Gucci Mane has emerged as one of the most divisive rappers of the past few years. These are The 50 Best Gucci Mane Songs.
ByOrNah
Feb 13, 2013
Complex Original
Image via Complex Original
Complex Original
Image via Complex Original
Gucci Mane has emerged as one of the most divisive rappers of the past few years. Like everyone, he has his haters. They haven't stopped him from becoming one of the most productive, prolific rappers of the last few years either, having releasing hundreds upon hundreds of songs in his relatively young career. His method? Per the name of one of his most celebrated mixtapes: No Pad, No Pencil, an improvisational approach driven by his fanbase's nonstop thirst for new material.
Because he's dropped so much, in so little time, the variety of the Atlanta born rapper's catalog doesn't get its fair due. From his beginnings in the era of album Trap House to the aesthetic that coalesced on Chicken Talk, to his distinctive "country" vocal style, to the creative evolution of his frequent collaborators (Zaytoven, Fatboi, Drumma Boy), Gucci's lived several rappers careers' and then some, and yet, he's still going strong. As evidenced: Tuesday night, Gucci dropped Trap God 2, his 33rd—yes, 33rd—independent release in eight years, on his 33rd birthday no less.
While he hasn't hit the level of crossover interest that he did in '09, Gucci's post-Appeal work has started to see the acclaim stack up again; history's shown it wouldn't be smart to count him out early. Yet, while that period of his catalog is too new to be properly canonized (for the moment), Radric Davis's greatest tracks—from the start of his career through 2010—are the result of an improbable star's hard work. It's a trajectory that yielded one of rap music's most controversial and unexpectedly brilliant catalogs, which is to say nothing of the most prime cuts from it.
These are The 50 Best Gucci Mane Songs. BURRR!
Listen to Complex's Best Gucci Mane Songs playlists here: YouTube/Spotify/Rdio
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Written by David Drake (@SoManyShrimp)
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50. Gucci Mane "16 Fever" (2007)
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Producer: Reefa
Album: Back to the Traphouse
Label: Atlantic
2007's Back to the Traphousereceived middling reviews, including one from Gucci himself. And despite the major-label meddling and unnecessary guests, it's still a strong release. Proof-positive?The triumphant trap sales pitch "16 Fever," a major song in the Gucci catalog, its budget-regal backing track a powerfully anthemic openingfor one of the rapper's underappreciated releases.
49. OJ Da Juiceman f/ Gucci Mane "Make tha Trap Say Aye" (2008)
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Producer: Zaytoven
Album: The Otha Side of the Trap
Label: Asylum, So Icey Ent., Mizay
Ironically, one of Gucci's earliest songs to get national attention wasn't even his; it was a track by his protege, OJ Da Juiceman, and in many senses, it was more OJ's song than Gucci's. Named for OJ's trademark ad-lib, the track also featured a fairly middle-of-the-road verse from Gucci, but was catchy enough, and demonstrated the crackling chemistry the duodeveloped.
48. Gucci Mane "Diamonds" (2009)
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Producer: Drumma Boy
Album: The Cold War: Part 1 (Guccimerica)
Label: So Icey Ent.
From DJ Drama's Guccimerica tape—one of three mixtapes comprising Gucci's Cold War series—"Diamonds" might as well be called "Inventory." A laundry-list of his chains, diamonds, and baubles, the song catalogs an endless parade of shiny accomplishments. Packed with jokes, wisecracks and punctuated with "Burr!" ad-libs, the track works in part dueto its dense chorus, in whichhis red diamonds are "maxi pad," his pacific ocean diamonds are "blue like off the coast of Cali," and most importantly, his "Toni Braxton" diamonds? "Black and pretty, shining baby." All tied together by a gaudy Drumma Boy beat that jerks youforward with it.
47. Gucci Mane f/ Mac Bre-Z "Go Head" (2005)
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Producer: Nitti
Album: Trap House
Label: Big Cat Records
Nitti,one of the lesser-known producers to work with Gucci, isa beatmaker known primarily for Young Joc's "It's Goin Down," along with key Gucci tracks ("Candy Lady" and "On Deck"). His biggest regional hit with Gucci, "Go Head," is a minimalist banger that became a celebrated club cut and—"Dreams of f*cking an R& B Chick"-style—built a memorable verse simply out of name-dropping female celebrity performers.
46. Gucci Mane "Weird" (2009)
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Producer: Zaytoven
Album: Trap Music (Summer Edition)
Label: N/A
"Weird" is a blend of a few common ingredientsin Gucci's best songs: His eccentricity, his gift for internal rhythms and assonance, his imagery, and his sense of humor. It yielded one of Gucci's funniest verse-openers ever: "My car got personality, the grille be smiling honey/My rims are very charming and the leather seats are comfy." It's followed by a series of internal slant rhymes that end up rhyming "Maui wowie" with "'Bout it 'bout it," and a quick brag that gets a little personal ("Bricks color Mariah Carey, if Nick Cannon ask about it?/Tell him that Big Gucci said it, so Icey get stupid with it").
45. Gucci Mane f/ Ludacris "Atlanta Zoo" (2010)
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Producer: Fatboi
Album: Burrrprint (2) HD
Label: 1017 Brick Squad, Warner Bros.
Gucci would vary new rhyme schemes in almost every track, at a certain point; "Atlanta Zoo" is only oneexample, but one of the better ones he's got: "I'm obnoxious, I'm flowing crazy/I need to stop this/don't knock this/Y'all nigg*s lazy/you need to watch this/preposterous/If you could fathom/how you could block this."
