'The Autobiography Of Gucci Mane': A Story Of Rap And Rebirth

Gucci Mane has an extensive resume. As a founding father of trap music, Mane's been carving out the rap genre since 2001 when he put out his first underground release: Str8 Drop Records Presents Gucci Mane La Flare. Since then, he has amassed a long list of musical achievements: eight studio albums and dozens of mixtapes and singles.

But before all of that, he was Radric Davis, growing up in Atlanta and watching his dad hustle people on the streets for money.

"You know, he had all kinds of games and scams, like three card molly, shaking the pea, pigeon drop," Gucci Mane tells NPR's Ailsa Chang. "All of these are little scams that he learned — tricks of the trade that he learned in the streets."

And Mane learned them, too. Through much of his climb to the top, he employed these skills while dealing drugs, partially to finance his musical career. He rapped about these exploits in his music, and slowly became known as the