refocus. I took it and made the best out of a bad situation.” He devoured all of the inspirational material he could get his hands on, he says, from the Bible and rap magazines to a title from the Chicken Soup for the Soul series.

Continue reading “Fresh from jail, Gucci Mane’s star has peaked”

(Photo by Donna Permell)

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Spotted at MauriceGarland.com:

I’m posting this video because I found it interesting to see how Big Boi is attempting to bridge a gap of sorts by enlisting Gucci on his album. Only other time I can remember a DF member doing something like this was when, hell, Gucci featured Khujo on “Corner Cuttin’” on his first album.

Big Boi’s been doing this for a while now though. Him hopping on remixes to Gorilla Zoe’s “Hood Nigga” and DJ Unk’s “Walk It Out” are proof. I’m also posting it because it shows that as much as Atlanta Hip Hop seems to be segregated at times, there’s still some sort of unity.

The video comes courtesy Atlanta-based photographer/videographer Zach Wolfe, who holds down a guest column of sorts on SnortThis.com and has been posting fresh flicks (we’re talking moving images) on his own site for the past few months. Wolfe’s videos shine an imaginative light on the random nature of Atlanta’s music scene — due in part to his technical mastery of the Canon Mark 11 5D — but mostly because of his editorial choices, i.e. the shit he shoots.

His extended footage of Ricky Powell’s El Bar gig from earlier this year is classic.

But my personal favorite features Wheel Chair Matt peeling donuts in the ’68 GTO he rented to the Shop Boyz for their “Party Like a Rock Star” video. Apparently, there’s a big difference between rap and reality, according to Dax:

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Here it is — XXL’s Hood to Hood issue. And Atlanta’s at the forefront.

But they got the headline wrong. Should’ve named it after that classic MC Eiht song, “The Hood Took Me Under.”

So should we be happy that the Northern hip-hop media elite have finally embraced Southern swag? Or are they mere co-conspirators out to capitalize on the dumbing down of rap?

Disclaimer: Gucci’s Mane’s latest CD, Murder Was the Case, and Soulja Boy’s “Turn My Swag On” are both currently in heavy rotation in my Buick Regal.

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It’s become a rite of passage.

Rapper gets locked up. Fan support swells. Rapper returns home to enjoy the fruits of his, um, hard labor.

With six months served for violating probation, Atlanta’s Gucci Mane was released over the weekend. Apparently, he made a mad dash for the studio where R&B singer Mya (whose career seems to have been relegated to hook-singing duties) was waiting to record fresh material with him. Partner-in-rhyme, OJ da Juiceman narrates as a cameraman documents the drama for ATLHustlers.com

Visit NahRight.com to see footage of Gucci Mane’s homecoming party at Club E.S.S.O. on Saturday night. The line was wrapped around the building.

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Call it a study in contrasts.

These two Atlanta-based artists — and their respective videos — couldn’t be further removed from one another, contextually-speaking. That’s exactly why we’re pairing them up in this post.

Senor Kaos’ new video for the “Girls Rock Too Remix” is illustrated by the words he raps in this ode to the historic accomplishments of the opposite sex. Directed by Jeanius Media and produced by Illastrate, it’s release is timed with Women’s History Month.

Gucci Mane’s new video for “Stoopid” is animated — most likely due to the rapper’s ongoing incarceration. The song is about the lavish lifestyle Mane lives, and the video features him evading police after breaking out of jail to cruise the town and indulge.

Two alternative videos from two very different rappers. Even though you’d never hear them on the same radio station, it’s interesting to put them side-by-side and consider the range of rap music coming out of Atlanta.

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Back in ’06, when NY hip-hop critics began hailing the arrival of Atlanta-based rapper Young Jeezy, it left a lot of southern rap aficionados a little mystified. It wasn’t so much that we weren’t feeling Jeezy’s trap-or-die flow, we just didn’t expect those East Coast hip-hop snobs to jump on the Snowman’s jock so quick.

Well, looks like it’s about to snow again. Another Atlanta trap-rapper OJ da Juiceman (coincidentally affiliated with one-time Jeezy rival, Gucci Mane) has been creating quite a buzz with such mixtapes as Culinary Art School and I Got the Juice. And Fader, for one, has taken notice. The music mag typically favors alternative progressives (Kanye West and No Age cover reversible sides of its December issue — argue amongst yourselves), so the interest in OJ is suspect.

Call me a paranoid Southerner, but their praise of the artist seems like a joke everyone is in on but da Juiceman, himself.

You make the call. Check out the video interview above that Fader filmed over lunch with OJ in NY.

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As the audience grew tired of waiting at the Samsung AT&T Summer Krush, a symphony of boos circulated the almost full Tabernacle on Tuesday night. Meanwhile fans ranging from young to old continued to fill the auditorium in anticipation to see the often half-naked rapper Nelly.

Just as he did on the BET awards, Nelly showcased his all-female marching band dressed in matching Apple Bottom outfits and Air Jordans to open up the show. As the ladies got the crowd hyped while dancing to Soulja Boy’s “She Gotta Donk” and other ATL favorites, the blinged-out bracelet and Army dog-tag wearing rapper appeared onstage to give the audience what they’d been longing for since the doors opened.

(more…)

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