44. Gucci Mane f/ Nicki Minaj "Slumber Party" (2008)
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Producer: Drumma Boy
Album: Wilt Chamberlain Part 3
Label: So Icey Ent.
An early high-profile collaboration with Nicki Minaj, "Slumber Party" was prime Gucci. Not just an intense, rapid-fire interplay of ruthless jokes, imagery, and lyricism at his most impressive, Guccisellspure hedonism and violence here, and manages to make it all undeniable in its appeal: "Banana boat, full of blow, banana clip to cut your throat/Banana dro, come take a smoke, banana diamonds, yellow gold/Heavy snow, that berry blow, that Cherry co*ke got stupid dough." Nicki, future star that she was, would be an afterthought.
43. Gucci Mane "Timothy" (2010)
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Producer: Shawty Redd
Album: The Cold War: Great Brrritain
Label: 1017 Brick Squad
As Gucci experimented, he started sifting through more and more song styles, trying something new, running through one and then disposing it for the next. In some ways, it feels wasteful—think of all the amazing songs he threw away onwhims or boredom. At the same time, it kept transfixing agrowing audience. If there was one song you didn't like, another Gucci track you loved was sure to come down the pipeline.
"Timothy" was a dip in Slick Rick-style story raps, with a slynod toEazy-E on the hook. The track's titular character comes across $250,000 during a car theft, only to find out that it belonged to a major drug dealer (shout out to George Pelanacos' The Sweet Forever), and complications arise. Gucci's improvised style might make for stiffer narrative, but Gucci sounds all the more authentic for it.
42. Teairra Mari f/ Gucci Mane & Soulja Boy "Sponsor" (2009)
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Producer: Z. Lewis, B. Muhammed, & J. Phillips
Album: At That Point
Label: Fo' Reel, Asylum, Warner Bros.
On particularly pop-oriented productions, the contrast between Gucci's "sloppy" style and smooth R&B beats tends tocause sparks. "Sponsor,"a cut from Teairra Mari's At That Point which Gucci guested on, is a solid example of this in action, a moment when the rapper's typically threatening demeanor gives way to naive charm. For an even more exaggerated take on this dynamic, check out a sheepish Gucci performance on his lust ballad"Crush on You."
41. Mario f/ Gucci Mane and Sean Garrett "Break Up" (2009)
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Producer: Bangladesh
Album: D.N.A.
Label: J Records
While his collaboration with Mariah Carey (on the "Obsessed" remix) might've been the bigger collaboration, Gucci's assist to R&B singer Mario blanketed airwaves. It arrived right at the moment it seemed like Gucci was following in the footsteps of Lil Wayne, brushing up against mainstream success. Over a disorienting beat courtesy Bangladesh, it was Gucci who made the biggest impression, with—among other highs—a line about how girls were like buses (in that, if you wait fifteen minutes, another one comes along).
40. Gucci Mane "Worst Enemy" (2009)
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Producer: Drumma Boy
Album: The State vs. Radric Davis
Label: 1017 Brick Squad, Aslyum, Warner Bros.
In the lead-up to his first LP, Gucci issued a borderline apology. Like any good rapper, he's adept at playing to a crowd. "Worst Enemy," a moment of directness and honesty, played well with critics, who love themselves a troubled artist repentant and self-aware about his effects on the youth: "Me, Jeezy, T.I. share one thing in common, we all are poets/Role model to young people though at times man we still ignore it." The track struck a particularly strong note because it hit upon the very thing that could—and would, ultimately—derail Gucci's push towards a mainstream career: His own legal run-ins and poor choices, whether rooted in addiction, insanity, and/or circ*mstance.
39. Gucci Mane "I'm a Star" (2008)
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Producer: Drumma Boy
Album: Gangsta Grillz The Movie
Label: So Icey Ent.
The Movie was a tipping point, a moment when Gucci's apparent mania diversified, intensified, became more exaggerated and more extreme. He aimed for crossover at the same time he became more bizarre. In hip-hop, rappers often talk about "blacking out" on the beat, that moment when their flow kicks into some double-time intensity. For Gucci, it had more hedonistic implications. "I'm a Star" found the rapper pushing against his audience, borderline-unintelligible. There's the gas station owner telling the young drug dealer Gucci to get away from the store, the hoes and the chevy doors, all making you question his sobriety, and your own. What makes it work—the reason it's not a purely destructive, chaotic process—is that it still holds on tightly to a traditional song form. The beat could have been a hit song with another artist; the hook is as catchy as anything Gucci ever released. The Movie was drug-fueled mania at its peak output levels, synapses firing, and circuits burning at their brightest; "I'm a Star" is the feeling of everything overloading.
38. Gucci Mane f/ Yung L.A. & Supa "Everything" (2009)
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Producer: DJ Cooley
Album: Writing On The Wall
Label: So Icey Ent.
After bursting out from behind bars on Writings on the Wall Gucci brought the tape to a close with a dynamic piano-driven cut that featured the sing-song stylings of Yung LA. But it's Gucci who shines brightest, proving he could remain as inventive as ever over a track with considerable forward momentum: "Gucci Mane silent but his ice still talking/Sipping lean and rapping, call it sleep-walking."
37. Gucci Mane f/ Bigga Rankin "Nickelodeon" (2008)
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Producer: Shawty Redd
Album: Zone 6 to Duval
Label: So Icey Ent.
