Waka Flocka Flame has a diss track for the currently-incarcerated Gucci Mane. Having been friends and label-mates, this schism seems pretty interesting. Nice beat and a particularly scathing criticism. Drug use, question of authenticity (“I’ve been shooting pistols since seventh grade.”) number of goons willing to shoot for them, and attacking Gucci for causing strife solely for attention.
“P.S. Don’t get caught in that/Dissin’ for promotion/All in your feelings/all in your emotions/Just for attention/you cause all this commotion/Ni**a you just talking/you don’t really want all your business in the ocean. “
– Waka Flocka Flame “Ice Cream” Oct 2013.
I actually think Waka has some good points.
He also has the status to call out Gucci like no one else can. Waka has taken the Snoop Dogg path to success. Astounding tour concerts. Relentless affection for his fans, and a consistent ability to stay out of gossip blogs.
Remember Waka volunteering to go naked for PETA? Like Snoop, Waka seems “like a grown-ass rock star” as one of his buddies puts it in a video. He is a taylor made celebrity — with toxic violent raps and a Fozzy Bear sized lovable personality. Waka, like Snoop before him has chosen a particularly thin road to walk for fame. Playing cute in morning shows and rapping about shooting people at the same time.
If Waka releases videos full of debauchery and destruction, he loses a significant portion of his buying public. Something Gucci is now facing — perhaps the myriad offenses cease to be explainable. Fans desert you and your albums are not purchased.
But Waka (and Gucci Mane and a million other roughneck emcees) still have to articulate an image of outlaw anti-social behavior. In most cases, they choose to emphasize their wealth (suggesting that it was garnered through drug sales and not through regular work, music, savings or investing.) In other cases, they mark their own perpetual return to the criminal life.
Of course telling a couple of hundred thousand fans (and increasingly interested cops) about your criminal behavior has potential consequences. It seems like cops listened to Waka and Gucci when they raided Deb Antney — Waka Flocka Flame’s manager and mom.
Antney, who heads up Mizay Entertainment, was frustrated because her company is scheduled to host a toy drive Thursday. She said when she arrived on the scene, police called her “the Candy Lady” and suggested she was the ring leader of the prostitution operation.
“Of course I’m not gonna sit back and be called ‘the Candy Lady,’ ” she said. “There was no prostitution. And we’re not gang-affiliated.”
(Pause for a minute to ask ANY of you how you would do with the cops raiding your mom’s house?)
I’m not blaming musicians for rhyming about criminality. I’m interested in how Waka stayed famous, rich and out of jail, while Gucci is alienating everyone and in prison for the next six months (at least).
Part of it has to be Waka noting that those who commit crimes when trying to rhyme are “hustling backwards.”
“Why would I try to rap and then street gangbang?” he added. “That’s hustling backwards. I’m good. I dropped the album Flockaveli, and it’s doing numbers. I think ‘No Hands’ is platinum or on the road to be. I’m in the top three albums of the year…I’m going in, man.”
Life of refinement 