While Gucci Mane brought the holiday cheer with his new 1017 compilation project So Icy Christmas, the 1017 mogul used the album’s closing track to pay homage to his friend Young Dolph, who was gunned down on November 17 while out buying cookies in his hometown.
“Had to blaze one up for Dolph, don’t think they felt ya like I feel him,” Gucci raps on the track’s opening bars. “Same n-ggas wanna be ya be the ones that come to kill ya.”
Later in the track, Gucci speaks directly on how crushed he is at Dolph’s passing, and how he feels artists are never given their flowers while they’re alive.
“Never get your flowers while you’re here, and damn, that says a lot,” Gucci spits. “All this senseless violence that I’m seein’, I swear it needs to stop / Humans killing other human beings almost ’round the clock / In a circular, circlin’ the block.”
Gucci is one of the many rappers (and fans) still reeling from Dolph’s death. Once word spread of his murder in November, LL Cool J, Westside Gunn, Russ, Megan Thee Stallion, Quavo and Chance The Rapper were just a few of the artists mourning his loss.
Key Glock, Dolph’s cousin and closest collaborator, took the news especially hard.
“Damn bro, im LOST,” Glock wrote on Instagram. “My heart is torn my brain bout to explode it HURTS when I breathe…why you leave me so soon?? I’ll never be the same, you was my lefthand man,my brother,my cousin,my mentor and drank partner for the past two years I been taking LOSS AFTER LOSS and still can’t understand why.”
View this post on Instagram
So Icy Christmas features Pooh Shiesty, 2021 HipHopDX Rising Star Foogiano, Enchanting, BigWalkDog, Big Scarr, Hotboy Wes, and BiC Fizzle. The tape is the third 1017 collaborative effort of 2021, following in the footsteps of So Icy Boyz in October and Ice Daddy in June. Before that, they released So Icy Gang Vol. 1 in 2020, which peaked at No. 46 on the Billboard 200.
Gucci Mane’s So Icy Christmas was just one of the many big projects to drop on Friday (December 17). Roddy Ricch also released his highly-anticipated sophomore effort LIVE LIFE FAST, and Boldy James and The Alchemist connected for some more bar-heavy rap magic on Super Tecmo Bo.
Listen to “Long Live Dolph” below.