Over thunderous ascending Shawty Redd synthesizers, Gucci brags about how much he paid to get the song airplay before kicking into a bunch of cartoon references. This is the kind of thing that very, very few street rappers would be able to pull off, but because his street bonafides were so unquestioned, it seemed to liberate him to be as weird as he possibly could. In this case, it meant a street banger that made references to Tweety Bird, Odie and Spongebob Squarepants. And yes, even Heathcliff.
36. Gucci Mane "Making Love to the Money" (2010)
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Producer: Schife & OhZee
Album: Jewelry Selection
Label: 1017 Brick Squad, Aslyum, Warner Bros.
"Making Love to the Money" relied heavily on Gucci's hook-writing skills and sense of humor and less on the multi-valent talents that had built him up as a mixtape superstar. The song was nonetheless a major strip club hit and climbed the charts, hitting No. 17 on the rap charts and No. 36 on R&B. It remains one of his most successful songs, and "I'm talking Kim K, I'm talking Ray J!" will probably bounce in and out of your head for the rest of your natural-born life.
35. Gucci Mane "Spanish Plug" (2007)
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Producer: Zaytoven
Album: Trap-A-Thon
Label: Big Cat Records
One of the ongoing memes in the Gucci catalog was an ongoing reference to his drug connect ("plug")—"My Plug," "I Love My Plug," "My Plug is an Alien," and of course, "Spanish Plug." This song included Gucci rapping with a faux-Spanish accent, and for a few moments, in Spanish (or perhaps Spanglish) over some nicely stereotypical Mexican guitars. The track appeared on Big Cat's Trap-A-Thon, a release Gucci didn't endorse and helped aggravate the beef between the rapper and his former label.
34. Soulja Boy f/ Gucci Mane & Shawty Lo "Gucci Bandanna" (2008)
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Producer: Soulja Boy
Album: The Teen of the South
Label: S.O.D. Ent.
Gucci Mane has championed hated-on underdogs since early in his career; in some cases, the artists he's pushed have flipped to beloved status (see: Future). In others, they remain irredeemable by "polite" hip-hop society (see: Rocko). A member ofthe latter camp, Soulja Boy found a kindred soul in Gucci.Over sparse piano bounce (produced by Soulja), Soulja, Gucciand Shawty Lo released a track with the sparsenessof a snap single,the kind of music that would lead traditionalists to claim the duo was destroying hip-hop from the inside.
33. Gucci Mane f/ Bigga Rankin "Pampers" (2008)
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Producer: Shawty Redd
Album: Zone 6 to Duval
Label: So Icey Ent.
One of the more slept-on tracks in the Gucci catalog, "Pampers" is one of Shawty Redd's more fascinating beats. It's a multi-part banger that slips into a sound effect-laden drum groove replete with orchestra hits and laser-stabs. Gucci, meanwhile, sticks to his typically slurred delivery, but kicks a few clever old-school originated flows. 28-years-old at the time the song dropped, Gucci was a surprisingly old soul for a still-rising rapper, and that was reflected in his music, even if his thick accent sometimes made a regional/cultural gap seem like a generational one. "Trap house here got an elevator, get high girl it's human nature/Zone 6 nigg*s man, we so slick, we gone take the city over brick-by-brick."
32. Gucci Mane f/ DG Yola "I'm A Dog" (2009)
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Producer: Zaytoven
Album: Bird Money
Label: Big Cat Records
An early fan favorite, "I'ma Dog" was one of the, erm, delightfully ignorant Gucci tracks, which found him in a purely politically-incorrect and unapologetically misogynistic mode. There are some clever moments ("My Jacob watch is short bus, man it's special ed/Cause these girls be drooling every time they see the VVS") But this song is included purely out of Gucci completism; it's a pretty unpleasant track, but impossible to ignore due to its favored status and popularity amongst early adopters to the rapper's street-oriented verses. It should be noted that DG Yola has a pretty energetic guest spot.
31. Gucci Mane "Dope Boys" (2009)
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Producer: Shawty Redd
Album: The Burrrprint: The Movie 3D
Label: So Icey Ent.
The mid-summer release of the third entry in The Movie trilogy, BurrrPrint (The Movie 3D) was a particularly impressive record, from the lyricism of "Trap Going Crazy" ("Index look like Christmas, pinky cold as winter/See the frozen crystals when I hit the cigarillo,") to the club jam status of "Candy Lady" and its Brick Squad remix. But "Dope Boys" was hard to top; with a flurry of Shawty Redd's sheet-metal synths, Gucci addressed comparisons to Nas with a plea to authenticity ("All Nas need is one mic, all I need is one stove,") before dismissing rapper Brisco's career in a single throwaway line ("Wish a nigg* would run up on me like I'm Brisco") and laughing off his own trial: "Said I violated probation just because I blew my nose."
30. Gucci Mane "745" (2006)
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Producer: DJ Paul & Juicy J
Album: Chicken Talk
Label: So Icey Ent.
Chicken Talk, Gucci's 2006 tape that marked the beginning of his ascension as a truly independent mixtape artist, also included tracks that went at Young Jeezy for his role in an attempt on Gucci's life in 2005. Over production swiped from a Crunchy Black LP, Gucci implicated Jeezy and suggested: "You ain't a snowman, you's a snowflake," criticizing him for refusing to handle his own beef, and defending himself for his reaction (Gucci shot one of his assailants dead) in the conflict. At the end, Gucci even threw some bars at Jay-Z, "Beyonce, or that's your fiance?/Jeezy is the appetizer, you'll be the entree."
29. Gucci Mane f/ Snoop Dogg "Awesome" (2009)
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Producer: Drumma Boy
Album: The Movie Part 2 (Gangsta Grillz The Sequel)
Label: So Icey Ent.
