There are scenes from Gucci Mane’s new autobiography that seem better fit for a gripping Oscar drama than for the story of a guy who recently won his first MTV Video Music Award for a guest spot on a Fifth Harmony song. Stories about hustling drug dealers, hiding from would-be assailants, and spending thousands of dollars on lean (purple drank) make up just as much of The Autobiography of Gucci Mane as his rise through the rap charts as the O.G. of trap music.

Gucci’s book follows him from his childhood in Alabama through his most recent prison stint in 2016, and if there’s a unifying theme to Gucci’s story, it’s that whenever his life seemed to be going great, a precipitous fall was around the corner. Whenever his music career seemed ready to explode into true mainstream success, Gucci would almost always soon find himself behind bars, on charges ranging from assault to firearm possession. Guwop’s memoirs of his crippling addiction, what it was like to be accused of murder, and his various beefs don’t exactly portray him as a saint, but it does make his transformation into one of rap’s cuddlier faces all the more shocking. “The biggest thing is that it's all 100% true,” Gucci told GQ earlier this month.

Today, Gucci acknowledges that it was more than just being in the wrong place at the wrong time; you could say the takeaway from The Autobiography of Gucci Mane is that you really, really don’t know how bad things almost got for Gucci Mane. He actively made harmful decisions, whether it was continuing to sell drugs when his music career was taking off or refusing to seek help for his dependency on lean when those around him begged him to do so. In fact, Gucci’s biggest regret isn’t necessarily the decisions he made, but how he treated those who tried to help him.

“I made was a series of decisions that were wrong. But if there’s one thing I would really change, I disrespected a lot of people,” Gucci said. “I treated them poorly. And a lot of them didn’t deserve it. I was immature. I wish that never happened.”

One of the book’s more harrowing scenes occurs right in the prologue, when Gucci recalls getting stopped by officers who claimed they were checking on him at the request of a friend. The officers were telling the truth, but an increasingly delusional Gucci refused to believe them, and he began threatening and yelling at the cops until he was subdued. Gucci was (illegally) carrying a firearm during the incident, and it’s not difficult to imagine a scenario in which the situation could have turned out out much worse.

It wasn’t until his most recent stay in federal prison that Gucci finally turned the corner. In years past, he says, he made empty statements about remorse, only to fall into the same bad habits that drove him to jail in the first place. In his latest stint, though, Gucci was forced to fight off his addiction, and started reading autobiographies and books about philosophy.

You could say the takeaway from The Autobiography of Gucci Mane is that you really, really don’t know how bad things almost got for Gucci Mane.

“I feel like the time away from my family, my career, it helped me grow,” Gucci said. “It was all taken away from me. I lost a lot of the years of my life to jail, but it could have been worse." He adds: "The last time I ended up getting only a couple years. After that happened, I was so grateful and blessed. It was manageable time, it let me appreciate life, my job, my opportunity. I got another chance, and I really want to take advantage of it.”

You could argue Guwop has done precisely that: Since May 2016, he has proposed to his longtime girlfriend and released two studio albums, with a third on the way in October. And perhaps most impressively, he’s been doing more things with a smile on his face.

So what's next? Gucci wants to write another book, keep making music, and hopefully help develop another star or two. (One of the more charming parts of Gucci’s story: meeting younger versions of the Migos and Young Thug. Quavo and Takeoff arrived to Guwop's studio wearing fake chains that they dumped in the trash after Gucci gave them real ones, while Thugger wore a mask to cover up his teeth.) Perhaps most importantly, sharing his story gives him another opportunity to inspire others.

“The biggest thing is, if Gucci can do it, you can do it,” Gucci told GQ. “If Gucci can overcome obstacles, you can do it. If Gucci can come from humble beginnings and turn into a multimillionaire, you can do it. If Gucci can go to prison and still have a thriving career, you can do it.”

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