If you’ve seen rapper Gucci Mane the past few years, you can tell he is living his best life. Just taking a glance at his social media, you’ll see him cheesing with his wife and kids. It’s a stark difference, not just physically, but socially, for the rapper. Some people even says it’s not the same Gucci.
In a previous Instagram post celebrating his birthday, the now 45-year-old Gucci held his precious newborn son. In the caption, the rapper expressed gratitude for how far he’s come in his life and how his family is his biggest blessing.
“This is one of my best birthdays,” wrote Gucci Mane. “I have a beautiful healthy baby boy! An amazing wife! My label doing great! Man, I couldn’t ask for nothing else!”
Born Radric Delantic Davis, rapper Gucci Mane has had a roller coaster life in his hip hop career: from a rising star to being sentenced to jail, only to come out better than ever, at the top of the charts, smiling all the time now and got married to the love of his life. Gucci is riding all the waves of life, whether up or down. According to him, he’s able to adjust to those waves better now due to dealing with something that’s not readily discussed in the Black community: mental illness. Gucci Mane opened up about his mental health and addiction in an interview with ESPN’s Highly Questionable.
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In the interview, Gucci speaks about how he developed PTSD after a robbery in 2005. Additionally, the stress of his music career along with the possibility of facing 20 years in prison after he was charged with two counts of possessing a firearm as a felon in December 2013 only made matters worse.
“I feel like I was going to try to kill somebody for trying to kill me,” said Gucci of his paranoia before going to prison. “I was never afraid. I just kinda, in my mind, I felt like someone was going to try to hurt me, do something to force my hand and defend myself and hurt them.”
Before serving three years in prison, Gucci had a daily habit of abusing various substances, including alcohol and lean–a mixture of soda and codeine/promethazine-based cough syrup. While he went through withdrawal in prison, he was motivated by the fact that he was given another chance at life with his reduced sentence.
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The Kidnapping That May Have Saved His Life
The hit rapper hopped online to tell his followers all about his upcoming new memoir, titled “Episode.” If you’ll remember, in 2016, he released his debut memoir, “The Autobiography of Gucci Mane,” which took a long look at his life, professional and personal successes. But now, in this forthcoming project, it’s set to take an even deeper dive into the popular Atlanta rapper’s mental state and pull back the veil on his inner struggles and the why behind some of his headline-making decisions.
In an attempt to give fans a taste of what all “Episodes” will cover, Gucci revealed that during a rough period of time after he was found guilty of violating his probation, he was admitted into a mental health facility in 2011. However, in Gucci’s post on Tuesday, he shockingly shared that his then-girlfriend (now wife) Keyshia Ka’oir had to “kidnap” him in order to get him to go there.
“Anybody who got family members, or they [are] dealing with mental health issues, you need to get this book. This talks about my struggles through my adult life with mental health,” the “Woptober” rapper said.
He continued: “It’s talking about a whole bunch of different episodes in my life. It talks about the time I was high as hell and got the ice cream cone tattoo. It talks about the time when I was going through an episode and my wife kidnapped me with my six bodyguards from the porch and had to take me to a mental hospital.”
Gucci was facing 20 to 30 years, but he was able to negotiate a deal that only required that he serve three years. “I felt like I could still manage it. I could still have a career when I got out and not lose my whole life. It was like, ‘Let me fix my life,’” says Gucci.
Historical adversity, which includes slavery, sharecropping and race-based exclusion from health, educational, social and economic resources, translates into socioeconomic disparities experienced by African Americans today. Socioeconomic status, in turn, is linked to mental health: People who are impoverished, homeless, incarcerated or have substance abuse problems are at higher risk for poor mental health.
But, since his release from prison, Gucci’s main priority is getting his mental and physical health back on track. “I had time to sit back and evaluate everything, and also dry out from the drugs. I tried to make the time work for me the best I could,” said Gucci. “I didn’t want to live my life in prison. So I was like, one thing I need to do is be totally sober. I need to have complete clarity. I need to have razor sharp focus on everything I do, every day from when I wake up to when I go to sleep.”
“After you start doing it for a year, then it turns to two years,” said Gucci said of his sobriety. “Once I got out and start doing it, it makes me a better person, a better artist, it makes me all the way stronger.”
We’re proud of Gucci Mane and his progress and we can’t wait to see how his story inspires others to be honest about their mental state and seek the help needed to get better.
Now, Gucci has even more to smile about. He’s going to be a dad again!
The 40-year-old rapper shared the happy news that the couple was expecting by posting a photo of Ka’oir posing in black lingerie, with straps and lace outlining her baby bump.
“My wife pregnant my life is great @keyshiakaoir ❤️🔥🥶,” Gucci captioned the pic. Ka’oir shared a snap from the same photoshoot but of a different angle, cheekily confirming the pregnancy in her caption.
Back in 2019, Ka’Oir tweeted that she hoped to one day have a son with her husband, writing, “I think it’s time I get off birth control and have us the cutest lil baby boy.”
Congrats again to Gucci!