"Awesome," from The Movie Part 2, was a Snoop Dogg collaboration, yet another sign of the rapper's growing profile, but he easily outshined his veteran companion on this track. Gucci started getting a little fantastical ("Police try to pull me over, you know I lost them") but continued his unexpectedly novel imagery ("Panoramic roof clearer than a cup of water"). "Awesome" is mostly memorable, though, for the tightly bundled creativity of the lyrics, and the catchiness of the rhyme pattern.
28. Gucci Mane "Under Arm Kush" (2006)
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Producer: Born
Album: Chicken Talk
Label: So Icey Ent.
Gucci's Chicken Talk, a two-disc compilation hosted by DJ Burn One, dropped in 2006, and even more than 2005's Trap House, the album was a blueprint for all aspects of Gucci's rap persona that he would blow out to cinematic proportions over the next few years: The street edge, the originality, imagery, wordplay, and humor. "Under Arm Kush" was a fan-favorite from the tape, a Born-produced beat that undulates over thumping 808s.
27. Gucci Mane "Gangsta Movie" (2008)
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Producer: Drumma Boy
Album: Gangsta Grillz : The Movie
Label: So Icey Ent.
In the lead-up to The Movie, Gucci had an incredible dense release schedule, dropping mixtapes that worked like albums while his old label Big Cat released records without his permission, and battling his own label, Atlantic, for creative control over his releases. The music flooded the market, but the audience's thirst wasn't quenched. Just as his street buzz was reaching phenomenal levels, he released The Movie, which found his manic creativity hitting a new plateau.
"Gangsta Movie," the intro from that record and his favorite track, set a new cinematic direction and a bigger budget; Drumma Boy's beats were smoother than the lo-def trap beats he'd worked with in the Trap House/Chicken Talk era, and had a less eccentric approach than Zaytoven's production on Gucci Sosa and EA Sportscenter. But "Gangsta Movie" didn't shy away from any of the rougher content that had defined his sound to that point; instead, it embraced his past ("Gangsta grills, you puss* nigg*, back on my drug dealer sh*t,") the unflinching violence and potent imagery ("I bust a brick, it look just like the inside of a coconut") that defined underground hits like "Cuttin Off Fingaz."
26. Gucci Mane f/ OJ Da Juiceman "Vette Pass By" (2008)
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Producer: Fatboi
Album: N/A
Label: So Icey Ent.
Fatboi's beat for Gucci's "Vette Pass By" was also used for Gucci's "Kick a Door," and both are impressive singles. "Vette" wins on balance, for the novelty of its concept, and because of Gucci's adlibs. Gucci's use of adlibs weren't (just) silly fun branding mechanisms, but played a part in the song's overall sound. On "Kick a Door," Gucci uses an adlib that sounds vaguely similar to an automatic weapon, but on "Vette Pass By," he uses a half-whistled sound effect that seems aimed at replicating the sound of a car passing by at high speeds. His flow on "Vette" was at its most stuff-nosed, while playing as loosely as possible with the beat's rhythm.
25. Gucci Mane "3rd Quarter" (2008)
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Producer: Drumma Boy
Album: Freestyle Sessions Vol. 1 (Trap-A-Thon Da Mixtape)
Label: So Icey Ent.
Over a Drumma Boy beat with a lil' more swing than is typical to Gucci tracks, Gucci spit a carefree verse that only cursorily touched upon beef he wouldn't deign to identify: "Never mention homie name cuz he ain't worth it." With his flow falling into a laid-back pocket, Gucci flipped his "Pillz" hook into a new song entirely: "Is you rollin? Yeah I roll kush daily, f*ck you pay me." Ultimately, "3rd Quarter" is simply Gucci at his catchiest, proof that his ear for pop songwriting was, with the right collaborators, unf*ckwithable.
24. Gucci Mane f/ Bun B, Young Jeezy, Killer Mike, Jody Breeze, 4-Tre & Lil Scrappy "Black Tee" (2005)
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Producer: Zaytoven
Album: Trap House
Label: Big Cat Records
Gucci himself marks "Black Tee" as the moment that Atlanta really started rocking with him, the moment when his buzz began again in earnest. The song was a flip of the popular Dem Franchize Boyz "White Tee" snap single, transformed into an anthem for armed robbery. It was made ever-so-much more gangster by a series of lyrics emphasizing how few f*cks he really gave: "I'm a lick-hitting nigg*, all I do is do dirt/Leave a red bloodstain on your all-white shirt/Gucci Mane so gutter I'll steal money out your purse/Lay up in your yard, rob you when you go to church."
23. Lil Wayne f/ Gucci Mane "Steady Mobbin" (2009)
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Producer: Kane Beatz
Album: We Are Young Money
Label: Young Money, Cash Money
Gucci's verse on "Steady Mobbin'" didn't just hold its own against Lil Wayne, but arguably bested him. With typical lyrical brutality (he threatens to shoot you "anywhere from the ankle up") and stark imagery ("No we do not talk to strangers just cut off these nigg*s fingers"), he manages to compare his silencer to a Pringles can before calling his sniper rifle Toni Braxton because when it sings, it'll "make you never breathe again."
22. Gucci Mane "Hurry" (2009)
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Producer: Fatboi
Album: Writing On The Wall
Label: So Icey Ent.
