Yesterday was a truly bizarre day in hip-hop. It started with news of a shooting at a T.I. concert the night before in New York, and reports soon connected to the incident to Troy Ave, as the NYPD caught footage of the Brooklyn rapper opening fire in a VIP green room. That footage was released to the public, and Troy has since been arrested on charges of attempted murder, among others. Ultimately, though, it was a joyous day, made possible by the surprise return of Gucci Mane, who had been locked up in an Indiana penitentiary for almost three years.
During that time, he kept his name in the game by releasing more music from behind bars than just about any rapper with his freedom still intact. He was the subject of many tribute tracks while he was incarcerated, and just about every rapper in Atlanta, stars and young talents alike, paid him homage at one time or another. Still, it's hard to keep up with a constantly changing music scene while confined to a cell in the middle of nowhere. While the rap world celebrated his homecoming, Gucci was intent on starting up right where he left off by cooking up some fresh dope in a fully tricked-out ATL studio. He had some bars prepped for the occasion, and all he needed was a beat, which one of his closest collaborators, Mike Will Made-It, was more than willing to supply.
"First Day Out Tha Feds" is certainly an example of an effective comeback track for a man who's been separated from his craft for far too long. In making the track, Wop faced the pressure of pleasing his longtime fans along with the challenge of sounding fresh in a vastly different climate. He delivered on both counts, but what makes the track special is the energy in his voice and his flow -- the pain and suffering of the past few years combined with the excitement of returning home to a city that loves him is a potent and gratifying force.
Gucci is far from the first big-time rapper to spend time in jail and come out with the intent of proving himself as an even stronger competitor. Over the past several years, rappers such as Lil Wayne and T.I. have wasted no time assimilating back into the free world after lengthy stints in the pen, instead using new music to make it as if they never left. Here is a recent history on the art of the post-prison comeback track. Of the tracks that follow, tell us your favorites in the comments.
T.I. Releases "I'm Back" in March 2010
T.I. has been keeping his affairs squeaky clean over the past few years, but few rappers of comparable status have spent as much time in the joint as he has. In early 2008, he pled guilty to weapons charges and served a year on house arrest (during which he released Paper Trail, his biggest commercial success) and then went to prison in May 2009, where he stayed until December of the same year. He wouldn't be fully released back into the public until March 2010, and during that month, while he was still in a halfway house, he released the single "I'm Back."
Though the track intended to signal that his return would be permanent, "I'm Back" found T.I. channeling the street sound of his early work instead of the poppy club anthems of Paper Trail. Nonetheless, "I'm Back" became a top 50 hit and was nominated for a Grammy.
Lil Wayne Guests on "Fire Flame" & Then Drops "6 Foot 7 Foot" in Late 2010
On March 8, 2010 -- the same day that T.I. released "I'm Back" from his halfway house, Lil Wayne was sent to Rikers Island after pleading guilty to attempted criminal possession of a weapon about five months earlier. The charges stemmed from an arrest outside of an NYC concert in Summer 2007. He would stay in Rikers until November 2010, and his first new raps surfaced 12 days after getting out, as he was featured on Birdman's "Fire Flame," which, before Wayne's early release, was supposed to be a solo track.
Knowing Birdman, he probably didn't make it easy for Wayne to drop new music immediately upon his Rikers release. Bird was also glad, no doubt, to have Wayne's return help send his new single up the charts. Even so, this was when the father-son duo was on the same page (or so we thought), and Wayne supplies most of the fire and the flames on the explosive Cash Money collab.
"Fire Flame" helped boost the excitement around Wayne's first post-prison track of his own, which would drop about a month later. "6 Foot 7 Foot" was the first single off the long-awaited Tha Carter IV, which wouldn't be released until late into the next summer. The track featured Young Money's Cory Gunz, and it was something of a stylistic heir to "A Milli," boasting an even more bizarre Bangladesh production. It was divisive upon its initial release, but "6 Foot 7 Foot" did prove that Wayne possessed the game's wildest imagination and a vicious means of expressing it. The single ended up reaching as high as No. 2 on the Hot 100 and has since been certified 3x platinum.
