<\/p>\n
Believe Me<\/span> \u201cI just wanted to hear myself again,\u201d YFN Lucci<\/a> says on a chilly evening in Atlantic Records\u2019 cozy Manhattan office this past November. He\u2019s referring to the moment he\u00a0got back in the\u00a0studio for the first time after his prison release over nine months ago. It was a humble enough request for a multiplatinum-selling artist, since behind bars, there are\u00a0only lonely nights, no recording sessions, and more worries than new lyrics.<\/p>\n This time last year,\u00a0Lucci was fresh out. No more days\u00a0sitting alone in a cell at Forsyth, Ga.\u2019s Burruss Correctional Training Center. Tonight, he\u2019s seated with his right foot out of its sock and his $500,000 Smiley pendant sitting atop his black sweater like a flattened disco ball. The 35-year-old rapper can record any time he wants, but for now, he\u2019s on a press run in New York City, promoting Already Legend<\/a><\/em>, the first album he dropped since he came home last January. The project, released on Sept. 26, 2025, was an exhale years in the making. Lucci had to endure a prison attack and rumors of snitching and betrayal while inside. \u201cIt was my time to finally speak out,\u201d he says. He had to hold his breath though.<\/p>\n Near the height of his career four-and-a-half years ago, Lucci, born Rayshawn Lamar Bennett, was arrested on 13 RICO charges that could have sent him to prison for decades. With his blend of blood-stained melodies and aspirational theme songs for trap glory, he\u2019d made himself a canonical rap star in the Atlanta continuum\u2014only to have all of that momentum stripped away along with his freedom. Now, after having 12 of the 13 RICO charges dropped, pleading guilty to one violation of the Street Gang Terrorism and Prevention Act, and returning home after nearly four years behind bars, he\u2019s out to continue the level up he began years ago.<\/p>\n More immediately, he\u2019s eating bacon cheese fries from Wingstop! with his team surrounding him. Generally, he\u2019s been in the studio frequently after having his first recording session just two days after his release. Because of his probation, he\u2019s no longer allowed to drink or smoke. His sobriety and all the time he had to spend away from his four children have made him look at life with more clarity. Also, through a more precarious lens. \u201cI just think I\u2019m more mature and more business-minded now,\u201d Lucci shares. \u201cA lot of sh*t don’t matter; only the family, my music, my business and my time.\u201d<\/p>\n On the business side, he\u2019s launched his own label, Already Legend, and he says he\u2019s signed a fellow Atlanta rapper named BHM Pezzy. Lucci is also into real estate. \u201cI’m working on trying to purchase buildings right now, too,\u201d he reveals. \u201cIt’s coming. You gotta crawl before you walk.\u201d<\/p>\n On the family end of things, Lucci tries to spend as much time with his kids as possible. \u201cI finally can hold them and be present,\u201d he expresses. \u201cI always spent time with my family and my kids, but just spending more time. I know you can’t never get that time back.\u201d<\/p>\n Lucci is free and sitting on the success of an album that sold 28,800 equivalent album units in its first week of release. By any measure, it\u2019s a series of big wins, however, getting to that point was an Odyssean road coated in violence, discouragement and unflattering speculation. Like many rap stories, that journey began with tragedy.<\/p>\n During a Dec.12 2020 gun battle with another party, one of Lucci’s friends was severely wounded as they sat in a moving car on an Atlanta street. Amid the attack, Lucci\u2019s fatally wounded friend, James Adams, was pushed from the car as he and his team sped away from attackers. Adams died in front of witnesses on a nearby street shortly thereafter. Lucci turned himself in to police\u00a0on Jan. 13, 2021, for the murder before posting a $500,000 bond and being placed on house arrest. Months later, in May of 2021, Lucci and 12 other men were indicted for a RICO case, with one of the charges being connected to the death of Adams.<\/p>\n While behind bars starting that year, Lucci was separated from his children for the first significant amount of time. He also faced rumors that he had betrayed his friend by pushing him out of the car, though he says he wasn\u2019t phased by the claims. \u201cAt the end of the day, it’s an opinion. You weren’t there. So you don’t know the facts,\u201d he maintains. When he wasn\u2019t facing isolation or attacks on his character, he dealt with a literal assault. In March of 2022, he was stabbed by another inmate and claimed that he feared for his life. When Lucci wasn\u2019t fighting for his life, he was facing despair and boredom.<\/p>\n Gilles, an attorney who operates as Lucci\u2019s creative director, remembers using his status as a lawyer to visit the rapper at a time when pandemic-era jail restrictions prevented inmates from seeing friends and families in person. Removed from his wealth, infrastructure and the armor of his inner circle, Gilles could tell Lucci was distressed. \u201cYou go from living such a great life to people telling you what to do, when to do it,\u201d Gilles says. \u201cAnd [prison guards] are oftentimes hell bent on chomping you down the size,\u201d he adds. \u201cThis is a chance for [them] to not just put anybody in their place, but to put YFN Lucci in his place.\u201d<\/p>\n Lucci\u2019s place was a cement block cell, and Gilles remembers Lucci telling him about moments he was harassed by prison guards. It\u2019s an understandable thing to get upset about while not throwing away your future at the same time. \u201cI was like, ‘Bro, understand where you’re trying to go,’\u201d Gilles remembers. \u201c’You’re trying to come home and that sh*t don’t matter. Once you\u2019re out, you’re never going to think about these people again.’