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Gucci Mane Gives His First Post-Prison Interview: "I See It for What It Was: I Was a Drug Addict" | NOISEY
Gucci Mane at home, via Instagram
Gucci Mane, as you may have heard, is out of prison, and he's about to release his new album,Everybody Looking, this Friday, July 22. It's not exactly a mystery what he's been up to in the last couple months: Besides the awesome music videos giving us a very thorough tour of his home, he and girlfriend Keisha Ka'oir have also been active on Instagram and Snapchat.
The story they tell is clear: Gucci is happy, Gucci is healthy—nay, sober and in the best shape of his life—and Gucci is back just as musically effective as ever. Still, although it's not hard to get a glimpse of Mr. Zone 6, Gucci hasn't given an interview to anyone until now. Today, the New York Times published the first interview with Gucci post-prison, and it reveals, basically, that Gucci is happy, Gucci is healthy—nay, sober and in the best shape of his life—and Gucci is back just as musically effective as ever.
Along with these insights, though, are ruminations on Gucci's legacy as the most quietly influential rapper of the last decade. And, more revelatory, some reflections on what exactly Gucci spent that decade doing. As his music might suggest, a lot of that was drugs.
“In hindsight I see it for what it was: I was a drug addict,” he told the Times' Jon Caramanica. “I was naïve to the fact that I was numb.” He claims that, until his prison sentence, he hadn't been fully sober in 17 years, since he was a teenager (he is now 36). He began drinking alcohol and smoking weed in his teens and sipping prescription cough syrup at 21. He felt that he couldn't make music sober and that he "associated everything with being high." The result?
“I can’t say I felt happy my last six, seven years in the music business,” he said. “I was just numb. You told me that I was doing good or told me I was doing bad, you hated me or loved me, either which way I greeted with nonchalance. It was sincere nonchalance—like, I really didn’t care.”
In high-security federal prison, he kicked the habit—"It feel like death," he told Caramanica. "Your body just craving lean bad. Stomach tore up, can’t think straight. Just mad at the world. Temper so short, so violent, so aggressive. So just rude and toxic."—and began working out, listening toKodak Black's "No Flockin" and reading Deepak Chopra, Tony Robbins, and the Bible for inspiration.
“I’m my own therapist,” he said. “I been changed from before I even got out. People seeing now the effect of how I started thinking from maybe early 2014.”
Also in prison, he kept releasing music, of course. Was it successful? Well, he claims that these projects made him a million dollars while he was away, more than covering his legal fees. Oh, also, Kanye and Drake are on Everybody Looking. What's next? One can only imagine. Read the full article here.
@Guwopaveli @Kotal Kahn @JordanWearinThe45 @malbaker86
Gucci Mane at home, via Instagram
Gucci Mane, as you may have heard, is out of prison, and he's about to release his new album,Everybody Looking, this Friday, July 22. It's not exactly a mystery what he's been up to in the last couple months: Besides the awesome music videos giving us a very thorough tour of his home, he and girlfriend Keisha Ka'oir have also been active on Instagram and Snapchat.
The story they tell is clear: Gucci is happy, Gucci is healthy—nay, sober and in the best shape of his life—and Gucci is back just as musically effective as ever. Still, although it's not hard to get a glimpse of Mr. Zone 6, Gucci hasn't given an interview to anyone until now. Today, the New York Times published the first interview with Gucci post-prison, and it reveals, basically, that Gucci is happy, Gucci is healthy—nay, sober and in the best shape of his life—and Gucci is back just as musically effective as ever.
Along with these insights, though, are ruminations on Gucci's legacy as the most quietly influential rapper of the last decade. And, more revelatory, some reflections on what exactly Gucci spent that decade doing. As his music might suggest, a lot of that was drugs.
“In hindsight I see it for what it was: I was a drug addict,” he told the Times' Jon Caramanica. “I was naïve to the fact that I was numb.” He claims that, until his prison sentence, he hadn't been fully sober in 17 years, since he was a teenager (he is now 36). He began drinking alcohol and smoking weed in his teens and sipping prescription cough syrup at 21. He felt that he couldn't make music sober and that he "associated everything with being high." The result?
“I can’t say I felt happy my last six, seven years in the music business,” he said. “I was just numb. You told me that I was doing good or told me I was doing bad, you hated me or loved me, either which way I greeted with nonchalance. It was sincere nonchalance—like, I really didn’t care.”
In high-security federal prison, he kicked the habit—"It feel like death," he told Caramanica. "Your body just craving lean bad. Stomach tore up, can’t think straight. Just mad at the world. Temper so short, so violent, so aggressive. So just rude and toxic."—and began working out, listening toKodak Black's "No Flockin" and reading Deepak Chopra, Tony Robbins, and the Bible for inspiration.
“I’m my own therapist,” he said. “I been changed from before I even got out. People seeing now the effect of how I started thinking from maybe early 2014.”
Also in prison, he kept releasing music, of course. Was it successful? Well, he claims that these projects made him a million dollars while he was away, more than covering his legal fees. Oh, also, Kanye and Drake are on Everybody Looking. What's next? One can only imagine. Read the full article here.
@Guwopaveli @Kotal Kahn @JordanWearinThe45 @malbaker86
i'm glad to see the gawd in such high spirits
