um 'lemonade' is brilliant!
― david cam'ron (tpp), Monday, 16 November 2009 09:16 (fourteen years ago) link
re drugs, it does seem like there's some sort of stigma in the rap community about doing cocaine. like, weed is obviously a-ok (unless you're grandpa clipse--"YOU DIDN'T SEE IT COMIN / U WERE PROBABLY HIGH!"); lean is understood to be dangerous but still cool; ecstasy is sort of questionable like getting your asshole licked but ultimately defensible (is you rollin? bitch i might be), but doing coke is like actually an indication of a substance abuse problem. i'm thinking of that purple haze outtake 'yeo man' by cam where he goes on and on about not doing coke. and i haven't heard gucci talk about doing it a single time--esp. not glamorizing it. it's pretty conspicuously absent from his lyrics. in fact the only thing i can think of is the 'got court in early morning i don't really wanna go, / say i violated probation just because i blew my nose' which is a very sad and poignant line in this new light.
you guys probably know the history of this much better than i do. was there ever a time or a subgroup of rap in which or for whom doing coke was a cool thing?
― Jacques_Lamure, Monday, 16 November 2009 22:31 (fourteen years ago) link
also, for what it's worth, i've always thought the quantity of blunts gucci's described to be absurd. like sure, i know these guys smoke weed all day every day but stuff like "appetizer: 30 blunts" and "in the club with a half a pound, 150 blunts" were just ridiculous hyperbole. but starting to think those are accurate numbers.
― Jacques_Lamure, Monday, 16 November 2009 22:35 (fourteen years ago) link
i think doing ecstasy is considered pretty 'cool' or at least acceptable (gucci raps about being on pills - he says "beans" i think - a lot iirc) - the thing about coke is that it's obv connected to crack & the sad, homeless, dirty junkie lifestyle that people like the kingpins sell too. on an egotistical level, you can still be the rick ross-style don if you use coke, lean, x, whatever, but if you're a cokehead you're already down the ladder on some level or you end up ruining yourself a la scarface or, uh, scott storch
― house of flying jaggers (J0rdan S.), Monday, 16 November 2009 22:36 (fourteen years ago) link
i would not be shocked at all if gucci was smoking 30 blunts a day, esp if he's sharing w people
― house of flying jaggers (J0rdan S.), Monday, 16 November 2009 22:37 (fourteen years ago) link
n an egotistical level, you can still be the rick ross-style don if you use coke weed, lean, x, whatever
"banana boat full of blow" in slumber party ... generally its assumed that the blow is for the ladiez, tho, i think?
― hoos-kingofthedrugs (deej), Monday, 16 November 2009 22:38 (fourteen years ago) link
id heard rumors of gucci's tony montana lifestyle prior :-/ but in light of two probation violations, right after the other, it totally makes sense
fwiw "white lines" by furious five was original (and is still, kinda) pro-blow
― hoos-kingofthedrugs (deej), Monday, 16 November 2009 22:39 (fourteen years ago) link
banana boat full of blow i always took to be like smuggling. but it's a moot point--that line definitely is not supposed to be about him doing coke. that stretch is one of my all time favs of his though.
― Jacques_Lamure, Monday, 16 November 2009 22:44 (fourteen years ago) link
i can't think of the instances but i distinctly remember noting, on more than one occasion, him rapping some sort of dialogue in which he was being coy about being on ecstasy. it was like "bitch i might be" but stretched out over several lines. granted, that could be a specific thing about him hiding the fact from women that he meets. but i just feel like in general that there's always a sort of aspect of keeping ecstasy use hidden, either in the words used to describe it or the descriptions of its use themselves
― Jacques_Lamure, Monday, 16 November 2009 22:48 (fourteen years ago) link
well there's the whole gangster ethos where you're not supposed to get hooked on the stuff you're selling to other people, esp. coke. i've got a very obvious and specific movie in mind but can't think of it, my mind's elsewhere atm
― peed on tree (k3vin k.), Monday, 16 November 2009 22:50 (fourteen years ago) link
he is def joking about being on x all the time 'rollin rollin rollin we aint slept in weeks'
― hoos-kingofthedrugs (deej), Monday, 16 November 2009 22:50 (fourteen years ago) link
idk i think "i might be" is pretty overt about gucci being on x - i always took the "bitch, i might be" response to "girl he geeked up" as gucci being flirtatious and kinda sarcastic
i mean this stuff is basically spelling it out
Aint your name lil Trina cause you look like Janet Jackson Im off three double stacks and Im lookin for that action
&
Gucci is your time give me five more minutes and a cold orange juice cause im really really trippin
― house of flying jaggers (J0rdan S.), Monday, 16 November 2009 22:52 (fourteen years ago) link
compare that with some stuff from jackie's "rollin" which is obv totally about ecstasy
orange juice to kick it inrollin blunts and kickin it
break you off, all night longtryna put it thru your backsay you comin down well mama eat one of these triple stacks
― house of flying jaggers (J0rdan S.), Monday, 16 November 2009 22:54 (fourteen years ago) link
i don't mean really actually secretive just sort of apprehensive about shouting it from the rooftops. i'll post some lyrics when i come across them
― Jacques_Lamure, Monday, 16 November 2009 23:01 (fourteen years ago) link
at least, apprehensive on a sliding scale that includes '150 blunts' on one end and 'violated probation just because i blew my nose :(" on the other
going back to what we were talking about yesterday about Gucci's popularity not connecting across the board -- part of being a big hip hop star tends to involve looking cool in videos, and that's a weak point for him, sometimes he just seems to be standing around looking really awkward, "5 Star Chick" is one of the first times he's really carried off any kind of star power charisma in a video. and then of course in "Spotlight" he goes back to being this boring guy slumped over hiding behind sunglasses.