\u201d<\/p>\n To help Lucci escape the prison walls\u2014at least, mentally\u2014Gilles began maximizing the institution\u2019s four-book per month limit, bringing Lucci copies of books like Don Miguel\u2019s The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom<\/em> or 50 Cent and Robert Greene\u2019s The 50th Law<\/em>. During some visits, Gilles would bring an empty green book to the cell. They called it, \u201cWe Are Making History,\u201d and in it, he would take notes he made regarding future Lucci releases, potential legal strategies and more.<\/p>\n The book served as a way they could both look to the future. But before that, Lucci had to beat the case in front of him and put to rest conflicts from the past. Namely, a Young Thug feud that had turned deadly when members of Thug\u2019s alleged crew, YSL, had shot and killed Donovan “Nut” Thomas Jr., a close friend of YFN Lucci’s, in January of 2015. The murder was a central part of the RICO case against Thug. Lucci was arrested on separate RICO charges just a year before Young Thug was. For his part, Lucci was open to moving past their issues, with a little encouragement from another local Atlanta superstar.<\/p>\n \u201c[21] Savage, reached out to me while I was incarcerated and he asked me, \u2018How you feel about getting on the call with [Young Thug], [and] y’all discuss y’all differences, and just see?’\u201d Due to legal stipulations, Thug and Lucci couldn\u2019t have literal contact, yet a truce was made, and they both landed tracks on their latest albums, UY Scuti <\/em>and Already Legend<\/em>, respectively. It\u2019s the sort of reconciliation that, at least vaguely, calls to mind Gucci Mane and Jeezy\u2019s feud-ending Verzuz battle.<\/p>\n It arrives at a time when people have said Atlanta hip-hop\u2014a scene plagued by the deaths of Takeoff, Trouble and Rich Homie Quan\u2014is weaker than ever. When it comes to how he views the city’s spot in the culture, Lucci is agnostic, but hopeful. \u201cIn a way it could be true, but it’s all about unity,\u201d he says of Atlanta rap\u2019s perceived decline. \u201cOnce everybody starts coming back together, it’s going to be good.\u201d<\/p>\n If you let naysayers tell it, the future of the region\u2019s rap scene is in doubt. In Lucci\u2019s mind, his status as an area titan is not. That\u2019s of course the implication of his latest LP title,\u00a0Already Legend<\/em>. <\/em>As lucid as it is unsparing, the album is a diaristic bloodletting that distills all the frustrations of his time between prison walls. \u201cIt was real easy because I had a lot to talk about,\u201d he says of recording the project. The weight of his experiences is only buoyed by his soaring melodies that make the catharsis exhilarating.<\/p>\n For tracks like \u201cPractice What You Preach.\/RoboCop.,\u201d\u00a0 he condemns the Atlanta District Attorney\u2019s office while lamenting bonds broken by his RICO charges. With its muted bassline and stern piano keys, it feels like clarity.\u00a0 Meanwhile, on \u201cJAN 31st (My Truth),\u201d he addresses the day his friend was killed. Lucci says he didn’t let discussions about the incident affect him, but the song\u2019s mournful piano bassline and his own confessional bars tell a story of a dormant pain that never left his prison cell: \u201cLook, they say I threw my mans out?\/When you on a move sometimes it don’t go how it planned out\/Tribulations got me this far\/Rest up \u2019cause your grandson made it this far.\u201d<\/p>\n Although it\u2019s more celebratory, the hook for his album\u2019s title track tells a similar tale of trauma and triumph: \u201cLook what I did\/I took every loss and then I turned that to a profit\/I can’t reach my goals with everybody in my pocket\/I can’t trust a soul, but I know pain, but I can’t block it.\u201d He might not be able to block the pain, but he might be able to move past it. At least enough for some much-deserved self-congratulations. \u201cIt\u2019s not nobody giving me my legendary status; that\u2019s how I feel about myself,\u201d he raps. \u201cI\u2019ve been in the game 10 years. I\u2019ve got hits, and I\u2019ll get more hits.\u201d<\/p>\n With prison and a new album behind him, he can look to the future, which he hopes includes owning half of Atlanta on his way to becoming a Rick Ross or Jay-Z-esque mogul. \u201cThey started with music, but they got so much other sh*t,\u201d he explains. He\u2019s also interested in an acting career, though he hasn\u2019t signed up for any acting classes yet. Right now, he has a few new songs out, “You Special.”<\/a> and “On My Mind.,” and he’s on the road for his Already a Legend Tour<\/a>. The trek goes throughout February. He says the\u00a0final stop will be at Atlanta\u2019s State Farm Arena, where he previously performed this past August. After years away, the significance of that particular show isn\u2019t lost on Lucci. \u201cIt was emotional,\u201d he tells. \u201cI knew I was back.\u201d<\/p>\n He’s back onstage, but he hasn’t returned as the same man he once was. During his first days returning to the studio, Gilles remembers a more bright-eyed Lucci affirming that he didn\u2019t need drugs. He also noticed a new kind of sobriety. \u201cHe\u2019s literally sober now because he’s got to be,\u201d says Gilles, who compares Lucci to Tupac Shakur in his authenticity. \u201cBut I think there’s also the sobering that comes from what he had to survive the ordeal. So today I look at [Lucci] as somebody [who says], ‘Under no circumstances am I going to f**k this sh*t up.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s tempting to split Lucci\u2019s life into before and after, even if it is reductive, but Lucci knows there\u2019s been a change. \u201cBack then I took a lot of sh*t personally, but now I know it ain\u2019t personal; it\u2019s business,\u201d he admits. If there is an old version of Lucci, there\u2019s also a new one. And there\u2019s also a lot to celebrate.<\/p>\n \u201cI think [the younger version of me] would be very proud of me,\u201d Lucci insists. \u201cEverything I said I was going to do, I’ve been doing it. And I ain\u2019t done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since coming home from prison last year, YFN Lucci is set on leveling up. New music, a nationwide tour and a clearer look at the endless possibilities freedom allows.
Words:\u00a0Peter A. Berry<\/em><\/p>\nListen to YFN Lucci’s Already Legend Album<\/em> Gifted Edition