T.I. Drops "I'm Flexin" in November 2011, After Serving (Another) 11-Month Sentence
After "I'm Back," T.I. didn't stay on the outs for long. In October 2010, he was arrested for drugs in L.A., and though the drugs charge was eventually dismissed, he would still be sent away two months later for violating his probation. He went to prison for 11 months, and on the same day that he got out, he released his second post-prison comeback single in under two years. The song features and is produced by then-rising (now-certified) Mississippi artist Big K.R.I.T. Hopefully "I'm Flexin" will be the last fresh-outta-jail track of Tip's career. It's certainly a good one to end on.
Boosie Returns After 5 Years in March 2014
In March 2014, Boosie Badazz returned to Baton Rouge after spending almost five years in federal custody. Immediately upon his release, before he offered any words to the fans from whom he'd been separated for years, he uploaded a couple of clips that he titled "The Ride Home Freestyle" to YouTube. About two days after coming home, a new Boosie track surfaced titled "Same Game." The next day, however, was when his most forceful statement of musical freedom hit the streets, as he teamed up with his closest collaborator Webbie for "Wartime," on which Boosie unleashed all of the pent-up rage from his lengthy incarceration.
Meek Mill Drops 2 Comeback Freestyles to Start 2015
A charge that Meek Mill caught when he was a teenager has continued to haunt him throughout his rap career. He recently made it through three months of house arrest for violating his probation, and in July 2014, a parole violation earned him six months in jail. Everyone remembers the memes of an overjoyed Meek running back onto free land, but it took the Dreamchaser over a month after his return to put out new music. Meek fans found that it was worth the wait, as in January 2015, he dropped off two freestyles on the same day. He first took on the Wu-Tang's classic "Ice Cream" beat in a powerful, politically-fueled burst of fury, and he then dropped some ridiculous off-the-top flows on a freestyle he titled "The Get Back," produced by Jahlil Beats.
In retrospect, Meek easily hustled his way back into the game's top tier with the release of the two freestyles, giving fans what they had been missing most from the unhinged young rapper: BARS. Bars that had been simmering for months in a Philly jail cell.
Offset Drops "First Day Out," Produced by Murda
During the almost seven months that Offset spent in prison last year, the Migos released their debut album as well as a couple of mixtapes. Despite their continued success, the group wasn't the same without him, and after getting freed in December, Offset headed straight to the studio to record "First Day Out," which would drop the next day.
Instead of having his first raps appear on a Migos track, Offset wished to use "First Day Out" as means of reminding fans about his individual skills -- his tight and focused rhythm as well as his penchant for especially punishing punchlines. The young Canadian Murda Beatz was down in Atlanta just for the occasion, and he let loose a trap monster to help Offset make his comeback statement. The unstoppable and organic energy with which the track came together comes right through the speakers.
GuWop Returns with the Mike Will-Produced "First Day Out Tha Feds"
After over three years away from the sprawling Atlanta scene that he helped create, the Trap God came home yesterday. He returned -- fit as a fiddle, having shed his codeine gut -- to a new Maybach from his day-one shorty Keyshia Ka'oir, and after a quick cruise and whatever additional romancing she had in store for him, he went back to the place he inhabited before his Indiana jail cell: the studio. Who else to provide Gucci with his welcome back banger than his longtime producer Mike Will Made-It, who has delayed his Ransom 2 mixtape in the hopes of getting a Gucci verse.
Mike Will made it, Gucci Mane slayed it. On "First Day Out tha Feds," Gucci is back in full-force with bars so clean that he must've spent countless hours polishing them in prison. What'd y'all think he was doing for all that time -- besides releasing a total of 24 projects, of course? Now that he's out, expect even more releases of even higher quality. May he stay free forever.