Trap Back

Gucci Mane performing in 2010. Around this time, the rapper seemed poised for a commercial breakthrough, but was plagued by legal issues and problems with drug use.

By 2009, Radric Davis—better known by his stage name, Gucci Mane—had established himself as a major figure in underground hip hop.[1] At that moment in the rapper's career, industry insiders and observers generally believed he was poised for a major commercial breakthrough. As several critics wrote in hindsight following the 2012 release of Trap Back, Gucci Mane had seemed likely to cross-over from a hardcore hip-hop audience into mainstream pop success.[2][3] According to Andrew Nosnitsky, Gucci Mane had "the type of feverish, mixtape-driven buzz that had previously predicted mainstream takeovers from 50 Cent and Lil Wayne."[4]

Gucci Mane achieved a modicum of success with The State vs. Radric Davis (2009), his first record for major label Asylum Records after a series of releases on independent record labels.[5] But the follow-up The Appeal: Georgia's Most Wanted (2010) underperformed sales expectations.[6] His next album, The Return of Mr. Zone 6 (2011), was delivered on a much lower recording budget and minimal promotion but sold about as well as The Appeal.[7]

Gucci Mane had numerous legal issues in these years, as well as problems with his drug use and mental health. In his memoir, he said his "usual routine" in this time period was a repeated pattern of rebounding "straight from jail to the studio."[8] He was drinking lean and other recreational drugs, often in prolonged binges, during which he was prone to extreme seclusion and self-imposed social isolation.[9] His drug use occasionally manifested, in his own words, "bizarre behavior" that included "violent outbursts" but also "[s]pells where [he] would zone out and gaze into space."[10] He was briefly committed to Anchor Hospital, a psychiatric facility in Atlanta; this incident, along with a new face tattoo of an ice cream cone that he got days after leaving the hospital, prompted the press to portray Gucci Mane as an erratic and "crazy" personality.[11]

Gucci Mane served his third major stint in jail in 2011. On April 8, 2011, Gucci Mane was arrested during a visit with his probation officer on charges of misdemeanor battery and violation of probation.[12] According to a report from the DeKalb County Police Department, the charges stemmed from a January 2011 incident when a woman recognized Gucci Mane and got into his car. Once she was in the car, the police report states, Gucci Mane offered her $150 to go to a hotel room with him.[13] After she refused, he shoved her repeatedly until he was able to push her out of his moving car.[13] The woman had already threatened to take legal action—and eventually reached a settlement of $58,000[14]—but did not file a complaint with police until April.[15] Gucci Mane disputed aspects of the police report in his 2017 biography.[note 1]

Gucci Mane was locked up for three weeks in solitary confinement at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison (facility entrance pictured).[16]

Following the arrest, Gucci Mane spent three months in jail.[17] He posted a $5000 bail but was held in Fulton County Jail for violating probation.[16] He was sent to Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison (GDCP) where, during his processing as an incoming inmate, his head was shaved to conform to prison rules.[16] He spent three weeks in solitary confinement, which he later described as "three of the worst weeks I ever spent locked up."[16] He was transferred back to Fulton County Jail and spent the remainder of his jail time there.[17]

Gucci Mane recorded and released several projects between his release from jail in July and his return to jail in September.[18] Although the three months at GDCP had been one of his shortest stints behind bars, there were significant developments in the Atlanta hip hop scene during his brief absence—notably, the rise to prominence of the producer Mike Will Made It and the rappers 2 Chainz and Future.[17] Gucci Mane was already a longtime associate of Mike Will: the two had collaborated on several songs since first meeting in 2006, when Mike Will was a junior in high school, and Gucci Mane himself had even coined the phrase "Mike Will Made It" on the track "Star Status".[19] With Mike Will's encouragement, Gucci Mane collaborated with Future on a song called "Nasty", followed by a track with both Future and 2 Chainz called "Lost It", and finally an entire collaborative mixtape with Future called Free Bricks, which was released less than a month after Gucci Mane's release.[20] Gucci Mane also recorded a collaborative album with Waka Flocka Flame, Ferrari Boyz, and a collaborative mixtape with Oakland-based rapper V-Nasty, BAYTL.[21]

In September, Gucci Mane pleaded guilty to two counts of battery, two counts of reckless conduct, and one count of disorderly conduct.[22] He was sentenced to six months in jail and ordered to attend anger management classes.[22] He later said "[e]ven though I felt I'd done nothing wrong, my lawyer advised me against trying to fight it. After the year I'd just had I knew he was right. I was the boy who cried wolf by that point. Telling my side of the story would have just pissed off the judge."[23] After three months in DeKalb County Jail,[23] he was released in December for good behavior.[22] Upon his release, Gucci Mane told XXL "[t]his is the last time I think I'll ever be in jail" and said the first thing he did after his release was change his clothes and head into the studio.[24]

Zaytoven had long been Gucci Mane's most closely associated collaborator, but Mike Will was the central producer on Trap Back.[26] With production credits on five songs—"Walking Lick", "Plain Jane", "Get It Back", "Okay With Me", and "North Pole"—Mike Will contributed the most beats to the project. But beyond his individual credits, he took a more hands-on approach to recording than other producers Gucci Mane had worked with. Mike Will remained in-studio throughout the entire recording sessions for Trap Back, even when Gucci Mane was working on other producers' beats.[30]

Mike Will helped to keep Gucci Mane's morale high, even in the face of personal tragedy. Less than a week after Gucci Mane's release from jail, his close friend and 1017 Records labelmate Slim Dunkin was shot and killed.[31] Because Slim Dunkin had been on his way to meet Gucci Mane when he was killed, Gucci blamed himself for the incident and almost fell into a "downward spiral" of despair and hopelessness.[25] However, he stayed motivated and focused on music with Mike Will's encouragement, who he said "wanted to see me come back and win just as bad as I wanted it."[32]

