Troubled Atlanta rapper Gucci Mane yesterday celebrated his recent release from a mental institution by getting one of the ugliest face tattoos possible, a bright, giant triple-scoop ice cream cone that shoots lightening bolts. In happier times, the spectacle might be laughed off as another manifestation of the rapper's carefree eccentricity, but coming on the heels of Gucci's compounding legal (and apparently mental) struggles, fans have reacted mostly with bemused sadness.
The rapper is due in court later this month on multiple traffic and probation violations, and his legal team has argued that he is mentally unfit to stand trial. Gucci's face tat would certainly seem to support those allegations. The more cynical corners of the Internet are speculating that the rapper is trying to manufacture the appearance of craziness to escape prison, but those suggestions downplay the severity of the insanity plea. It is not a get-out-of-jail free card that lawyers play lightly; even if Gucci were exempted from standing trial, the court could easily have him committed again.
Gucci seems to be mirroring the tragic trajectory played out most famously by Ol' Dirty Bastard, who was often cheered for his wild, law-skirting antics until the final years of his life, when it became apparent they were a symptom of either the drug addiction or mental illness that would lead him to his grave. More recently Pimp C suffered a similar if less spectacular downfall.
To be sure, rappers can break free from these tailspins. It was just a year or two ago that Lil Wayne's various addictions, legal problems and dental ailments placed him high on death-watch lists, but Wayne seems well out of the danger zone now. It seems incomprehensible today, but 13 years ago Snoop Dogg seemed in danger of meeting Tupac's fate; now he's seen as one of the cleanest, most adjusted rappers in the business. And DMX's criminal record, among the most epic and over-the-top of all rappers, dictates he should be dead several times over, but he's still very much alive, albeit institutionalized.
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Too often, rappers' legal, mental and drug struggles are greeted as a source of entertainment, especially those of eccentrics like Gucci, whose persona tends toward the absurd. As ridiculous and even comical as it is, though, for now it would be a mistake Gucci's heaping face ice cream cone as anything other than a dire warning sign.