"Gucci got a warrent, how the f*ck I get subpeonad?/'Objection!' 'What's the objection?' 'Your honor I'm a genius!'" Spring 2009: Gucci is released from jail. The media hype is in full swing. "Hurry" is the opening assault, a torrent of raps that found the rapper in a joyous mood: Over a merry-go-round Fatboi beat, Gucci hit the track running with a borderline-unhinged flow. "It's me and my money and my diamonds, we a trio!" And dense with references, too; "Like Lil Scrappy rockin' FILAs in the club "Sho Nuff" like Tela."
21. Gucci Mane "My Shadow" (2009)
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Producer: Drumma Boy
Album: The Burrprint: The Movie 3-D
Label: So Icey Ent.
While not one of the producers most closely associated with Gucci—likely due to the diverse range of rappers he's worked with—Drumma Boy has managed to make some of the rapper's most impactful tracks. "My Shadow" was a track from The BurrrPrint: The Movie 3D which never received a single treatment, was never released on a label, but quickly became a fan favorite. A large part of this is due to the production, some of the most adventurous and singular ever released by Drumma; with the sound of an engine motoring by, background quarter note chorale, intricate drum programming, and atonal bleeps that seem to fall at a rhythm independent of the overall beat, the track had a frenetic feeling, as if the listener were slowly losing control. Best of all was the chorus, which implied a kind of ominous, existential terror: "I walk around the city like it don't matter/The earth might turn, nobody try me 'cuz they know better."
20. Gwopp Boyz f/ Gucci Mane "Wonderful" (2009)
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Producer: N/A
Album: Gucci Mane and Friends 2
Label: N/A
This was Gucci's peak of pure lyricism. While his voice is as disaffected and nonchalant as ever, there's an undeniable joyousness in his word choice, the imagery he uses and the euphonic way he packed words together: Assonance and internal rhymes, a sixth sense for meter, slant rhymes and unexpected stresses. It made every other rapper's boasts about jewelry seem tame by comparison: What good is a red diamond if it doesn't look like a sliced tomato?
19. Gucci Mane f/ Yung Ralph & Yo Gotti "Bricks" (2009)
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Producer: Zaytoven
Album: The State vs. Radric Davis
Label: 1017 Brick Squad, Aslyum, Warner Bros.
Gucci and Gotti had an incredible recording chemistry. Beginning with their first major collaboration, "Work Ya Wrist" on Chicken Talk, mid-period bangers like "Mo Money," and as recently as 2012's "It Ain't Funny," the two had a yin-yang complementary style. Gucci had a manic unpredictability, chaotic, and unrefined; Gotti, by contrast, was all muscular control ("It Ain't Funny" works so well for pushing towards an inversion of this dynamic, even if it never quite achieves it). The duo's highest-profile collaboration was the hooky "Bricks," a massive single that became one of Gucci's early signature hits.
18. Gucci Mane "Trap House" (2005)
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Producer: Shawty Redd
Album: Trap House
Label: Big Cat Records
Now considered a cult classic, Gucci's Trap House LP was initially greeted by modest enthusiasm. But part of what makes it easy to appreciate is how the rapper evolved. While his later releases would be more ambitious, more lyrical, weirder and more infused with autobiographical details, Trap House was the hard coal core at the gangster heart of Gucci's success. The title track, produced by Shawty Redd, has a strange beat that manages to split the difference between space-age futurism and stone-age relic, a beat constructed using some blend of synthesizer and banging rocks together. Some of the flecks of eccentricity that he would later embrace show flashes here, primarily in his metaphors: "Money long like Shaq's feet," "I stay high like giraffe puss*."
17. Gucci Mane "Everybody Looking" (2010)
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Producer: Drumma Boy
Album: Burrrprint (2) HD
Label: 1017 Brick Squad, Warner Bros.
With an ominous slow-mo beat from Drumma Boy, "Everybody Lookin'" was a victory for idiosyncratic-pop Gucci over lyrical Gucci, to the song's great benefit. It wasn't the first time he'd used the nose-growing like Pinocchio line (think Mariah's "Obsessed," among others), but this song wasn't about being first; it was about being on top. "Everybody Lookin'" is a song about dominance, largess, and power, the pure intoxication of control and confidence in song. It's not lyrical because effort is the wheelhouse of lesser rappers. This was also a track where the video was as much a part of the song's all-encompassing whirlwind of arrogance as the music, as Gucci rolls down the street in a blue lamborghini with matching blue jewelry and matching blue Air Max '95s, the doors open and his legs kicked out of the car, no seat belt, the high wire act of recklessness the source of his undeniable charisma.
16. Gucci Mane "Heavy" (2009)
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Producer: Shawty Redd
Album: The State vs. Radric Davis
Label: 1017 Brick Squad, Aslyum, Warner Bros.
With churning production courtesy Shawty Redd, "Heavy" took the role of the carnivalesque opening banger—think "Hurry" or "Dope Boys"—for Gucci's adjustment from the tapes to the majors on The State vs. Radric Davis. "Heavy" is also one of Gucci's major concept tracks: take a single word and build an entire song around it by adapting his usual lyrical framework to the fresh concept. (He's no longer just co*cky; his ego is so big that it has actually attained mass. His head's so big it's gained weight. His chains aren't just valuable, they're heavy.) Add to this with his typically inventive wordplay and his second tossed-off dismissal of poor Brisco (after "Dope Boys"). The best part of "Heavy" was more what it represented for his debut record; the approach of his mixtapes was being adapted to the major label system, at least in part, and fans breathed a sigh of relief after the trauma that was Usher feature "Spotlight."
