"In the ring, and even in the depths of their voluntary ignominy, wrestlers remain gods because they are, for a few moments, the key which opens Nature, the pure gesture which separates Proficient from Evil, and unveils the class of a Justice which is at last intelligible."—Roland Barthes, "The Globe of Wrestling."

Gucci Mane's antics* on Twitter before this calendar week took the net by surprise. Not just did the online peanut gallery explode over Gucci's accusations and allegations, but artists similar T.I., Tyga, and fifty-fifty Nicki Minaj felt obligated to reply. The reaction on social media ranged from defoliation over what the rapper was saying due to his distinct punctuation style, speculation that he was hacked (hundred-to-one), speculation that he would merits he was hacked (prophecy), and business concern for his land of mind. His tweets were described equally insane. Theories were that it was inspired by a breakup with a woman he'd tweeted almost earlier in the month, that it was because he'd been falsely defendant of paying for the lawyer of Slim Dunkin's killer, that it was considering he'd been dropped from Atlantic Records. He was compared to Amanda Bynes. He was having a "meltdown." Some publications went and then far as to call it a "cry for help."

At the extreme end of the spectrum, Media Accept Out theorized that possibly Gucci's tweets were the result of "AIDS-related dementia," and then helpfully quoted from WebMD on the nature of that ailment. This kind of thinking is reminiscient of when Chief Keef was described over and over as being autistic, without any testify of a diagnosis. Rappers like Gucci (and Keef) are essentially pathologized. (In Gucci'due south case, this was also washed at the legal level, when, in 2011, he pleaded mental incompetence and was admitted temporarily to Anchor Hospital.) This is part of his unabridged approach as an artist. It's non just literal lyrics nearly poverty; he aims to represent, to symbolize and embody, an entire class of Americans who are marginalized and pathologized. This is his base of operations.

Meanwhile, mainstream attempts to sympathize with the rapper's outlandish tweets sometimes came across as picayune more than fetishization of his eccentricities. Although this FACT magazine editorial mentions his music in passing, it primarily celebrates the"drug-addled lunatic" as a hero for a laundry list of wild stories (facial tattoos, falling asleep during a sexual activity scene on the ready of Bound Breakers , etc.). When the music is mentioned, the emphasis is always on how weird  it is, as if information technology were some pure extension of the rapper's Crazy Persona. Similar certain strains of the fandom of artists like R. Kelly and Wesley Willis, there's an uncomfortable focus on extraneous, actress-musical aspects of his public personality.

Information technology goes without maxim that Gucci's a character, and that his, erm, strong personality has played a large part in what makes him both a celebrated and reviled artist. But at the end of the solar day, this shit is about music, and if the music didn't deliver, and so Gucci would be little more Riff Raff: "ratchet" iconography and social media personality.

Few rappers have had the prolificacy or artful impact of Gucci Mane over the by decade. He's had one of the longest, most creatively fruitful runs in hip-hop. It's also one of the most controversial, one of the most troubled, and one of the well-nigh misunderstood (Both generally, and in a very literal sense—before Chief Keef, Gucci was the original marble-mouthed rapper).

As an artist, Gucci is wildly experimental. Rappers like Jeezy and Waka Flocka would locate a particular aggressive energy and focus every degree of their talent honing in on that sensation with pure, monomaniacal purpose. Gucci was more than creatively restless, his catalog a sprawling, organic mass, each song or poesy an expansion of his sound. All the seams were showing. He would rotate through dissimilar flows, beats, imagery, concepts. And he could rap: just listen to his final verse on early on record "Ruby Eyes," where his double-fourth dimension flow undulates with effortless fluency.

The threat of violence balled up merely below the surface, like the bulk of an iceberg, enabling his experimentalism, his colorful lyrical imagination, to emerge in the sunlight.

Perhaps it was the aura he cultivated after the infamous self-defense shooting, the story that—for many fans—confirmed his street superhero bona fides. Ironically, it was this horrific feel that seemed to gratuitous him from a delivery to the relentless bleakness that characterized early tracks like "Black Tee." This tragic consequence became the middle of gravity that drew together a parcel of contradictory impulses within his music. The threat of violence balled up just below the surface, like the bulk of an iceberg, enabling his experimentalism, his colorful lyrical imagination, to emerge in the sunlight.

In tension with that dynamic was his potential every bit a crossover creative person. This was when Gucci's music was near interesting: how far into the mainstream could he go, and how destructive would that be? At the terminate of the twenty-four hour period, street bona fides or no, every rapper wants to be on top, like Jay or Wayne or Drake. Every rapper wants that level of crossover success. The rest is marketing, fifty-fifty if it is marketing something "authentic." And it seemed evident that from 2007 through around 2010, Gucci Mane was on the ascension. It culminated in guest spots with Mariah Carey; his go-to producer Zaytoven ended up making songs for Usher. Just this commercial promise relied on a finely-tuned balance: the rapper had to keep his street edge and his mainstream appeal in harmony. "Spotlight" leaned too far to appeasing popular fans; songs like "Vette Pass By" were a little too rugged for the charts.