― some dude, Monday, 16 November 2009 23:32 (fourteen years ago) link
i dunno, i think he looks hella cool in whatever the video is where he's chillin in the carpark and on his bus.
― ianmaxwell, Monday, 16 November 2009 23:40 (fourteen years ago) link
iced up something serious
i think al is right - he doesn't have the outsized personality of a wayne or a ludacris, and he doesn't have the 'look' of a hip-hop star a la ross or jeezy or 50 - in this sense he's probably closest to like... t.i. who seems to be pretty soft spoken & frail - the one thing tho is that t.i. is def a sex symbol, and i don't think gucci has that going for him
― house of flying jaggers (J0rdan S.), Monday, 16 November 2009 23:42 (fourteen years ago) link
'And my belly get so big I can hardly see my toes'
― ianmaxwell, Monday, 16 November 2009 23:45 (fourteen years ago) link
idk whether it's just what i've been paying more attention to but i've definitely been hearing a ton more hip-hop lyrics about being on e of late, "when i pop a pill i take off like a thundercat" &c. but actually thinking about it this isn't that new, it's been pretty common all decade - miss e being so addictive, plus of course it was totally central to hyphy.
agree with al on the video point, gucci just doesn't look remotely badass ever...he has this permanent pot-bellied slouch going on, NAGL.
xps
― lex pretend, Monday, 16 November 2009 23:45 (fourteen years ago) link
gucci always seems like one of the boys rather than a leader, like t.i. does
― lex pretend, Monday, 16 November 2009 23:46 (fourteen years ago) link
wtf u guys are crazy, he's a total character/personality in his appearance ... hes not a sex symbol but his whole swag, the different chains, the oversized glasses, its not 'nagl' is that hes still like this potbellied kush smoking backwoods southern street dude
― hoos-kingofthedrugs (deej), Monday, 16 November 2009 23:52 (fourteen years ago) link
hes the total opposite of a blank slate
hes got way more 'character' going for him than jeezy's whole coneheads crack dealer motif
― hoos-kingofthedrugs (deej), Monday, 16 November 2009 23:53 (fourteen years ago) link
coneheads crack dealer
rofl at this
― house of flying jaggers (J0rdan S.), Monday, 16 November 2009 23:54 (fourteen years ago) link
that's the thing, he's definitely a character but it comes across way more in his records than in his photos/videos imo
― some dude, Monday, 16 November 2009 23:54 (fourteen years ago) link
but deej i think it's not so much about what you describe - obv his chains are pretty iconic- but just watch any of this videos - "photo shoot," "wasted," "she got a friend" etc - he doesn't seem natural in front of the camera like a lot of guys do - he's not a ham like wayne, he's not a PRESENCE like the bigger guys - it's either something he will get better at or he just won't be able to do
― house of flying jaggers (J0rdan S.), Monday, 16 November 2009 23:56 (fourteen years ago) link
his character isn't the sort that looks acceptably cool in hip-hop videos
― lex pretend, Monday, 16 November 2009 23:56 (fourteen years ago) link
and his interviews - he's not as good as expressing himself in conversation as well as say jeezy is - he doesn't give batshit interviews like wayne does - i agree w you that he has a defined persona/style, i just think it's less obv to the casual rap fan who buys records by big artists (and by proxy makes big artists big)
― house of flying jaggers (J0rdan S.), Monday, 16 November 2009 23:57 (fourteen years ago) link
i dunno i think his character on film fits his 'character' in song pretty well. its like the authenticity of snoop not looking in the camera lens, glancing @ the ground in the g thang videos from '92. hes not a music video star, hes a hood rapper who happens to have blown up
― hoos-kingofthedrugs (deej), Monday, 16 November 2009 23:58 (fourteen years ago) link
i just mean when i see him in a video for a posse cut like "Boi," I think about how if this was the first time seeing the guy and wasn't listening hard to tell that he's rapping better than the other people on the track, there's no way I'd figure out from that he's the star on the rise in the video
― some dude, Monday, 16 November 2009 23:59 (fourteen years ago) link
man, i dunno. hes totally the least anonymous -- i mean mike jones doesnt even look like the mike jones from when mike jones was relatively famous. you dont think the whole chubby 6'3 gangster in bug-eyed glasses isnt a larger than life character?
