Gucci Mane

Festival d'été de Quebec, Quebec QC, July 12

Photo: Renaud Philippe

BY Erin LowersPublished Jul 15, 2019

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Over a career spanning two decades, Atlanta rapper Gucci Mane created and maintained a distinct sound despite the trials and tribulations that have stared back at him.
 
Fans have seen Gucci Mane through the chapters of his life, from a lean-dependant and overweight rapper incarcerated several times to the clean, shredded and doting husband who's still making hits. But through it all, July 12 in Québec City marked a particularly important accomplishment in Gucci's career: his first-ever show in Canada.
 
Taking the main stage at Festival d'été de Québec Friday night, Gucci Mane excitingly came out to his Drake-featuring collaboration "Both."
 
"They said Gucci will never be able to perform in Canada and look at me now," he laughed through his pearly whites. It was a moment long in the making and the crowd happily cheered — even when he mentioned how excited he was to be in "Montréal" not once, but three times.
 
With a catalogue as expansive as Gucci Mane's, his performance read like a history lesson. From classic cuts like "Bricks," "I Think I Love Her," "East Atlanta" and "Lemonade," to his guest verses on 2 Chainz's "Good Drank" and Migos' "Slippery," Gucci Mane paced back and forth across the stage, spitting for his full hour-long set.
 
Though Gucci made it evident that he could perform for several hours and still have his breath, his performance was marred slightly by not pausing to actually engage with the young crowd, who were evidently there for Logic. Maybe he knew it, maybe he didn't, but it wasn't necessarily the reception expected for the veteran rapper's first Canadian show.
 
Despite that, you could still feel Gucci Mane's excitement through every smile he cracked and every verse he rapped, and that was enough.
 

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