Then there were moments where all of these latent pressures worked together in flawless concert, the stars aligned, and a vocal that was then impeccably Gucci—weird, sure, simply also lyrical, ignorant, "pop," sui generis, street—was the result. "Lemonade" is probably the best articulation of this, the full realization of what he could be—and the promise of what had yet to come up. In that location was something so urgent and exciting about his seemingly inevitable crossover, and the sense that it was going to happen despite all of the factors that worked against him. He'd survived a BMF hit. He'd overcome hardship. He was someone worth rooting for. He represented a derided, pathologized underclass. He was the underdog, misunderstood by mainstream America. And all the same he would succeed on his own terms.

He held it all together for a perilously long time, poised only on the other side of a mainstream breakthrough, before falling into the incarceration trap, mere steps from becoming a true household name. At least, that's the theory; maybe he was too raw, also existent, to troubled, to truly ever "make it." For better or worse, Gucci remains a countercultural icon, rather than a crossover rap star. By the time of the ice cream tattoo and the V-Nasty collaborative album, information technology was axiomatic that Katie Couric interviews were not in Gucci Mane'due south hereafter. His music since that time has never felt quite as powerfully relevant, although he's managed to bolster his buzz with a expert ear for rising stars.

*Has at that place ever been a more understated way of describing Gucci'due south iii-twenty-four hour period Twitter spectacle than "antics"? In a series of tweets (on Day Three alone) Gucci: ane) Said "Fuck—" followed by a laundry list of rappers with whom he has collaborated extensively (Waka, Gotti, OJ), with whom he has beefed extensively (Jeezy, Tip), and who take seemingly no connectedness to the rapper (Eminem) 2) Listed (past name) a variety of stars he claims to take fucked, including specific details (names and cost of hotels, collaborators, witnesses) of the declared interactions 3) Chosen Jacob York of Big Cat a molester iv) Named a variety of rappers' girlfriends with whom he allegedly had relations (including, he claimed, Jeezy's "main thang," currently) 5) Dissed a variety of manufacture folks, including his former manager Coach K and former labels Warner and Atlantic (where he specified employees past name) 6) Tried to sell artists he currently has signed for a variety of prices, including Waka 7) Threatened Rocko 8) Clowned Waka for taking only $8,000 per show from Drake…This could actually continue forever, and so if you need the salacious details, check our rundown hither.

Gucci'south tweets this week were upsetting to many people. If you weren't much of a Gucci fan already, it'd be hard to blame your disgust. Some of the tweets were outrageously offensive, and undoubtedly sexist. The rapper came across as a mean misogynist. Sympathetic fans argued that he must be going through something. Information technology's drugs, or its a mental problem. (Waka Flocka made the drug argument himself.) Gucci seemed to exist burning bridges at every opportunity, calling out a cross-section of former collaborators, and mostly existence a heel. It was as if he was playing a giant, tearing game of "craven" with the rap industry. He was the simply one with goose egg to lose, the only one who wasn't trying to protect annihilation.

Some rappers responded. T.I. tweeted "Only a fool acts reckless for publicity." The only rapper who seemed to really clap back to Gucci's provocations in a hip-hop spirit was Nicki Minaj, and she came out looking like a winner for it. She also leaked a clip of her portion of Madonna'south "I Don't Give A...," which sounds like a future-nail. It was especially ether-ous, considering Gucci's own failure to touch on the pop charts in recent years.

Of course, on day three, Gucci announced, like a grandiose punchline, that he would be releasing an anthology,Diary of a Trap God, that dark at 10:17 PM on iTunes. (It ultimately came out as a free download in the form of a tweeted Sendspace link the post-obit mean solar day.) And then was this a meltdown...or was information technology marketing?

But if it was all marketing, why did Gucci only end up giving the album away for free? Why annunciate the record—one packed, hilariously, with features from the artists he had just trashed on Twitter—only to toss information technology out into the world at no cost?

The dissonance he fabricated certainly garnered him more attending. The rapper had stirred upward some shit with Yo Gotti in the atomic number 82-up toTrap Firm Three earlier this year, but it drew a fraction of the eyeballs directed his way this week. It was almost as if he was inspired by Kendrick's "Command" verse, and decided to proper name more names. Once the album was announced, the likelihood that this was a "meltdown" began to seem more than remote. Just if information technology was all marketing, why did Gucci but terminate up giving the album away for free? Why annunciate the record—1 packed, hilariously, with features from the artists he had but trashed on Twitter—simply to toss it out into the world at no price?