― hoos-kingofthedrugs (deej), Tuesday, 17 November 2009 00:01 (fourteen years ago) link
when he raps in the 'posted at the store' video its like, there's no question who the star of that track is
you may not have noticed this but 80% of all rappers in 2009 have bug-eyed glasses.
― some dude, Tuesday, 17 November 2009 00:07 (fourteen years ago) link
dunno what 2 tell you -- i think hes got a distinct visual persona -- maybe not as archetypal as rick ross, but certainly as much/more so than jeezy
― hoos-kingofthedrugs (deej), Tuesday, 17 November 2009 00:09 (fourteen years ago) link
was there ever a time or a subgroup of rap in which or for whom doing coke was a cool thing?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9kViDMem1Yhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzLhgvbhm9Y
and many many more
― surfboard dudes get wiped out, totally, Tuesday, 17 November 2009 01:22 (fourteen years ago) link
also come on. you think these dudes dont do coke youre kidding yourself. all of em. they' have TONS of cash on them and spend their lives in clubs in various cities.
http://shakashawshow.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/edlover.jpg
― surfboard dudes get wiped out, totally, Tuesday, 17 November 2009 01:26 (fourteen years ago) link
dont think anyone denied tons of rappers are doin coke
but yeah 3-6 rapped about it a lot
― GANGSTA KILLER (deej), Tuesday, 17 November 2009 02:29 (fourteen years ago) link
http://www.worldstarhiphop.com/videos/video.php?v=wshhk5e5956t5a3VWc9A
the song hes taped recording here is crazy!!
― GANGSTA KILLER (deej), Tuesday, 17 November 2009 02:58 (fourteen years ago) link
maniac's verse is zzz tho
― GANGSTA KILLER (deej), Tuesday, 17 November 2009 02:59 (fourteen years ago) link
here's a lil story bout a nigga named guccigrew up in the hood sellin dope and shootin uzi'shad a lil brother by the name of waka flockaone thing about his lil brother? big choppereast atlanta hardhead, everythang redred diamond, red rag, red offsetscali down to bouldercrest all way back to calihope to sell some chickens and i sold em in sun valleyman brick squad get it! they sheisty as a motherfuckergreen birds, black birds more icier than you other suckerskid that did the pounds of mid sold ki's for six i do admitecstasy for ex-convict, they try me? better split yo wig
― GANGSTA KILLER (deej), Tuesday, 17 November 2009 03:07 (fourteen years ago) link
he is weed free!
― house of flying jaggers (J0rdan S.), Tuesday, 17 November 2009 06:51 (fourteen years ago) link
that studio looks super depressing
Here's a video of Gucci shoving and punching a woman in the face
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c22EYjWWClk
1:50
― Whiney G. Weingarten, Tuesday, 17 November 2009 18:27 (fourteen years ago) link
wow he really is the opposite of Charles Hamilton
― some dude, Tuesday, 17 November 2009 18:30 (fourteen years ago) link
I was gonna go in the Chris Brown thread and repost everything deej said about Chris Brown, but then I got really sad and stopped.
― Whiney G. Weingarten, Tuesday, 17 November 2009 18:32 (fourteen years ago) link
that video was posted in this thread like a year ago
― house of flying jaggers (J0rdan S.), Tuesday, 17 November 2009 19:57 (fourteen years ago) link
and there is a difference between shoving & taking a swing at a woman (still unacceptable obv) and beating a woman's face to the point where she is unrecognizable
― house of flying jaggers (J0rdan S.), Tuesday, 17 November 2009 19:59 (fourteen years ago) link