Whereas followers got here to know Gucci Mane because the hitmaking lure pioneer, behind the mic, Radric Delantic Davis was quietly navigating a psychological well being disaster. In his new memoir “Episodes: The Diary of a Recovering Mad Man,” the rapper opens up about residing with bipolar dysfunction and paranoid schizophrenia, and the work it’s taken to remain grounded.
Throughout a current sit-down with “The Breakfast Membership,” Gucci and his spouse, Keyshia Ka’oir, shared how they’ve managed his psychological well being over time.
“I skilled him going via episodes earlier than we have been married, and I used to be like, ‘Man, any person obtained to assist this man,’” Ka’oir recalled. “It’s actually unhappy since you’re seeing somebody you don’t know. They’re saying issues to you which might be so disrespectful, so imply, and you need to be identical to, ‘however I’m not speaking to Gucci. Who is that this particular person?’”
Ka’oir stated she felt referred to as to remain by his facet, even when it wasn’t straightforward.
“I felt like if I left, he wouldn’t have been the identical. He wanted somebody to assist him. After which once we have been speculated to get married, somebody stated to me, ‘You already know, you’re going to must take care of this via your marriage, proper?’ And I’m like, I’m cool with it. I’m going to repair him,” she continued. “Him being Gucci man with out me, nobody helped him as a result of he’s the artist. Nobody goes to say, ‘Gucci, you’re not effectively. Gucci, you want drugs.’ They simply carry on giving him the weed, giving him the medicine, and he retains on conserving on. In order that was the issue. Nobody took the time to love, ‘Rattling canine, one thing is basically incorrect with you.’”
And years later, his spouse of eight years is a pillar in his psychological well being care, as he navigated episodes that he typically wouldn’t bear in mind.
“You’re not in your thoughts. You’re type of like in a warped world, it’s nearly prefer it’s a psychosis,” Gucci Mane shared, making an attempt to explain what an episode appears like. “It’s not…and also you’re listening to voices too.”
Generally describing it as insanity within the guide the rapper explains how: “Insanity is sort of a very evil facet of me. It’s very no compassion, no empathy, like void of simply of fine. It’s like a empty eyes, soulless. I say essentially the most meanest issues,” he shared noting how embarrassed he can be by a few of his feedback. “Like I can’t even consider I be saying stuff. I [didn’t] even suppose I understand how to curse and say stuff like that. I be going so deep into the dungeon. I’m so embarrassed about what I stated afterwards. Like that’s that’s the place the insanity prefer it’s dangerous.”
The episodes have been fueled by anger and impulsivity, in response to the rapper. Gucci recalled freely giving jewellery and cash whereas in manic states, typically to buddies who knew one thing was incorrect.
“I’d give my buddies jewellery, and so they knew I wasn’t effectively and so they’d take it. They’d take benefit. I felt like, ‘Rattling. They know one thing was happening with me, however they’ll take it.’ So, like after I obtained out of jail, I minimize off all my buddies, my previous buddies. I’m like, rattling, they have been taking benefit,” he added.
To handle these episodes, Ka’or explains that she needed to create a strict and stern system to guard her husband and his model.
“I take apps off his cellphone. Very first thing I do, I delete Instagram. I delete the whole lot. Even when I obtained to alter his password, I’m altering it as a result of I don’t want the general public to know he’s having an episode,” she defined. “You notice you’d by no means learn about every other episode since September thirteenth as a result of I management that. You’re not happening Instagram, you’re not happening Twitter, it’s deleted. I simply management the whole lot at residence.”
She continued, “And now, earlier than the episodes come, I catch it. In order that’s why he hasn’t had one other one. And the way you catch that’s he doesn’t communicate to you. He desires to be left alone. He don’t eat. He doesn’t sleep. Textual content messages. There’s a interval after every phrase.”
Regardless of the unpredictability of his episodes, which he says may very well be triggered by something from drug use, sleep deprivation, stress, and even anesthesia, Gucci says he has not had an episode since he and Ka’oir had their first son collectively, Ice, in 2020 and their daughter Iceland in 2023.
“These deep episodes gained’t occur ever once more. We’re in 2025. So the final one was 5 years in the past. He had a gentle one coming perhaps two years in the past, and I caught it. So now I catch them earlier than they arrive,” Ka’oir defined.
Fatherhood, Gucci provides, has saved him regular.
“What scared me was, I can not ever let my youngsters see me like that, and I can by no means not be on level to be wanted to deal with the enterprise of elevating the child. Like I get them up for college day by day. I can’t be within the hospital. My little boy can’t even stand a day with out me. He be like, ‘Dad, I’ll miss you after I go away.’ So, I simply need to be on level for my youngsters.”
