The English written companion of Fake For Real: since 1997, reviews and articles about rap music

GUCCI MANE - Mr Zone 6

Mixtapes

GUCCI MANE - Mr. Zone 6

I don't know about you, but as far as I am concerned, I am done. I lost track. I can't follow anymore. Too many mixtapes. And with the most recent ones, those from 2013 and 2014, too many fillers. The gems are still there, but you need lots of energy and dedication to find them. When you are a fan of Gucci Mane, you're left with two alternatives: waiting for others, the most committed, to do the job, and separate the wheat from the chaff; or go back to basics, for example that one, Mr. Zone 6, he released in 2010 – not to be confused with The Return Mr. Zone 6, his album from the same year – one of the most recent, among Guwop's classics.

GUCCI MANE - Mr Zone 6

1017 Brick Squad :: 2010 :: buy this mixtape

When he released it in June 2010, with the help of DJ Drama, Gucci Mane had just moved from one of his main occupations – spending time in jail – to the other one – recording rap songs. Consequently, this mixtape was highly expected, especially since the year before had been the greatest of his all career. With outstanding releases like Writing on the Wall and The Burrprint, a signature with Warner, and his move from the underground to a large audience, 2009 had secured his place in the pantheon of hip-hop. He was, maybe, the most significant rapper of the times.

Mr. Zone 6 wasn't a unanimous success. Is there anything unanimous, anyway, in Gucci Mane's career ? But it was a highlight nonetheless. The usual elements were there: Guwop's sing-song kind of rap; nursery rhymes like with "Dat’s My Life"; small, catchy, and regressive synthesizer melodies, on "Rooftop" ,"Koolin’", and "Makin Love to the Money"; absurd and extreme gangsta rap ego-trips, with a bit of deadpan humor. Gucci Mane inverted all decent values: abnormality was the new norm on "Normal"; girls were no longer people, but luxury goods, while money was worth being loved and turning sentimental, on "Makin Love to the Money". These were the same things, the same formula. If you hated Gucci Mane, you had another good reason to pretend that his songs were just mass products.

However, this mixtape also had some decisive elements: the parsimonious but crucial support of others like, on "You Know What It Is" and "Stove Music", his protégé Waka Flocka, at his high point in 2010; and also, just to prove wrong those who considered he was a wack rapper, a particularly skillful Gucci Mane on the mic, able to be an equal to Bun B and Yo Gotti on "Its Goin Up", or to rap double-time on "Dat’s My Life". And the beats, on the mixtape, were equally good.

Produced by Gucci Mane's best producers, from Drumma Boy to Zaytoven, the music was excellent. Such was the case with the accelerated rhythm and sirens of "Its Goin' Up", with the super catchy "Normal" and, last but not least, with the ethereal and perfect "Long Money", the final and climax song on the mixtape. Recorded quickly in just one month, Mr. Zone 6 was album-quality material, without any of the compromises usually associated with an official and commercial release. It was another highlight in Gucci Mane's impressive body of work. With it, he was not only Mr. Zone 6, the boss of his area in Atlanta. He was just Mr. Rap.

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