From City Girls’ JT to Gucci Mane: Six ‘First Day Out’ Songs to Know
By BreAnna Bell
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – With the recent release of City Girls’ Jatavia ‘JT’ Johnson from federal custody, the rap duo is reunited and wasting no time dropping new music. “First Day Out” by JT hit digital music services on Tuesday night, making her the latest rapper to celebrate a release — in more ways than one.
JT opens the track with a voicemail from Quality Control CEO Pierre “P” Thomas, expressing his wish for the rapper to come home before squashing rumors that floated around while she was away — that there’s a riff between her and her partner Yung Miami. “Yung Miami held me down, that’s a bitch ace,” she spits on the track. “And if a bitch try her, it’s a cold case.” Additionally, she quieted gossip suggesting she had gotten pregnant by a staffer at the prison while also managing to squeeze in pop culture references like “The Maury Show,” ’90s film “Player’s Club” and the Tina Turner biopic “What’s Love Got to Do It” starring Angela Bassett. Listen to JT’s track here .
Check out five more “First Day Out” songs below.
Gucci Mane
Regarded as the creator of the ‘first day out’ genre in hip hop, Gucci’s original track is arguably one of the greatest. The “Wake Up in the Sky” rapper posted a throwback clip on Instagram yesterday (Oct. 9) to remind people of that. After stints in and out of jail, Gucci dropped the single in 2009 and signaled to his fans — and competition — that he was back. Gucci eventually released another ‘first day out’ song in 2016 entitled, “First Day Out tha Feds.”
Tee Grizzley
Detroit rapper Tee Grizzley went viral and quickly established himself as one of the breakout artists of 2017 with his song “First Day Out.” Released after completing a three-year stint for home invasion, the song quickly climbed the Billboard charts peaking at no. 19 on the Hot 100. He went on to unleash a remix in 2018 with Meek Mill, whose record of time spent behind bars is well known.
Offset
In April 2015, had been arrested alongside the other members of Migos for drug and firearm charges. Though Takeoff and Quavo were released on bail, Offset spent 233 days behind bars. Upon his release, he quickly told fans he was back and could “never fold” on his family. In a 2016 interview with The Fader , the rapper talked about recording the song saying, “I had to get all that pressure, all that anger, all the thoughts I had in jail [off my chest]. I put it all [on] ‘1st Day Out,’ which I [recorded] that first day I got out.”
Kodak Black
In his “First Day Out” track, the Florida rapper boasted about how he gave his mother “100 racks” once he was released in June of 2017. He served approximately a month of his 364 day sentence for a parole violation from a 2016 conviction.
Tupac
While it’s not usually regarded as a “first day out” song because of its title and the timing of its release, Tupac’s “Ambitionz az a Ridah” could easily be seen as a first day out single based solely on the fact that it was recorded shortly after his $1.4 million bail bond was posted by Suge Knight. As the story goes, the late rapper went straight into the studio and recorded the song along with “I Ain’t Mad At Cha.” Both songs made it onto his album, “All Eyez on Me.”
