Written By Lisandro Chihuahua (Twitter: @Dro_lo_98)

            As the 2010s are coming to an end, many artists that are pioneers or even have credible tributes in the rap scene are referred to as the “King” or “GodFather” of a certain trending sound. Atlanta, Georgia is home to trap music. There are many sounds of trap that are spread across from different cities and have evolved over the years. Gucci Mane is said to be one of the originators of trap rap, and influenced other cities across America to develop their own style of trap such as Chicago. The roots of Atlanta trap inspired what Chicago trap sounds like today. Many artists today wouldn’t exist without it.

Gucci Mane, aka “Guwop”, started making rap music in the 2000s from escaping the life of a drug dealer. Through his experience with the law, Gucci, 39, wanted to focus more on his music career. He went on creating his own label with members in his circle and a producer, Zaytoven, who is the mastermind behind many songs from well-known rap and R&B artists such as Usher, Future, and many more. They called the label LaFare Entertainment. In 2005, the duo and rap star, Young Jeezy created the song “So Icy” that peaked at #23 in the billboards. Later on, Gucci released dozens of mixtapes and hit singles, but after the song “Icy,” Gucci and Young Jeezy had disputes over the song, that lead one night for an arm robbery on Gucci. It would lead Gucci to be charged with murder, but they were dropped it on grounds of self-defense. In 2013, Gucci was caught with possession of narcotics and weapons. He plead guilty to possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, according to Youtube channel “Before they were Famous”. Gucci released various songs from prison and was released from prison in 2016.

When Gucci got out of prison, many people criticized his appearance due to the weight-loss and claim that he is a clone. Gucci released many singles and featured songs in 2016 and 2017. He collaborated with artists like Drake and Rae Sremmurd. The “Mannequin Challenge” song, “Black Beatle”, peaked at number one on the Billboard Top 100 chart for seven weeks straight. Gucci went on making his own landmark in rap and has come out with his 13th album.

Woptober II is Gucci Mane’s second release in 2019 and collection of the Wopster series from 2016. With Gucci’s latest singles from last week are featured on the album, “Tootsie” and “Big Booty”. Gucci features many southern rappers, such as Quavo, Kodak Black, Da Baby and many more.

“Richer Than Errybody” is one of the songs that Gucci’s style is known for rapping from the perspective of a drug dealer and talks about the amount of “bricks” or large quantity of drugs he has to sell and gain massive cash. As most people don’t know, East Atlanta is home to Gucci Mane, and in that area there are burglaries, deaths and massive influences of drug dealers and crackheads, According to Noisey, Gucci also has one of the newest rappers in the song called Da Baby. In the song, one of Da Baby’s significant verses in the album is when Da Baby compares himself as this generation’s new Gucci. Da Baby says, ”Some people compare me to Gucci, I Drop some new music and caught me a body”.  This verse is very significant from Da Baby because he knows Gucci’s past history with the law. Some of Gucci’s close friends and producers like Zaytoveen say that Gucci would work long marathon hours in the studio, but when Gucci’s not in the studio, he’d get in trouble and end up in jail.

            Quavo who is one of many Atlanta rappers in the rap industry, is featured on the song “Came from Scratch” produced by Tay Keith. In this song, Gucci and Quavo’s course sounds the both of them having a feast of congratulations from everything they lived through, the dangerous, and determination they had went through before and while having the fame. Knowing that most rappers don’t live in the hometown they once lived before, this is because the glory and jealous a rapper gets in his hometown. From both being betrayed and having negativity around, through the bad times they face, both rappers brag the about amount of success they have and more to come. They started in the slums of Atlanta and then became an artist selling out millions of shows and albums throughout the years. 

“Highly Recommended” signifies Gucci’s overall project and his way of leaving old habits behind and having more of what life offers. Like his Gucci collaborations with the actual Gucci brand. In the song, Gucci says, “I wrote the streets a ballad, I woke up on a pallet. Gucci my suspenders, I used to get Suspended (Guwop). Stay far away from snitches, I highly recommend it.” The way Gucci raps along with the beat, kind of sounds like a creepy Halloween song, as if Gucci was after you at night. But the trap father himself gives the listener a catchy sound from the beat, and the way he raps like new rappers today that give audiences catchy tunes with trap bars. 

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