Music, Marriage and Gucci Mane: Thoughts on 2015
“Yeeeeeah, it's Gucci!/What's up baby?/Yellow err'thing this time, you know what I'm talkin' bout?/Yellow rims, yellow big booty, yellow bones/Yellow lambs, yellow M-P's/Yellow watch, yellow charm ring, chain/Yellow livin' room set/Lemonade Gucci shoes for my girl/Gucci!”
These words constitute the intro to Gucci Mane's 2009 single "Lemonade." In 2015, I practiced reciting these words religiously in the weeks leading up to my wedding.
I practiced other things, too — the two-step for our first dance, set to Tegan and Sara's "Love They Say"; the cheeky choreography to the mother-son dance for Pharrell's "Happy"; the tonal shifts in my wedding vows; the Beyoncé parts of "Crazy In Love," for our karaoke after-party; not crying while watching my wife walk down the aisle. But on my laundry list of pre-wedding tasks to do accomplish (which I kept in my iPhone notes) was “memorize the intro to Gucci Mane’s ‘Lemonade.’” I wanted to get every turn-of-phrase correct for the big moment.
That maybe makes me insane. That probably makes me lame. I don’t care. It filled my heart with joy, just like everything did that day. It’s my musical memory of the year.
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