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Rapper Gucci Mane Remains In Custody, Release Details Uncertain

Posted 7/6/11 2:00 pm EST by in arrested, Jail


Gucci Mane

From RapFix:

It’s Gucci time — well not quite yet. With the hip-hop world anticipating the release of Georgia rapper Gucci Mane from prison there have been numerous rumors and false reports.

Over the weekend various Internet media outlets were reporting that the “So Icey” rapper was released from Fulton County Jail, where he’s spent the last three months serving for a probation violation, but RapFix learned that was not the case.

Gucci was expected to be released yesterday, according to his lawyer Ashutosh Joshi, but it seems that “procedural holdups” prevented that from happening. MTV News also learned that there is currently a hold on Gucci’s release and a possibility that once he is freed from Fulton County Jail that he would be sent up to a state prison. The rapper’s lawyer however says that once this issue is resolved Gucc will be free man.

Are you confused yet? Don’t worry our friends at RapFix have it all laid out for you. Read on for the latest and check RapFix throughout the day for updates on Gucci Mane. Read More...

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Lil Wayne Is Coming Back, And He'll Probably Be Better Than Ever

Posted 11/1/10 5:00 pm EST by in Music


It's a big week for the hip-hop world, as one of its favorite sons is about to come home. Lil Wayne is scheduled to be released from Riker's Island this week, ending a jail sentence that saw the rapper serve a total of eight months behind bars. The guy will be emerging in awfully good shape, as he currently has an album on the Billboard chart (the number-one selling I Am Not A Human Being) and plenty of demand from his fans and friends (Drake is ready to bring him back in, and Nicki Minaj's album will be out shortly). As long as he keeps himself clean, he'll be in excellent shape.

Even if he stumbles a bit on his return to the real world, Weezy is on the way to having the most successful post-incarceration career of any recent rap star. Take a look at his peers for proof.

Artist: T.I.
Pre-Jail Success: It isn't easy to carry a nickname like "The Jay-Z of the South," but T.I. managed to pull off the same sort of curious balancing act that Jigga has done over his career — specifically appealing to both hardcore hip-hop heads and mainstream audiences.
Post-Jail Success: Free from his sentence, Tip was preparing to drop his new album King Uncaged (which has since been re-titled No Mercy) when he was arrested for drug possession. He now will be headed back to prison for violating the terms of his probation.

Artist: Mystikal
Pre-Jail Success: New Orleans rapper Michael Tyler began as a soldier in Master P's No Limit army and ended up being the breakout star of that unit with hits like "Shake Ya Ass" and "Danger."
Post-Jail Success: Mystikal owes one more album to his label and is currently working on it. He dropped the single "I'ont Like You" earlier this year which features his former No Limit cohort Fiend.
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Gucci Mane Tells Us What Time It Is: MTV News' #MusicMonday

Posted 11/1/10 3:00 pm EST by in Music


Really, you should be listening to music every day, but thanks to Twitter, Monday has become the best day of the week to discover new songs, show some love to the tune currently dominating your iPod playlist and quietly judge the listening habits of your closest friends. Yes, it's #MusicMonday, one of Twitter's most enduring trending topics. Hence "MTV News' #MusicMonday," a weekly look at the songs we are currently crushing on.

This week, don't let anybody tell you it isn't Gucci time.

Though it has moved 100,000 copies (a very respectable number) since its release a month ago, it still feels like most of the world is sleeping on Gucci Mane's tremendous new album The Appeal: Georgia's Most Wanted. It's one of the most well-balanced hip-hop albums of the year in the sense that it deftly blends the hard-edged stuff with the more throw-your-hands-in-the-air material. Plus, it has some truly excellent collaborations and tag-teams, highlighted by "Haterade" (which features buzzworthy female MC Nicki Minaj and Pharrell Williams) and "Odog" (featuring Wyclef in the best song he has been a part of in years).

But for all the rock-solid beats and behind-bars blues of Gucci's tunes, the centerpiece of the album is the kinda-sorta club jam "Gucci Time." With production by Swizz Beatz (who lays down the sort of claustrophobic absurdism that originally made him a household name with Ruff Ryders), Gucci doesn't turn any particularly memorable phrases, but everything is sitting below the surface. His delivery is so good that he could recite this blog post and make it sound hardcore. That's the power of "Gucci Time," and that's one of the many reasons why many thought he should have been named to MTV's Hottest MCs list.


