Gucci Mane Talks Addiction, Prison, More On ESPN’s ‘Highly Questionable’

Gucci Mane, photographed by Johnathan Mannion

While 2016 was disheartening with all the celebrity deaths and the presidential election, one of the year’s bright spots was the ascension of Gucci Mane. He emerged from prison having lost weight, kicked his drug addictions, and clearly happier with his life. He went on to release several projects in 2016, including two studio albums (Everybody Looking, The Return of East Atlanta Santa),  multiple mixtapes (Woptober, 1017 Vs. The World with Lil Uzi Vert, Free Bricks 2 with Future), and more.

But while fans saw Gucci Mane before and after prison, they didn’t see the tough journey that he went through to get here. In a revealing interview on ESPN’s Highly Questionable with Dan Le Batard and Bomani Jones, East Atlanta Santa spoke about his that journey in stark detail.

Gucci Mane said that after defending himself from an attempted robbery, that he was paranoid about possibly ending up in prison from defending himself from someone else. He also spoke about drying out from lean, calling it “the worst feeling in the world,” and shares lessons he learned while in prison. Le Batard and Jones brought one of Gucci’s most personal interviews yet, and it makes his success last year feel even more powerful. Watch the video below.