The Transformation of Gucci Mane at 45: “I shook off my demons now I’m back to myself”

If you’ve seen rapper Gucci Mane the past few years, you can tell he is living his best life. Just taking a glance at his social media, you’ll see him cheesing with his wife and now his son. It’s a stark difference, not just physically, but socially, for the rapper. Some people even says it’s not the same Gucci.

In a previous Instagram post celebrating his birthday, the now 45-year-old Gucci held his precious newborn son. In the caption, the rapper expressed gratitude for how far he’s come in his life and how his family is his biggest blessing.

Born Radric Delantic Davis, rapper Gucci Mane has had a roller coaster life in his hip hop career: from a rising star to being sentenced to jail, only to come out better than ever, at the top of the charts, smiling all the time now and got married to the love of his life. Gucci is riding all the waves of life, whether up or down. According to him, he’s able to adjust to those waves better now due to dealing with something that’s not readily discussed in the Black community: mental illness. Gucci Mane opened up about his mental health and addiction in an interview with ESPN’s Highly Questionable.

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In the interview, Gucci speaks about how he developed PTSD after a robbery in 2005. Additionally, the stress of his music career along with the possibility of facing 20 years in prison after he was charged with two counts of possessing a firearm as a felon in December 2013 only made matters worse.

“I feel like I was going to try to kill somebody for trying to kill me,” said Gucci of his paranoia before going to prison. “I was never afraid. I just kinda, in my mind I felt like someone was going to try to hurt me, do something to force my hand and defend myself and hurt them.”

Before serving three years in prison, Gucci had a daily habit of abusing various substances including alcohol and lean–a mixture of soda and codeine/promethazine-based cough syrup. While he went through withdrawal in prison, he was motivated by the fact that he was given another chance at life with his reduced sentence.

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The rapper was facing 20 to 30 years, but he was able to negotiate a deal that only required that he serve three years. “I felt like I could still manage it. I could still have a career when I got out and not lose my whole life. It was like, ‘Let me fix my life,’” says Gucci.

Since his release from prison, his main priority is getting his mental and physical health back on track. “I had time to sit back and evaluate everything, and also dry out from the drugs. I tried to make the time work for me the best I could,” said Gucci. “I didn’t want to live my life in prison. So I was like, one thing I need to do is be totally sober. I need to have complete clarity. I need to have razor sharp focus on everything I do, every day from when I wake up to when I go to sleep.”

Historical adversity, which includes slavery, sharecropping and race-based exclusion from health, educational, social and economic resources, translates into socioeconomic disparities experienced by…