Gucci Mane has had a busy year. So far he's starred in Harmony Korine's "Spring Breakers", released 5 mixtapes, been in and out of jail, and had a highly publicized beef with Waka Flocka Flame. That's not even mentioning his new album Trap House III which dropped last week, and his recent Brick Squad signee Chief Keef. Gucci spoke with XXL, detailing much of his busy year, including his time spent in the pen with Young Scooter, his recent love affair with auto-tune, studio-life, and his belief that he and Waka will work things out eventually.
Check out some choice excerpts from the interview below.
XXL: There was reportedly an issue with iTunes releasing Trap House III a few days later than originally planned. What happened there?
Gucci Mane: They said that some of the files we had sent to them was corrupted, so it was some sort of technical error. They apologized for it. I don’t think they did it on purpose, ‘cause they get a percentage of that too. So it was unfortunate, but it’s the No. 3 album on iTunes right now.
“Hell Yes” and “Point In My Life” are great. You’re really doing a lot with the Auto-Tune.
I love that shit man. I could do that shit good. That’s why I keep fucking with it.
The album was initially supposed to come out in July. What made you bump it up?
I really wanted to drop something before Memorial Day Weekend. I always felt like Memorial Day Weekend is the beginning of the summer, so as a strategic move I felt I needed to drop something for the hood. To coincide with people going to Myrtle Beach and people going to Puerto Rico and people going to Miami. I wanted my music to be the theme music for the summer.
You’ve dropped five mixtapes this year in addition to this album. Do you ever leave the studio?
I don’t even go to sleep. I just record 24/7. I don’t leave the studio because you never know when you’re gonna make a big song that will change the whole situation. It’s not like, ‘Tomorrow I’m going to go to the studio from 10 to 6 and the next day I’m going to go from 6 to 12, and then I’m going to make a hit the next day.’ One day I might make no songs ‘cause I might be tired or the next day you might not have no good beats. Music comes when it comes, so I always want to be around the music.
What are you working on now?
I’m just working on my Brick Squad group album which will drop this summer. It’ll be me, PeeWee Longway, Young Thug, Dolph and of course Chief Keef. I even got songs with Waka on there. I’m just gonna drop a collection of all the best songs we’ve been making. I dropped a mixtape for every artist on my label, so now I feel like it’s just time to put our album together and show everybody the chemistry we got together.
Speaking of Waka, what’s going on with you guys right now?
There was more of a miscommunication and things got misconstrued. But we got too much of a good thing. Whatever we got to work out, we always work it out.
That’s what everybody wants to see happen. So how did you and Keef link up?
He a big fan of mine and I just see a lot of potential in him. I feel like all these years I’ve been in the rap game, there’s a lot of things that I wish I could have did a different way. So I just feel like if nothing else, I just want to give him some advice so that he can just enjoy his career. Just show him that trouble is so easy to get into. It’s really more of a big brother thing. There’s a business arrangement of course, but I just really like him as a person. He hard. He for real. The young people take to what’s real, what they perceive as authentic.
Is it true that you and Young Scooter were cellmates in jail recently?
Yep. We were locked up in the same jail. That’s true.
How did you guys spend your time there?
We would see each other in jail. I don’t even…I’m so glad to be out of there. I don’t even want to talk about being in jail. I just can’t wait ‘till Scooter come out of there. I understand why somebody on the outside of jail looking in on somebody would want to know about it, but to me, there’s just not much I could say about it.
Scooter’s album was also supposed to come out in July. Is that going to be pushed back?
Scooter says he wants to push the album back so he can promote it more. He don’t want to just throw his album out there before going out and telling the people how hard he worked on it. He’s got his own label too, and as his partner I got to respect his wishes. He’ll be home soon. It’s unfortunate, but he’ll come home soon and reap the benefits of his hard work.
A lot of people were talking about your appearance in Spring Breakers. Do you plan on doing any films again anytime soon?
Thank you man. I really appreciate that. I got another one coming out in June that I executive produced. It’s called The Spot. It’s got me and Keyshia Dior. It got Rocko in it. It’s got like two or three Atlanta comedians in there. It’s like a comedy. It got Scooter in there. It got OJ in there. That shit crazy.