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Lil Wayne's 'I Am Not A Human Being' Joins Tupac On The List Of Great Behind-Bars Albums

Posted 9/29/10 2:30 pm EST by in Music


The greatness of Lil Wayne's I Am Not a Human Being is still being felt deeply both in the hip-hop community and the MTV Newsroom. Though it's still too early to make predictions, I Am Not a Human Being remains the top-selling album on iTunes and should make in impression in next week's album chart. That's a pretty remarkable feat considering that the artist is currently incarcerated. It's a testament to how devoted Weezy's fan base is (though his blogs and phone calls from jail haven't hurt).

But considering it's only available as a digital release at the moment (the physical album hits brick-and-mortar store shelves on October 12), it will probably be an uphill battle to the top of the chart. Should Wayne figure out a way to the pinnacle of the Billboard 200, he would join Tupac as the only artists who topped the album chart while incarcerated. Tupac's 1995 smash Me Against the World was recorded in the weeks leading up to the beginning of his sentence stemming from a sexual assault conviction and spent five weeks at the top of the chart (mostly on the strength of the single "Dear Mama," an homage to his mother Afeni Shakur — who has had a history of her own legal trouble).

Who else has released top-shelf work while serving as a guest of the government? In addition to Wayne and Tupac, here are the best ones.

Shyne, Godfather Buried Alive
Sent to prison for a decade for assault, reckless endangerment and weapons possession, Shyne's promising rap career was derailed before it could really get started. But that didn't stop him from releasing Godfather Buried Alive in 2004. Composed mostly of vocals recorded before his incarceration (plus one fresh rap courtesy of the prison phone), Godfather Buried Alive is a surprisingly strong album notable for its to-shelf production (care of Kanye West, Just Blaze and Swizz Beatz) and Shyne's signature basso profundo.
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Spotted: Gucci Mane Tastes Freedom In Atlanta

Posted 5/12/10 11:20 am EST by in Music


Every day a multitude of stars wander through the halls of MTV News to talk about their latest projects and goof around with our intrepid correspondents. But sometimes we catch stars elsewhere, and that's why we put together Spotted!, a daily compendium of stars in the wild.

After spending less than a year behind bars for a probation violation, one of the hottest rappers in the game is back on the scene as of Tuesday night (May 11). Gucci Mane walked out of jail in Atlanta and immediately held a press conference to let the world know that he was not only remorseful for the actions that kept him away from the world for a while but also to alert everybody to his plans in the near future. He has launched a new label, working with a new team and putting together his solo album The Appeal as well as full-lengths for Wacka Flocka Flame and his crew the Brick Squad (consisting of Mane, Flame and OJ Da Juiceman). "These past six months have been a difficult time, but fortunately I have learned a great deal from my experience," he told the public. "I was able to do a great deal of soul searching; I am coming out with a new attitude towards life."

Gucci wasn't the only star in the public eye, as Lady Gaga floated around Berlin, Germany and the Rolling Stones celebrated the deluxe re-release of their classic album Exile on Main St. at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Click here for these photos as well as the rest of the "Spotted!" archive, which features over 350 candid shots of stars like Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Jay-Z, the Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, Rihanna and Mariah Carey!

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MTV News' #MusicMonday: Rihanna, Sean Garrett And HEALTH

Posted 12/28/09 4:31 pm EST by in Music


Really, you should be listening to music every day, but thanks to Twitter, Monday has become the best day of the week to discover new songs, show some love to the tune currently dominating your iPod playlist and quietly judge the listening habits of your closest friends. Yes, it's #MusicMonday, one of Twitter's most enduring trending topic. Hence "MTV News' #MusicMonday," a weekly look at the songs we're obsessing about here in the Newsroom. Here's what's on our playlists right now.

Kyle Anderson, MTV Newsroom Blog Editor: "I didn't much like the first two singles from the Rihanna album, but 'Hard' is pretty amazing. It helps that the video is totally cuckoo-bananas, but the beat is tight, the melody is infectious and the verse by Young Jeezy is pure heat. Plus, it actually sounds hard. When Rated R first came out, I listened to it and thought, 'I don't hear a hit,' but it looks like this is another entry in the 'Kyle Was Wrong' folder."
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Last Minute Christmas Gifts From Jay-Z And Lady Gaga: The Oh Snap! Poll

Posted 12/22/09 3:31 pm EST by in Music, Oh Snap Poll


By Steven Roberts

There's only a few days left before Christmas, and if you're anything like us, you still have a lot more gifts to grab. Luckily, there were plenty of CDs released this year, so there's plenty of options for stuffing the stockings of the music lover in your life. In today's edition of the "Oh Snap! Poll," we hit the street of Times Square to ask people what album they want most for Christmas. Hopefully it will give us some insight into what to grab our loved ones.

Christen Estudillo was first in line outside of Footlocker waiting on a chance to buy a pair of Space Jam Air Jordan XI's. He said he was excited to get a copy of Jay-Z's The Blueprint 3. "It's pretty different, new kind of music. [He's] always coming out with something better to impress the fans."

