Talking about the final track on a brand-new, just-released album is a little out of line, so, MUSICAL SPOILER ALERT. “Grown Man” featuring Estelle and produced by Jim Jonsin though, is a good way to start unpacking The Appeal: Georgia’s Most Wanted and it’s been on the internet for about a week now anyway.
“Grown Man” is a follow-up to The State Vs. Radric Davis‘ “My Own Worst Enemy,” wherein Gucci, who is usually, actively opposed to introspection, drops a very sincere, rolling evaluation of where he’s at in terms of not beating people with pool cues, not violating parole, etc. There’s something incredibly touching, yet still very Gucci-like about his proud, album-ending declaration, “I’m a grown-ass man.” In part because he sounds a uncertain when he says it, but also because it’s Gucci being mature on his own terms; gotta love that colloquial “grown-ass.” The whole song works like that, and it begins with the A.A-style mantra that unravels itself: “I was lost but now I’m found/I was blind but now I see/Super high, can’t touch the ground.”
Rap’s always been about these clever balancing acts, asserting one thing and not necessarily the other even if it makes sense to assert that thing too and Gucci’s working with that type of deconstruction here. Yes, he’s a fuck-up and a maniac but say, being “super high” is perfectly acceptable and totally separate from getting his life together. Not to mention his reasons for getting his shit together have to do with his losses (“I’m mad as hell because my best friend probably gonna die in jail”) and responsibilities (“I got a point to prove and a son to raise”), not some higher power moral thing. You know, real shit: my friend’s gonna be dead in a cell, I got my mom to take care of, I can make a shit-ton of money if I stop being a knucklehead.
The sound of therapy’s also running through Gucci’s lyrics and though that isn’t “cool,” it is a very good thing. You’re hearing a guy trying to figure out his life. Notice his ability to trace his behavior to his family and upbringing—keeping up the balancing act approach, he still gives his father and grandfather respect but frames them as part of a pattern he’s trying to break—and an understanding of his environment’s affects on him too. There’s a ton to quote here but it almost feels unnecessary because he’s not dropping one-liners that sound dope or funny, but a series of introspective confessions in a sober, somber tone and an entertaining, hypnotic double-time but kinda roving style. All this makes it a “mature” rap song that is still very much a Gucci Mane song! There’s nothing compromised about this track.
Basically, the same way he’s got all those songs where he riffs on a single word (“Heavy,” “Ridiculous,” “Normal,” “Weirdo”), is he now rapping about getting his shit together. The Appeal isn’t hyper-focused—despite ending with “Grown Man” this is not a concept album—but copping to one’s mistakes is a recurring theme throughout and Gucci, because he’s a craftsman, he primarily approaches it as a word-game first.
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[...] please baby. Come choose me.” And there’s album-closer “Grown Man” which I talked about here [...]
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