15. Gucci Mane "Bachelor Pad" (2008)
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Producer: Drumma Boy
Album: Gangsta Grillz : The Movie
Label: So Icey Ent.
Another moment on the brilliant The Movie mixtape, "Bachelor Pad" rocked one of Drumma Boy's most interesting grooves, a narrow, shuffling bounce (with pizzicato strings overlayed!) that allowed for some of Gucci's most left-field creative lyrics: "Shorty cooler than a hippopotamus in the Sahara/With a rump like a rhinoceros just like Toccara." It's really no mystery what most of the lyrics are about, considering it's a song about a bachelor pad, but what makes the song so engaging is how lyrically intricate and full of character it is for an unapologetically lewd track about sex: "f*cked her with my jewelry on 'cause Gucci Mane's a gangster."
14. Gucci Mane "Freaky Gurl" (2006)
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Producer: Cyber Sapp
Album: Hard to Kill
Label: Big Cat Records
"Freaky Gurl" was Gucci's first hit since "Icy" to reach the Hot 100, peaking at No. 62 in 2007 and marking the beginning of his return to relevance. As it had with "Icy" two years earlier, controversy and conflict surrounded the song. In late 2006, Atlantic Records bought Gucci's contract from Big Cat Records, the independent label that had been selling Gucci's material, for $300,000 and a percentage of the royalties on his major label debut with Atlantic. They pushed the single "Bird Flu," which failed to gain much traction.
Big Cat, in the meantime, continued to market the independently-released Hard to Kill, which featured "Freaky Gurl." The song began to chart, and Atlantic, eager capitalize, sought the track out for Gucci's Back to the Traphouse, according to Big Cat CEO Marlon Rowe. Or, argued Atlantic, Big Cat approached them and tried to sell the royalties to the track for a figure in the six figures. The talks fell through, and Gucci re-recorded the song through Atlantic with a guest verse from Ludacris.
Ultimately, a lawsuit resulted (Gucci Mane and Atlantic Records vs. Marlon Rowe), and Big Cat president Melvin Breeden publicly accused Gucci and Atlantic of espionage; Cyber Sapp, the producer behind the hit song, secured the files from the label before the track mysteriously ended up in the hands of Gucci and Atlantic, although he denied involvement. To add to the confusion, Gucci was having his own conflicts with Atlantic at the time over the direction of his album. As a song, the track has some of Gucci's funniest material ("my money long as a limo / just to show off I put my wrist out the window"), but of course, the song really belongs to Rick James (interpolated for the hook) and R&B singer Joi, whose song "Lick" was sampled for the beat.
13. Gucci Mane "My Kitchen" (2008)
Image via Complex Original
Producer: Fatboi
Album: No Pad, No Pencil
Label: Starz Music
Of all Gucci's drug-manufacturing anthems, "My Kitchen" is likely the most influential, with 20 million YouTube views and the runaway success of his No Pad, No Pencil mixtape. With Fatboi's typical cycling synthesizers humming along in the background, Gucci zoomed in on a single concept and built a song around it, transforming crackhouse argot into a drug dealer's theme song. This wasn't Gucci in a lyrical mode, nor did it feature his most colorful language. It wasn't him at his weirdest, and it wasn't Gucci at his most pop. It was the unrepentant dealer lifestyle anthem, hip-hop's bad guy at his most unapologetic.
12. Gucci Mane "Gorgeous" (2009)
Image via Complex Original
Producer: Zaytoven
Album: Writing On The Wall
Label: So Icey Ent.
Gorgeous is Gucci's ultimate stunting track, a Zaytoven collaboration that finds the producer in his most oddball watchmaker mode. As Zay plucks around on somber keyboard tones, Gucci transforms the word "gorgeous" into a repetitive mantra, a self-aware exploration of the ridiculousness of the many baubles that populate his world. This is Gucci at his most absurd, his most exaggerated, his most eccentric: "I keep on hearing voices, telling me to ball/So I keep on buying Porsches, my watch like a portrait!" And then, taking a moment away from the flossing: "Flow so perfect, twelve bars so pretty."
11. Gucci Mane "Frowney Face" (2009)
Image via Complex Original
Producer: Zaytoven
Album: The Burrprint: The Movie 3-D
Label: So Icey Ent.
Gucci's hinted at considerable personal drama, although it's the kind that might pass by in a flurry of slurred syllables if one isn't paying close attention. "Frowney Face," a clever flip of Trey Songz's hit "LOL Smiley Face" from that same summer, provided a glance at the underlying turmoil in Gucci's life. For those who could only follow along from home, his story was shrouded in mystery: there were the charges for assault with a pool cue, the horrifying video of him attempting to strike Mac Bree-z, the no-shows, the sold-out shows, the arrest rumors. There was his conflict with Jeezy, his street affiliations, the attempt on his life. There was the shooting of his protege, OJ Da Juiceman. And Gucci was an enigmatic personality.
"Frowney Face" gave us a peak into his world, through his eyes. From its opening bars, one gets the feeling he's facing death: "Tried to wet me up, shot up my truck in East Atlanta," begins verse one. "Put some money on my head, I had to move to Alabama." He goes into details about selling co*ke, conflicts during jail time ("They put me in the hole because I beat him like a hammer"), the attempt on Juice's life, and then the attempt on his own. The second verse goes on to address his situation with former label Big Cat Records, but it's the final lines of the first verse that strike hardest: "Two tear-drops under my eye because I wish some days I could cry/But to lose my self-respect, my nigg* I would rather die."
