Thursday, February 5, 2009

YeAHHhhhhhHHHHhhhh*


Rap's answer to Aqua.

I'm sorry but this Gucci Gucci loving insanity has got to stop. I can't bear to see the best minds of my generation destroyed by Gucci madness. It's high time for someone to stand athwart this runaway train and yell stop. Dear readers, do you take Gucci Mane seriously? I want to know. Yes, it is true, he's had a strong verse on a Soulja Boy song here and there, but for the most part, don't you feel a little embarrassed every time you listen to this guy? If he doesn't make you feel embarrassed, who does? The girl who made "It's So Cold In The D"? Everytime I listen to this guy I feel like I lose a point of IQ. I could go on all day quoting terrible Gucci lyrics, but it isn't so much what he says, it's that voice, that cognitive function-numbing instrument So Many Shrimp charitably describes as "a stuffed-nose ignorant rap, a creaky, shambolic & highly addictive backwoods mumbling cadence." Oh, it's mumbling alright. Shit, I'm sure it's addictive too if you pollute your mind with this crap on a regular enough basis, but is that the point? 'Barbie Girl' gets addictive if you listen to it enough times. Most anything really really stupid does. The most ridiculous part of this SMS post for me is when they talk about "how smart" Gucci is because apparently his mom was a schoolteacher and he gave a quasi-articulate interview once. (Sample: "My childhood was straight just real articulate. [My mom] was on me everyday she did good with me, that’s why my word play is so sick. That’s where I get my crazy vocabulary from." Crazy relative to... Shawty Lo's?) This is the epitome of that soft bigotry of low expectations shit I was talking about a couple months back. Do you remember the time Gucci Mane went to jail on charges of killing one Pookie Loc and he wrote a little poem about it from prison? I sure do. Ladies and gentlemen, Gucci Mane's foray into literature, "Round II."

I know I have my mother’s luv

I know she’s prayin 4 me
But all the things I took her thru
I know its hard 2 luv me

My older brother’s disappointed
My little brother’s scared
Been faced with trials my whole life
Yet still I’m not prepared

I always dreamed to be a rapper
Just like Big Daddy Kane
But all I got was jealousy
Since I took my daddy’s name

I once lost my sanity
With prayer I got it back
My Granddad had a heart attack
And we can’t bring him back

I love my girl with all my heart
Though we both have made mistakes
Besides God, no one’s perfect
No one will ever take her place

My homeboys truly miss me
I cry because I miss em
I know they all can feel my pain
Them being victims of this system

Now as I write this poem
Tears are rushing down my cheeks
I wanted to be a respected black man
Like Big Cat and Frank Ski

They say I’m not intelligent
Because I have a speech impediment
But all that is irrelevant
Because my words are heaven sent

They say that I’m a murderer
But I do not believe it**
So pray tonight for Gucci Mane
And even pray for Jeezy

Not bad for a thugged-out five year-old.

* My imitation in type of a Gucci adlib.
** I'm a little confused about how one can have a belief about whether one's a murderer or not.

5 comments:

David said...

"** I'm a little confused about how one can have a belief about whether one's a murderer or not."

probably the same reason the system decided he wasnt one.

tray im sensitive to the idea that folks would be into a rapper on some clowning, 'soft bigotry' shit, but gucci is an undeniable creative force. his verses became 'dumber' on purpose -- if u dont think he has authorial control over that yr kidding yourself -- rap is all about this kind of shit. do u think z-ro never jokes around & laughs?? no but thats how he raps. im sure that some folks want to see gucci in a racist way but im not making a case for him on those terms

bding7 said...

david makes a fair point, it's just hard for me to appreciate the ability that i'm told he has.

I once lost my sanity
With prayer I got it back
My Granddad had a heart attack
And we can’t bring him back


this stanza really hurts me, because i feel like there's so much more that could be said about his grandfather, but he either intentionally holds back or lacks the ability to articulate what he felt. it sort of reminds me of 'roses' when kanye says his grandfather is 'skrong'... it just ruined the verse for me.

brandon said...

All that Gucci poem proves is that he has a very narrow, maybe reverential understanding of poetry and so, he thinks that he can't do all the dope shit he does in a verse in a conventional poem even though he could.

The four lines bding highlighted are pretty affecting and straightforward; they'd lose something if he expounded on it I think. Also: "Roses" is full of details--you get this very Mountain Goats-like bio of his grandmom real quick--and so, the point of narrowing his Grandpa down to "Strong" is uh, the point?

I'm just sad we're still having this incredible condescending and really just racist intentionality debate anywhere, even on Tray's blog.

bding7 said...

it's not that he says is grandfather is 'strong,' i'm totally at peace with that. it's just that he says "skrong" instead. it just sort of comes out of nowhere and sounds a little jokey, while the rest of the verse, you're right, is pretty heavy and full of detail.

yea, i am a bit tired of this debate about intentionality/region/etc. the same points keep getting recycled

ghengis blond said...

i don't think anyone's discounting his authorial control. regardless of intent, he fails to make it sound cool. the simultaneous attempts at nonchalance and fundamental flow maintenance grate at my earbuds. dude tries to sound like he gives no semblance of a fuck, all the while digging his crampons in to avoid slipping off beat. hot gabbich