Gucci Mane Says “Life in prison was hell”

Hip-hop fans celebrated a huge victory when famed Atlanta rapper, Gucci Mane, was released from prison back in May. After serving three years in a maximum security prison, Gucci is finally home serving the remainder of his sentence on house arrest. In his short amount of time as a free man, he has dropped the smash radio hit “Back on Road” featuring Drake, released a new album entitled “Everybody Looking” and is planning a nationwide Gucci Mane and Friends tour once his house arrest ends in September. However, the Gucci Mane that left us isn’t nearly the same man that returned a few months back. He sat down with Fader to talk about life in prison, his new sober lifestyle, and being called a clone. Peep the excerpts from the interview below.

On life in prison:

Life in prison was hell. If I could do it all over again I think it helped me a lot to get to the point I am not. You know, to drive me out from the drugs, gave me time to reflect, made a lot of relationships that was just toxic in my life just fall away, and just set up a boundary for when I got out. But at the same time it was a maximum security prison and people we dying every week, it was a lot of death, a lot of violence.

On being locked up and being famous:

I’m a celebrity but at the same time I feel like I’m a hell of a man. And you know besides being a celebrity, I’m just going to always honor myself like a man. And it don’t take people long to see that and that’s how people are going to have to approach me period. Whether I’m in jail, whether I deal with the police, whether I deal with anybody. I’m going to always be a man.

On how sobriety has changed him:

I think I’ve been sophisticated. I’ve been super smart. I was on drugs so bad, I talked different. When I was smoking damn near a pound of weed every other day, I was congested. When I was drinking lean like crazy every day, I was out of my mind. It ain’t even the sophistication, it’s just a sober more conscious Gucci.

On being called a clone:

It’s funny to me. I guess that people aren’t used to being healthy and taking care of myself and being happy. So I can understand why they’re shocked… It’s funny. I embrace it. A clone is, like, perfection. So if I look like a machine or a robot, then I’m doing something well.

By –@jaimelynne_