10. Gucci Mane f/ Young Jeezy & Boo "Icy" (2005)
Image via Complex Original
Producer: Zaytoven
Album: Trap House
Label: Big Cat Records
Where it all began: In 2005, with this infectioussummer jam. Gucci's career. Jeezy's career. And the drama between the two that would ultimately result in an attempt on Gucci's life. At the time, it was Jeezy's biggest record, and he wanted it for his debut album. Gucci didn't. Initially, it was hard to see why; Jeezy was poised to be the next major hip-hop star, and Gucci's verse—fairly straightforward and unexceptional—wasn't much to hang a career on. Gucci's faith in himself would be rewarded, though, as "Icy" was and stillis a surprisingly effective single to this day. That's saying something, as Gucci's style at this point had a blankness that makes all of his subsequent moves all the more surprising.
9. Gucci Mane "Swing My Door" (2006)
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Producer: Born
Album: Chicken Talk
Label: So Icey Ent.
Mastered—intentionally or not—to sound like it was booming from a rumbling trunk speaker, "Swing My Door" remains one of Gucci's rawest, most unnerving songs. Opening with a play on Frank Ski's Baltimore club classic "There's Some whor*s in this House," Gucci raps about preparing and selling drugs with alarming transparency, in the great traditions of NWA's "Dopeman" and Master P's "Ghetto D": "I'm a gold-mouth dog, definition of the South/Ain't no quarters, ain't no halves, just some wholes in this house." If the DNA for Gucci's entire career existed on Chicken Talk, "Swing My Door" was his apex of street cred andlyrical imagination. His drug prices aren't just low, they'll "make your eyes pop out." He doesn't just have junkies lining up for product, he gets his rims "finger-f*cked by a gott-damn J." And then, of course, his unparalleled ruthlessness: "nigg* violate? Imma kill him and slit his throat/Smoke a blunt of dro and then take my ho to Pappadeaux's."
8. Gucci Mane "What It's Gonna Be" (2010)
Image via Complex Original
Producer: Drumma Boy
Album: The Appeal: Georgia's Most Wanted
Label: 1017 Brick Squad, Aslyum, Warner Bros.
The Appeal, thanks in part to a lackluster lead single ("Gucci Time") and Gucci's ongoing legal drama, wasn't quite the winner the rapper was hoping for, though it didput to bed the idea that legal infractions can only help improve credibility (or at the very least, argued that it only works to certain a point). But one highlight on the record was a collaboration with Drumma Boy.With adensely lyrical approach and heady autobiographical undercurrent, "What It's Gonna Be" is one of his catalog's truly epic moments, the point where his ambitions and musicality seemed to be reaching a peak of craft, where he pushed himself to manifest the full potential of what a Gucci and Drumma track could possibly be.
7. Gucci Mane "First Day Out" (2009)
Image via Complex Original
Producer: Zaytoven
Album: Writing On The Wall
Label: So Icey Ent.
After spending several months in jail on a probation violation, Gucci returned to the world as free man, but the world had just begun to catch up to him. The buzz from 2008's The Movie mixtape (and the six previous Wilt Chamberlin, tapes, Gucci Sosa, Zone 6 To Duval and EA Sportscenter, among others) had begun to bubble over, reaching even the most out-of-touch New York press boxes. (Ironically, the first single many of them heard was OJ Da Juiceman's "Make the Trap Say Aye," a song that pushed OJ's aesthetic more than Gucci's). While he sat behind bars, his asking price skyrocketed, and by spring 2009, the media buzz was in full swing. Once freed, he made a few appearances (including one highly-photographed showing at Studio 72 with R&B starlet Mya) and began recording.
"First Day Out" leaked as an untitled track in mid-March 2009, and ultimately found a home on The Writing's on the Wall, which dropped in mid-May '09. Its real-world parallel with Gucci's life begins and ends with its title and concept, as the song's about a crack dealer's return to the stove after getting out of jail. Unlike so many of his other tracks with Zaytoven around this time, the song's not dense with lyricism. Instead, it employsstark imagery and ominous production, from the opening lines ("Starting out my day with a blunt of purp/No pancakes, just a cup of syrup") to the subtle use of drop-outs in the beat.
6. Gucci Mane f/ Plies "Wasted" (2009)
Image via Complex Original
Producer: Fatboi
Album: Writing On The Wall
Label: So Icey Ent.
One of Gucci's most underrated collaborators was producer Fatboi, whose rapidfire chainsaw synthesizers had a style that was farfriendlier to pop audiences (than, say, Zaytoven's work with Gucci). His greatest moment was "Wasted," a song that likely benefited from the intoxicated delirium of Gucci's performance style, real-life habits, and general aura. The hook was brilliant ("Rock star lifestyle/might don't make it") but Plies had a scene-stealing guest verse to boot: "I don't wear tight jeans like the white boys, but I do get wasted like the white boys." This was "Party Like a Rock Star," done the right way.
5. Gucci Mane "I Think I Love Her" (2009)
Image via Complex Original
Producer: Polow da Don
Album: The State vs. Radric Davis
Label: 1017 Brick Squad, Aslyum, Warner Bros.
PolowdaDon'sbiggest contribution to Gucci's pop career was the dynamic production on "I Think I Luv Her," which chugged along on distorted bass and the help of a stand-out guest spot from none other than Ester Dean. (Dean would go on to become a songwriter for some of the biggest pop songs of the next few years.) With the best male-female point-counterpoint performance since Trick and Trina, "I Think I Luv Her" went heavy on the interplay between the two artists. Dean's voice has a gritty, acidic femininity. Gucci was in prime ironiclovestruck mode, here, nearly sobbing as he cried over a metaphorical woman: "How neat! She loves to eat! We eat! Bon Appetite! We feast! She so neat!"
