Gucci Mane Concert Protested by North Carolina Students

Southern rapper Gucci Mane has carved out quite the reputation for himself in 2009. After serving a short prison stint in 2006 for murder charges that were later dropped, the ATL rapper collaborated with several artists including Mariah Carey, the Black Eyed Peas and Mario while his current single "Wasted," peaked at #50 on Billboard's Hot 100 Charts. But despite his current commercial success, Mane's bad boy reputation still precedes him and continues to rub folks the wrong way.

This week, students and school officials at the North Carolina A&T campus came forward to protest Mane's scheduled performance at an October 31st concert on school grounds. The line-up for the concert includes other hip-hop acts such as Keri Hilson, Trey Songz and Fabolous, but the student body expressed specific concern about Mane's presence. In addition to his now infamous murder case, rumors of Mane's gang ties have continued to make campus officials nervous.

North Carolina Chancellor Harold Martin explained that the school carefully examined their options as far as replacing Mane in the show. "We are trying to determine if this artist can be replaced under the existing contract, how that would be done, [and] what the fiscal result would be," he said Martin said that a substantial part of the dilemma was making a decision between an artist who would draw more profit versus an artist with a cleaner image. "This is frankly exactly the kind of intellectual debate we should be having at this university," Martin said. "It is important, and it raises the intellectual climate when we ask these difficult questions about our community."

After deliberation, school officials concluded that it might be too late to replace Mane in the concert lineup because of contractual issues and the number of tickets already sold.

The title and release date for Gucci Mane's rumored Fall 2009 album have not yet been announced.