Considering Gucci's drug history, it's tempting to compare the rapper'due south Twitter onslaught with Charlie Sheen'south rants from early on 2011. (Information technology should be acknowledged that Gucci's new tape is more worthwhile than the entirety of2 and a Half Men.) Sheen's drug-enduced truth-to-power rants inspired a like guilty thrill in listeners, even though Sheen came across as a deluded jerk in need of rehab. Only Gucci's tweets were also reminiscient of some similar rants from another creative person, one who is currently a bit more than revered. After he was freed from prison, Pimp C conducted a series of interviews, with Ozone magazine and with Power 107, in which he fearlessly named names and stirred up shit. They were full of linguistic communication about homosexuality that wasn't exactly the most politically enlightened. But there was something about those words that felt like rare moments of clarity and honesty in an industry that often feels like it'southward short on either.

Gucci's three-day Twitter adventure seemed to have been sparked by the allegation (false, he says) that he had paid for the attorney of the murderer of Brick Squad fellow member Slim Dunkin. Information technology evolved into a beefiness with Brick Team members, who argued that Gucci had taken the money from Warner for his advance for Brick Team. Gucci alleged that it was Waka'southward female parent, Debra Antney, who had taken the money. Information technology would be irresponsible to speculate on the situation from the exterior. After all, what really happened here is, for our purposes, unknowable.

But ane of the chief characteristics of Gucci'southward music, the part that seems to resonate so well with fans, is that sense that he is a telling the truth, a sole vocalization of honesty amidst a rat'due south nest of people who merely look after their ain self-interest. Information technology's the cadre of his project, the essence, and something he addressed on Twitter: he burns these bridges because everyone else has ulterior motives. What makes it possible is that he lives like he has nothing to lose. He'due south fabricated this sacrifice in order to tap into Truth, which is made possible because he has nothing to protect. It's what keeps the violence in his music from seeming like mere fetishization, what creates sympathy for a person who would otherwise exist seen as a victimizer.

So if Gucci's not interested in selling his album, the logic goes, perhaps his Twitter escapades were merely the upshot of mental illness or drug issues. But If you lot've made peace with listening to his music, information technology's a little cool to suggest that his behavior on Twitter is anything other than consistent with his on-record persona. Perhaps, in 2013, Twitter plays a role that rap music used to play. It'due south now causeless that social media is more than "real" than music.

Remember, this is a guy who, in 2006, rapped: "Beyonce, oh that's your fiance?/Jeezy is the appetizer, you'll be the entree/two glocks shawty, ay let's party/I'm at the 40/40 lookin' for Sean Cart-ayy."

Because Gucci's recording career is full of the kinds of allegations he made on Twitter, and it has been for years. Gucci's songs have ever been pretty evidently and plainly misogynist; "I'mma Dog" is one of the rapper's celebrated regional hits (personally I've always found it hard to take; the hook goes, "I'm a treat her similar a dog, feed her similar a dog/Shell her like a dog, so pass her to my dogs"). For years, he's hinted at his relationships with particular R&B singers in his music with winking name-drops. In the "U Don't Deserve Dat" remix, he rapped about stealing Diamond from Lil Scrappy (who said on Vlad Goggle box that Gucci is bipolar—pathology!). In other words, naught he said on Twitter actually seemed all that out of line with the kinds of wild, unproveable shit he'd tossed out in his music regularly. Remember, this is a guy who,in 2006, rapped: "Beyonce, oh that'due south your fiance?/Jeezy is the titbit, you'll be the entree/2 glocks shawty, ay let's party/I'm at the xl/40 lookin' for Sean Cart-ayy."

He's also released numerous songs sending shots at Immature Jeezy, ever since their beefiness over "So Icy" turnedmortiferous. And information technology points to one of the ironies of how Gucci'due south been pathologized throughout the years. He's called "crazy" and bipolar. Jeezy himself accused him of having a mental disability on his diss song "24 23" ( "But betwixt me and you I think the male child deadening"). But it's Jeezy  who put a price on Gucci's concatenationback in 2005, one that resulted in an armed attack on Gucci. In a just world, isn't that the definition of not just crazy, but sociopathic beliefs—not using extra spaces and periods in your tweets, or getting ice cream tattoos?

This absurdity is part of why, when guys like Gucci or Pimp C telephone call out the hypocrisy of the industry, who commencement naming names and speaking truth to power, information technology feels refreshingly honest, and devoid of selfish motivations. Because we know  the organization is hypocritical, and full of conniving rationalizations of racism and classism and payola, of systemic oppression and dishonesty and treachery. Not that Gucci is some kind of morally righteous warrior, by any means. Rappers aren't part models, and Gucci less so than near.But sometimes it takes a person who's "crazy" to speak with truthful clarity.

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