Album Review: Gucci Mane- The State VS Radric Davis II: The Caged Bird Sings
I caught a cold over Christmas—for a few reasons, probably,
one of which is the fact that my wife and I were so busy with family
obligations, we just ran ourselves into the ground. The other reason is that
over the holiday, I was at a social function where a lot of people who were
already sick insisted on hugging me, and I was around a lot of disgusting,
sticky children that don’t cover their god damn mouths when they cough their
disgusting, wet, hacky, kiddie coughs.
The reason that this is important (and it is; It’s so very
important) is because I started listening to this new Gucci Mane album while I
was sick, and I made a few attempts at writing a review of it while I was sick,
but because I was sick, I grew incredibly listless, and I moved on to checking
my Facebook page for the millionth time.
Having a cold may have clouded my judgment on The State VS Radric Davis II. In one of
the various Word Documents that I started but never saved, I believe I
described this record as being “not inherently bad, but also not great.” I’d
like to retract that statement right now. Because this record is inherently
bad. It’s beyond that, actually. It’s boring and insipid, and the more time I
spend with it, the less I like it.
Who exactly is Gucci Mane? Well, he’s a rapper who has an
ice cream cone tattooed on his face.
There’s probably more to him than that, though. But I mean.
If you’ve got an ice cream cone on your face FOR LIFE that’s maybe how you are
going to be defined. Ok, look, I may not be a subject matter expert when it
comes to Gucci Mane, but I do know that, judging by his antics as of late, we probably need to #pray4gucci.
Anyway, mental health problems and crippling addiction to
codeine aside, while I listen to The
State VS Radric Davis II, I search desperately for redeeming qualities, and
I find very few to mention, if any at all. The album is long (over an hour) and
it starts to wear on your patience after the very first song. Every track (all
seventeen of them) is based around the same generic, boring trap-style
percussion and “cinematic” sounding synthesizers that Southern hip-hop artists
tend to favor.
Lyrically, more often than not, Gucci Mane is horribly
insipid. There were a few times, I think, that something was clever enough to
make me chuckle, but not memorable enough to stay with me. What did stick with
me was the uncomfortably racist “kung fu” sounds on the second track, “Jackie
Chan,” and then the homophobic diatribe on “#Mentionme.” Also, someone who is
facing some pretty serious prison time probably shouldn’t write a song called
“Fugitive,” which includes the lyrics, “Gucci
Mane was a fugitive…No serial number, my Uzi a fugitive.”
Not that I have, like, the illest flow, or whatever, and
maybe Gucci’s general wellness was affecting his ability to perform, but damn,
he just comes off as lazy and uninspired on The
State VS Radric Davis II. To me, it sounds like he’s often allowing the
beat to get a step ahead of him, falling behind, and never really caring enough
to try harder.
In the end, Gucci shows some remorse on the track “Threw
With That Shit,” where he claims to be giving up his love of lean, weed, women,
and diamond jewelry. The discovery and reversal come up very suddenly, however,
because he’s spent a bulk of the first 16 songs on the record discussing just
how much enjoys all of those things. And given his well-publicized problems
with substance abuse, one is left wondering if this is a case of life imitating
art, or art imitating life.
The State VS Radric
Davis II is not the kind of record that is out to win Gucci any new fans—or
at least, not make a new fan out of me. It’s a sloppy and rushed sounding
record, with some questionable production values—the vocals are noticeably rough
in many places. While this may have been a terrible record, I do feel bad for
Gucci Mane, and his current situation with his mental health and wellness, as
well as a slew of criminal charges he is facing. So even though I will never
listen to this album again, I will continue to #pray4gucci.
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