Gucci Mane said Mike Will was a "perfectionist" who expressed his opinions directly when he thought Gucci could do better in his lyrics or vocals.[26] Gucci Mane had written raps in prison, but Mike Will deemed them not good enough, prompting Gucci to start over with freestyling.[26] Gucci Mane was unaccustomed to recording more than one take on a track, but Mike Will made Gucci rerecord vocals until he felt the performance was strong enough.[30]

For example, Mike Will said he liked the way Gucci Mane freestyled over "Plain Jane" in rehearsal, but was surprised when Gucci Mane completely changed his flow during recording.[29] Mike Will asked Gucci Mane to redo the vocals the same way he had practiced—which Gucci Mane did, but only on the last verse.[29] Mike Will then rearranged the order of Gucci Mane's vocals on the track, putting the last verse first.[29] Mike Will said these critiques and edits mark the "difference between being a beat maker and a producer", because producers are able "to put the whole record together and make sure it comes out right."[29] Gucci Mane said he appreciated Mike Will's critiques, and both have said they had a high level of mutual creative trust during the mixtape's recording sessions.[30][29]

Trap Back opens with a phone call from Demetrius "Big Meech" Flenory, who was imprisoned at the time of recording.

Trap Back opens with a phone call recorded from prison: a message to Gucci Mane from the Black Mafia Family boss Demetrius "Big Meech" Flenory, known for his affiliation with rapper Jeezy.[33][34] Since 2008, Meech has been serving a 30-year sentence without the possibility of parole for organized trafficking of cocaine.[35] Meech's appearance on Trap Back was considered surprising, given that Gucci Mane had famously beefed with Jeezy.[33] In an interview with Atlanta hip-hop station Hot 107.9, Gucci Mane said that despite his disputes with Jeezy there had never been any conflict between himself and Meech.[36]

Trap Back is one of numerous Gucci Mane releases with the word "trap" in the title, a slang term for a house used to sell drugs.[37] As its title suggests, Trap Back is a mixtape of trap music, a style of Southern hip hop that Gucci Mane had been associated with since its inception.[38] Like earlier trap music, the production on Trap Back is propelled by electronic 808 percussion.[38] But according to Anthony Walker of Dummy, the mixtape also marked a sonic transition from trap music of the preceding two years—when Lex Luger's style dominated the genre—with new prominence given to sub-bass percussion and synthesizers:

The trap aesthetic has always abounded in the gothic but is currently delving further in the dark with haunting synths accompanying the raw percussive base. ... The bluster and pomp of the Lex Luger-inspired 2010/2011 explosion has been transplanted by an insidious stalk and the subtle change can be explained as a shift in emphasis from the snare to the bass drum. This retracted boom means Gucci can really step into tracks rather than just get carried along by them.[38]

"Plain Jane", a track that uses a low-pass filter to make the beat sound submerged underwater, serves as an example of the mixtape's production aesthetic and Mike Will's typical style.[39] "Get It Back" uses a sample of "Tetris - Type A" by Hirokazu Tanaka, the chiptune theme song to the 1989 version of Tetris for the Game Boy.[40] Comparing "Get It Back" to Gucci Mane's 2009 single "Lemonade", Julianne Escobedo Shepherd noted the slowed-down version of the Tetris melody sounded like "cheeky flossing, the ATL version of screaming, 'in your face.'"[41]

Gucci Mane said "Blessing" was his favorite track on the mixtape.[42]

Gucci Mane characterized the mixtape as "a journey through East Atlanta".[43] His lyrical concerns on Trap Back include topics common to his work in general, such as drug use, drug sales, women, and money.[44] While critics noted the topics of Gucci Mane's raps were often familiar, they praised his creative lyricism, inventive word play, and innovative flow.[33][2][44] "Back in 95", the first full-length song, finds Gucci Mane reflecting on a lifetime as a "hustler".[44] Calling the song "a rare look into Gucci's past," AllHipHop's Mos Jones observed "[a]lthough critics complain of the lack of variety in his subject matter, it is clear that [the drug trade] is all Gucci has known his entire life."[33]

Gucci Mane raps about his work ethic and success on the braggadocious track "Quiet", saying "my money talks for me 'cause I be bein' quiet".[43] On "Walking Lick", Gucci Mane portrays himself as a walking drug deal.[38] The song "In Love With a White Girl", nominally about an interracial relationship,[45] is also about Gucci Mane's affinity for "white girl" as in cocaine.[44][46] In "Sometimes", Gucci Mane delivers an introspective verse reflecting on the recent death of his friend Slim Dunkin.[33] On "North Pole", Gucci Mane declares himself "Santa Claus of the city" of Atlanta—a motif that recurred on his later releases East Atlanta Santa (2014) and The Return of East Atlanta Santa (2016).[47]

Guest appearances on Trap Back include Waka Flocka Flame on "Walking Lick"; Rocko on "Plain Jane" and "Chicken Room"; 2 Chainz on "Get It Back" and "Okay With Me"; Future on "Brick Fair" and "Sometimes"; Chilly Chill on "Ghetto"; Yo Gotti on "Blessing" and "In Love With a White Girl"; and Jadakiss on "Blessing".[27]

• Featured artists (Rocko not pictured)
• 
  2 Chainz
• 
  Chilly Chill
• 
  Future
• 
  Jadakiss
• 
  Waka Flocka Flame
• 
  Yo Gotti