Gucci Mane
“Grown Man” (feat. Estelle)

[Note: Ok guys. My bad. I didn’t see what was ‘wrong’ with Salem (not that I think there’s something wrong with them, per se) because I didn’t really listen much to Gucci Mane. But in some ways, I can see what’s wrong with Salem after listening to Gucci non-stop for the last ten or twenty hours.]

With news that Gucci will probably serve more than a year in jail, again—along with the T.I. handie story and the Wacka Flacka Flame arrest and the recent Lil Wayne release, etc., etc.—it seems like there’s a shit ton of southern rappers going to jail.

I think this is probably the best Gucci Mane song. His flow is most recognizable as a conventional rap flow in this song. The beat daydreams about being T.I.’s “What You Know” (ie, the best modern rap beat). Estelle’s hook is a weighty-buoyant anchor. The lyrics are fairly straight-forward (to some readers) and poignant.

Glad as well, but I’m mad as hell,
Because my best friend probably gonna die in jail.
No lie to tell. Probably cry like hell
Like my two-year-old, cause he got eighty years.
I’m goin hard, you see. I might as well, Cause I got a hard head like my daddy had,
And my daddy dad,
And my great great great great grandpa had a real crazy swag.

The way Gucci always links his ex-cellmate’s lengthy sentence with his son’s extreme youth is one of the things he does that always gets me. Because Gucci fucking knows that he could (or is going to) end up just like his cellmate, and he’s going to miss his son’s entire childhood. His entire life.

There was a sub-dominate strain of music crit about fight music (mainly Ke$ha and Wacka Flocka Flame) being a new mode of modern popular music. I’d put Gucci in that group, as well. But he’s, like, fighting against himself. Except he’s not. He’s fighting against (I know this will sound frosh-level) society. The ways in which he fights against his own good aims are ways in which society gets him to.

What I’m saying is society is taking him and turning him against himself, in a lot of ways. And Gucci has the gumption to release songs like “Grown Man” and “Dat’s My Life” where he takes 100% full responsibility for having a shitty life. Except it’s not 100% his fault.

You may have a if-you-don’t-want-the-time, don’t-do-the-crime attitude. It’s not that simple. As Ta-Nehisi Coates has recently noted, African-Americans make up 1/200th of the world’s population and 1/12th of its prisoners. While that’s a rough measure of inequality, it seems wholly uncontroversial to say that there are some systemic reasons why African-Americans are disproportionately incarcerated.

With rap’s emphasis on drugs—weed, cocaine, and codeine—you’d think there would be more songs about addiction. But Gucci Mane’s discography focuses on the nihilistic side of partying all the time. His biography tells the rest of the story. Over the last five years, Gucci’s been incarcerated five times for everything from deadly assault to drug charges. You can’t help but think drug abuse, especially, has played a large role in his repeated probation violations and their ensuing trips back to jail.

On the one hand, Gucci Mane has had a second, third, and fourth chance at freedom. It’s hard to say that he doesn’t deserve to go to jail for violating his probation yet again. On the other hand, though, it’s hard to say that there’s not a deeply rotten systemic preference for incarcerating African-Americans—especially high-profile rappers.

It’s Ayn-Rand-easy to say that everyone get’s to determine his own fate. But “Grown Man” reads less like a defense or apology than a State of the Union Address.

It’s just a fact that drug abuse and violence is rampant where he’s from. It’s just a fact that Gucci’s friends will die in jail. It’s just a fact that it’s his own fault he’s going to jail. A culture that profits monetarily and artistically from the constant exploitation and incarceration of African-American entertainers is one that needs to face up to these facts.

(Ripped from absurdistmedia)