4. Gucci Mane "Photo Shoot" (2009)
Image via Complex Original
Producer: Drumma Boy
Album: The Movie
Label: So Icey Ent.
The biggest single off of Gucci's The Moviemixtape, "Photo Shoot" wed flashbulb-popping production from Drumma Boy to one of Gucci's more eccentric songs to go wide. The first two verses have a tossed-off, improvisational flow to them, brimming with pop culture references (from everything to Tommy Lee and Pamela to '90s rap icon Jeru the Damaja) and memorable turns of phrase ("tatted like a biker boy"), along with a few oblique references to his underlying troubles with Young Jeezy: "Yeah I had a murder beef from just trying to get something to eat."
Then the third verse hits, and starts off with a bunch of rapper shout-outs (Boosie, Webbie, Shawty Lo, Yo Gotti) before the beat begins running in reverse. That's when Gucci goes into overdrive, spitting a slurred double-time that ends with a shout-out to the rap lineage he claims: "UGK my favorite group, for years been riding with them guys/8Ball told me 'Lay it Down'and I did it 'bout thirty times."
3. Gucci Mane f/ Trey Songz "Beat It Up" (2010)
Image via Complex Original
Producer: Drumma Boy
Album: The Movie Part 2 (Gangsta Grillz The Sequel)
Label: 1017 Brick Squad, Warner Bros.
"Echk! It's so sickenin', history you're witnessin'."
"Beat it Up" first appeared on Gucci's The Move Part 2, atape that didn't blow up when it dropped. But an only slighty-deeper look at the Part 2 easily gives up some of the rapper's best work, like this song.
"Beat it Up" was a monster. Released in the lead-up to Ready—Trey Songz's first platinum album—the song got slept-on by Gucci's label (and, of course, rap critics). "Beat it Up" bubbled slowly for months, garnering spinshere and there, and then, rapidly becoming a fan favorite. For much of his career, Gucci was willing to grant as much attention to his lyrics on songs "for the ladies" as he did his more street-oriented tracks; remember that two of his biggest guest spots ("Obsessed" with Mariah Carey and "Break Up" for Mario) were R&B tracks.
But here, Gucci absolutely steals the show on "Beat it Up" from Trey, nothing more thana hook man on the track. Gucci's wordplay is downright joyful, with knockout punchlines andsyllables bouncingoffeach other. He kicks off with an allusion to Soulja Boy's recent hit, but quickly switches up the lyrics: "Hopped up out my bed, turned my swag on / scrambled eggs, filet mignon / two g's blown just for cologne." The second verse has a few memorable lines about how he and your girl will have your blankets at the laundromat, but the third verse brings the house down: "Freakin' partner prob'ly never bother with a second option / hoppin' got the mattress poppin' rockin' while her girlfriend watchin" was the line so nice, he had to say it twice.
2. Gucci Mane f/ Mac Bre-Z "Pillz" (2006)
Image via Complex Original
Producer: Zaytoven
Album: Hard to Kill
Label: Big Cat Records
"Pillz" is as creative as it is perfect in its simplicity. A straightforward ode to rollin' off a bean packed with iconic, hooky lyrics (some of which would go on to become actual hooks themselves for other songs) witha queasy, spare beat from Zaytoven, it was completely original, one-of-a-kind, not just for Gucci's catalog, but for hip-hop and pop music, too. Every line seems indebted to the absurdity of the MDMA high, and with it, the unapologetic hedonism and recklessness it involves ("we been rollin' rollin' rollin' we ain't slept in weeks"). It captures something about the addict's complete lack of regard for time, the fruitless search of the infinite high: "'Gucci Mane you stupid, but I love the way you flowing/Riding in my drop but I don't know where I'm going/On 285 I keep goin' in a circle, the inside of my ride smell like a pound of purple." In other words: It's pure, uncut Gucci.
1. Gucci Mane "Lemonade" (2009)
Image via Complex Original
Producer: Bangladesh
Album: The State vs. Radric Davis
Label: 1017 Brick Squad, Aslyum, Warner Bros.
"Lemonade," first leaked to the Internet on November 14, 2009, was Gucci's recorded peak. It was his highest-charting single and the third track released from The State vs. Radric Davis.
His entire career's been about playing with musical tensions: hard-edged street vibes against pop appeal, songcraft against blatant disregard for convention, dense lyrics against his congested, "stoopid" flow. "Naw I ain't lyrical," he'd claim one moment, before blasting listeners with a dazzling display of imagery and jokes. The respectability he'd actively deny against the success he clearly sought. The threatening and the ridiculous, the dangerous and humorous, the brilliant and the bizarre.
"Lemonade" is the moment all of the conflicting impulses that make Gucci's catalog such a varied, evolving, glorious mess achieve aperfect balance. Anchored by Bangladesh's hooky pianos, a thumpingbassline and an interpolation of Flo and Eddie's "Keep it Warm," re-sung by a children's chorus, "Lemonade" wasn't just stacked with an undeniable pop sensibility. It also contained the dense lyricism of his deepest mixtape cuts ("My phantom sitting on sixes, no twenties in my denim/Your Cutlass' motor knocking, because it is a lemon"), his morbid sense of humor ("AK hit your dog, and you can't bring Old Yeller back") and, of course, the pure flamboyance that sealed his legacy asone of hip-hop's most memorable, unique artists.
Gucci Mane
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