Then we met mom Diane Lobell. She said she was in the city to drop her daughter off for an appearance on "Glenn Beck," but she couldn't wait to tell her daughter that she was on MTV News. She also couldn't wait to get her hands on a copy of Lady Gaga's The Fame Monster. "I love her. She's just so cool," Lobell said. "I saw her on some show a couple of weeks ago. She's just amazing."

Prince from Harlem wanted to get ahold of new albums from Gucci Mane and Alicia Keys, as well as a copy of Beyoncé's I Am ... Sasha Fierce for his wife. When we asked him why, he smiled and just replied "She likes Beyoncé."

What album do you covet most for Christmas? Do you want Eminem under your tree, or would you prefer the soundtracks from "Glee"? Leave your thoughts in the comments!

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50 Cent Premieres 'Crime Wave,' Reminds The World Of Gucci Mane's Bling

Posted 10/27/09 3:06 pm EST by in Music


The economy is recovering slowly, but let's be honest: Times remain tough both on Wall Street and Main Street. But there are some people who clearly aren't feeling the pinch as much as the rest of us. Rapper Gucci Mane is one of those characters. It's not particularly shocking, as the Atlanta native has got plenty of caché behind him: He scored himself a high-profile guest spot on the remix of Mariah Carey's "Obsessed," landed on the list of the 10 Hottest MCs in the Game, has been killing it in the mixtape game and is looking forward to the release of his second full-length album The State vs. Radric Davis. So it's no surprise that in this wintry economic climate, Gucci is one of the few who can still sport (and afford) a solid piece of bling. It's not new (he's been sporting it for a few years), but 50 Cent just unveiled his new song "Crime Wave" (which features Gucci) and he included this photo of Mr. Mane.

Gucci told HHN that he "wanted to have a chain that was gonna shock the world and was gonna draw a lot of attention to me. So I thought about it while I was in jail. I was thinking about the colors and I wanted to have something crazy like the Big Cat chain, so I just went with Bart Simpson. I got a new one now though with a heart and an arrow going through it." Lately, Gucci has expanded his bling repetoire (including an Atlanta Falcons helmet and a ridiculous watch), but it's the Bart Simpson bling that gets us every time.

Meanwhile, "Crime Wave" is a crazy-good hardcore song that sounds grimy and cinematic at the same time. Between this and "Baby By Me," Before I Self Destruct is looking more and more like one of the top albums of the year.

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RapRadar's Elliott Wilson On Hottest MCs: 'Gucci Mane Merged The Underground With The Mainstream'

Posted 10/2/09 4:08 pm EST by in Music


By Elliott Wilson, Founder and CEO of RapRadar.com

You could almost guarantee Gucci Mane was gonna crack the Hottest MCs list this year, but you just weren't sure where he would place.

Truth be told, ATL's brightest new star is in plenty of folks' top fives. Yes, La Flare isn't your traditional master of ceremonies, but no artist this year has more effectively merged the underground with the mainstream. He's broken through in '09 and shined through the clouds of controversy that have continued to dampen his career.

A longtime presence in the mixtape playground, the People's Champ (sorry, Mr. Wall) continues to assault the streets ("Awesome" with Snoop Dogg, "Wasted" with Plies and it's remix with OJ da Juiceman) while loudly becoming the go-to guy for aiding R&B heavyweights back to the top of the charts. He brought punch to Mariah Carey's stalker tale ("Obsessed") and gave Mario his biggest hit since Ne-Yo shared his pen game ("Break Up"). At press time, he was even trying to save Omarion's career. Good luck with that one, Gucc!

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JD Pumps Up the Crowd at Lollapalooza Pre-Party

Posted 8/7/09 12:30 pm EST by in Lollapalooza


By Steven Roberts

Jermaine Dupri got a head start on the party here at ?Lollapalooza last night when the Atlanta impresario DJed a set last night at Underground ?here in Chicago.

Last year Katy Perry took the stage at Underground for own Pre-Lolla celebration at ?Underground. The pop pin-up unexpectedly performed "Ur So Gay," "Hot n Cold" and - what would a Katy Perry show be without - "I Kissed a Girl" to packed house. While the crowd certainly wasn't expecting the JD to hit the stage, they were hyped to hear how good of a DJ the So So Def head honcho was.
I actually was enjoying the previous DJ. I don't know the guys name, but he spun some tracks I hadn't heard in years. When is the last time you heard Hi-Five's "I Like The Way (Kissing Game)?" But as the clock struck midnight, and the crowd began to fill in, it was evident that they hadn't come to hear sped up early 90's R&B jams - their loss.

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