Atlanta rap star Radric Davis, known worldwide as Gucci Mane, has been in and out of jail his whole life. A recovering drug addict, Gucci has served his time on a number of different charges spanning almost a decade. Instead of repeating past decisions and finding himself back behind bars, he has gained more popularity than ever with his Atlanta-based rap music, putting him up against some of the biggest names in the rap industry.
Davis, since birth, has dealt with numerous domestic issues, as his brother, Victor, was the son of Vicky Davis, Gucci’s mother’s firstborn from a previous relationship. Gucci’s father, Ralph Dudley, was on the run from the police at the time of his birth. Dudley fled to Detroit, Michigan, leaving his family in Bessemer, Alabama, with Radric’s birth certificate unsigned. Because Gucci’s mother was pursuing a college degree, Davis was raised primarily by his paternal grandmother. The situation didn’t stop at that; disclosed information regarding the Davis family pushed Radric, Victor, and Vicky to Atlanta, where, when Gucci was nine years old, had been kicked out and been homeless for a short while. Gucci’s father, who had also moved to Atlanta, set them up in a crime-infested inn, impacting Gucci’s childhood, filling it with darkness no child should experience right in their backyard.
Radric and Victor led criminally infested childhoods, both getting involved in drug dealing while still in middle school. Gucci states that he used his own Christmas money to buy crack cocaine to sell in the eighth grade.
As a freshman, Gucci was considered smart, as well as popular by his peers at Ronald E. McNair High School. Throughout his four years in high school, Davis sold but rarely consumed his own product, until he started smoking with a girl he pursued, kickstarting his addiction.
With a HOPE Scholarship, and attending Georgia Perimeter College, Davis was kicked out in his third year of enrollment due to excessive absence, as well as an undercover cop finding crack cocaine on Gucci Mane, giving him his first dose of a penitentiary, with 90 days in county jail.
The worst of Gucci’s charges throughout the timeline of his incarcerations was his second after he was attacked by five men. The attackers were chasing a bounty set on Davis’ $10,000 ice cream cone chain. Davis’ acquired a gun, and disbanded the scuffle by killing one man, known by his street name Pookie Loc. Davis’ turned himself in but was luckily released due to insufficient evidence.
Gucci would continue to face multiple accounts of arrests and has built up quite the criminal resume; a murder charge, striking a club promoter with a pool stick, reckless driving, raiding the home of “No Hands” rapper Waka Flocka Flame, and multiple counts of illegal possession of a firearm.
In spite of the fact that Gucci repeatedly got himself into trouble an impressive number of times in the span of a decade, It can be argued that these actions are the results of a broken home, a darkened childhood, and more criminal influence than a majority of Americans deal with in their entire lives.
In an exclusive interview on ESPN’s talk show, ‘Highly Questionable’, Gucci revealed his mindset at the time of his excessive criminality. “It is miserable,” said Gucci of his fear. “When you’ve been doing wrong so long and you did wrong by other people. You never know when it’s gonna come back on ya. I’d hurt so many people and so many people had hurt me. I never knew when it was gonna come.” Gucci’s change in mindset since his murder charge absolutely damaged Davis more than the crime itself. He felt as if the whole world was against him, and someone was waiting for the day he drops. “It was like, I was always preparing for the day that bullets start coming and start ringing out.”
Since his last release from Jail in March of 2016, Gucci Mane has been exposing a much lower quantity of music (Gucci’s team released 85 separate albums in just a year of 2015, while he was imprisoned), but much higher quality. Significant tracks Gucci features in or records solo include Black Beatles, Gucci’s first number one on the Billboard top 100, Wake Up in the Sky, with Bruno Mars and Kodak Black, and his iconic Atlanta-style trap, such as I Get the Bag, featuring big-name Atlanta rap group Migos.
Gucci has established a solid foundation following his last visit to a penitentiary, marrying Keyshia Ka’oir, the founder of Ka’oir Cosmetics and Ka’oir Fitness, proceeding to have a child with her in December of 2020, as Gucci introduced Ice Davis to the world. The subtle comeback of Gucci Mane has been more than a sense of his music, in spite of his music’s popularity taking off. Gucci’s struggles as a domestic victim and a childhood growing up in crime set him down a path of failure from the start. It seems Davis finally has everything figured out, despite being dealt a bad hand since he came to this world.
