Some rappers do it for the culture. Some do it for the clout. Some do it because they need to quote-unquote express themselves. Gucci Mane? “Man, I started rapping for money,” he told Apple Music in 2018. Really? That’s it? “I was selling dope!” But doesn’t money change things? Like, make life more complicated? “Life shouldn’t get tough when you got a bunch of money in the bank,” he said. “Why would it? Life should get easier.”
One of the first great rappers of the trap era, Gucci—born Radric Davis in 1980—helped bring the sound of Atlanta street rap into the mainstream, turning out tough, funny records that examined his hustle with equal parts ruthlessness and glee, not to mention showcasing a string of producers that became superstars in their own right: Zaytoven (“Pillz,” “Bricks”), Southside (“Trap House 3”), Mike WiLL Made-It (“1st Day Out Tha Feds”), and so on. The pace of the work—more than 100 releases between 2005 and 2020—not only pointed to his day-in, day-out work ethic, but his intoxicating confidence: He put teardrops under his eye because he wished he could cry. But lose his self-respect? He’d rather die.