Gucci Mane is remembering his late companion Takeoff with an emotional new recognition song.
The “Both” rapper, 42, shared the song “Letter to Takeoff” on Tuesday, fourteen days after the Migos rapper, 28, was shot and killed external a Houston bowling alley on Nov. 1.
The hip-bounce artists were longtime companions and collaborators, and Gucci Mane appeared on the new single “Us versus Them” with Takeoff and Quavo, Takeoff’s uncle and Migos bandmate.
The song finds Gucci Mane lamenting his misfortune while also remembering the many other youthful rappers who have been lost to firearm brutality, as PnB Rock and XXXTentacion.
“Just left another funeral, I shed a tear/I’m still in disbelief, I can’t trust it’s real,” he raps.
“How the f — we gon’ lose Takeoff? Damn, he didn’t merit it/We shouldn’t question God, yet damn, Takeoff was awesome.” In the verses, Gucci Mane says he’s had to deal with all of the various stages of melancholy since losing Takeoff, and also gives hollers to PnB Rock, 30, who was shot and killed in Los Angeles in September, XXXTentacion, 20, who was fatally shot in Florida in 2018, and Youthful Dolph, 36, who was gunned down in Memphis last year. Shawty Lo, who died in a car accident in 2016, also gets a holler.
Elsewhere in the track, Gucci Mane offers a shoulder to lean on to Quavo, who was available at the hour of his death.
The rapper also references the emotional shelter he’s taken in “pints of lean,” however says the medication left him hospitalized.
Gucci (real name Radric Davis) references Takeoff’s Nov. 11 funeral, which occurred at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, and says he considered him a “younger sibling.
” He also recalls the last words Takeoff at any point said to him, which were “I love you.” The song concludes with a moving spoken outro: “Long experience The Rocket. We love you, Takeoff. We miss you already. We never gon’ forget you… Takeoff, you will forever be in my heart. It’s been more than 10 years since I met you at my studio. I knew immediately you would be a star. You abandoned some amazin’ recollections that will last forever. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about you. We talk about you still and you won’t ever be forgotten. Love, Gucci.”
Gucci Mane also released an accompanying music video took shots at a graveyard, which features old photographs and recordings of Takeoff and other rappers lost to firearm viciousness.
Takeoff, real name Kirsnick Khari Ball, was shot earlier this month outside the front entryway of a Houston bowling alley after a private party following an altercation.