Gucci Mane's "Trap House" Essentials

Along with T.I. and Jeezy, Gucci Mane is among the class of ATL rappers who are credited with founding trap music as we know it today. He's done this not only by dropping an absurd amount of music (even from behind bars), but also by locating his city's most promising young artists and grooming them to become the city's next wave. With the fifth and final of his Trap House tapes dropping out of nowhere last night, we're looking back on the best tracks from one of GuWop's most successful series. 

Starting with his 2005 debut studio album, and concluding with last night's addition, here's a chronological list of the highlights from the Trap House albums and mixtapes. We could probably stretch this to as many as 25 cuts, but in the interest of brevity, we're limiting it to ten.

From Vol. 1

Gucci emerged on the scene with fizzy, technicolor sound mostly constructed by Zaytoven. Trap music would get more menacing as time went on, but the inaugural Trap House is filled with uptempo, catchy-as-fuck gems like "That's All." Although his style's changed quite a bit in a decade, GuWop still drops lines like "Give a bitch a dub if she let me touch her titties" that couldn't come from anyone but him. 

From Vol. 1

Gucci and Jeezy's very public beef (which climaxed with Wop shooting and killing a man allegedly sent by the Snow Man to kill him) often overshadows the fact that they came up together in the early 2000s. Their big hit together was "So Icy," a Zaytoven-helmed banger that adds a little bit of a Latin sound to GuWop's zany trap. 

From Vol. 2 (AKA Back To The Trap House)

The second of two big remixes on this album (the first being the Ludacris and Lil Kim-featuring "Freaky Gurl"), this reworked version of Hard To Kill's "Pillz" contains one of Gucci's most well-known hooks. In 2013, it was rumored that Wop quoted this song when asked by a judge if he was guilty ("Bitch I might be"), but unfortunately those claims were unsubstantiated.

From Vol. 2

Of all the bonkers, batshit beats in Zaytoven's arsenal, "Bird Flu" might be the craziest. Combining thunderous percussion with his typically wonky synths and some "hoo" "hah" vocal samples, Zay produced a sound that hasn't really been attempted since, even in the ever-adventurous sonic landscape of ATL. 

From Vol. 3

Recently serving as the opening theme for Noisey's ATL documentary, "Mama" is an unusually soulful song for Gucci. Included on Trap House 3, which arrived six years after its predecessor in the series, the track features a hell of a hook from SickPen and some impassioned rapping from GuWop.

From Vol. 3

Trap House 3 is a key release in Gucci's discography because it's the first that sees him tapping a new generation of ATL talent that includes Rich Homie Quan, Peewee Longway and Young Thug. Although "Off The Leash" may not be quite as essential of a Gucci/Peewee/Thugger cut as the classic intro from the World War III: Lean tape, it's still a great argument in favor of a joint release from the three. 

From Vol. 4

Featuring a monstrous beat from Mike WiLL and some of Gucci Mane's funniest lyrics yet ("I use Cristal for Listerine/I brush my teeth with purp codeine/I wash my face with bottled water/Drink champagne straight out the bottle"), "Top Out The Trash" is a sure highlight of volume four. The first of several "Big Gucci Sosa" collabs, this track shows how compatible Wop is with Chief Keef. Although the East Atlanta Santa is always more likely to collab with people from his hometown, when he crosses state lines, he never makes it sound like a stretch. 

From Vol. 4

When you see Gucci Mane and Drumma Boy's names on the credits of a track, you'd rarely expect it to be a love song, but "Dope Love" is as close as Gucci's ever gotten to recording one. Sitting alongside similarly misty-eyed cuts like Migos' "What You Doin" (actually released on another Gucci tape), this one is obviously druggier than your average pop love song, but has Wop longing for a partner to get with-- enough to incite an "aw, shucks" from his longtime fans.

From Vol. 5

The latest addition to the Longway/Gucci/Thugger canon, "No One Else" arrives in the midst of a Young Thug hot streak that's also included fire solo cuts like "Halftime" and "Check." This is the zooted ATL weirdo at his most reigned-in, giving a performance that's subtle by his standards. Longway goes IN on the second verse, and Gucci somewhat surprisingly holds his own when closing out the track. This one should be thumping out of car windows all summer long.

From Vol. 5

Honorable C.N.O.T.E. is fresh off creating the best-ever hybrid of trap and rave music on Rae Sremmurd's album, so it's only right that he kept on experimenting with the sound on Gucci's new tape. This time, he interpolates the melody from Salt-N-Pepa's "Push It" and winds up with one of the poppiest songs in GuWop's discography.