In an excellent New York Times profile , Gucci Mane tells writer Jon Carmanica, "It's been tough to be a Gucci fan. It's been tough to be a Gucci friend, a Gucci sibling, a Gucci girlfriend or a Gucci partner. I done took people through a lot, man."
On Friday, the Atlanta rapper, who was released from jail in May and is currently serving the last couple of months of home confinement in his Marietta mansion, will be allowed to work for a few hours with a homecoming show at the Fox Theatre .
Billed as a show with Mane “and Friends,” it is likely to attract a notable portion of the Atlanta rap community, though no other names have been confirmed.
Also Friday, the man born Radric Davis will release “Everybody Looking,” his first full release since 2011’s “The Return of Mr. Zone 6.”
Mane, who talked to the NYT for his first interview since coming home, was candid about his addiction issues, nothing that he hadn’t been fully sober since he was 17.
“I felt like I couldn’t make music sober, I couldn’t enjoy my money sober. Why would I wanna go to a club and couldn’t smoke or drink? I felt like sex wouldn’t be good sober. I associated everything with being high. In hindsight I see it for what it was: I was a drug addict,” he said. “I was naïve to the fact that I was numb.”
Mane’s recent jail stint was a three-plus-year sentence for possession of a firearm by a felon. The NYT story estimates that since 2001, he’s been arrested at least 10 times for assault, gun and drug charges.
But Mane sounds like a man who is happy and optimistic. He’s svelte, sober and in love.
And on Friday, he returns to the big stage.
(We'll have a review of the concert here on The Music Scene blog early Saturday morning.)
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