Yo Gotti是上世纪90年代末期那一波从南方崛起的硬核说唱歌手之一，他也是以纽约黑帮头目John Gotti作为自己艺名灵感的多为说唱歌手之一，其他人还包括了Big Gotti、Don Gotti、Juan Gotti、Bazooka Joe Gotti和Irv Gotti。Yo Gotti的音乐风格以匪帮说唱为主，新奥尔良的Master P和他的No Limit阵营以及西岸的N.W.A.、Dr.Dre和Tupac都对于他的音乐有很多影响；而在歌词方面，Yo Gotti则像极了奥克兰地区的传奇歌手Too Short。

Yo Gotti出生在孟菲斯，他经常在歌词中唱到，“straight from the North”，这并不表示他来自美国北部，而是指孟菲斯的北边：臭名昭著的脊顶住宅区。当地频繁发生的治安事件和街头暴力是Yo Gotti歌词的素材来源，不过除了这些街头故事，他也经常做一些关于性爱的歌曲。在孟菲斯地下说唱界建立了一定名声的Gotti从2000年初开始灌录唱片。

首先他在Inevitable旗下发行了处子专辑《From da Dope Game 2 da Rap Game》，随后他又在同一厂牌下推出了《Self Explanatory》(2001)和《Block Burnin’, Vol.1》(2002)。之后，Yo Gotti转投TVT Record，在2003年发行了《Life》，其中第一单曲“Dirty South Soldiers”找到了亚特兰大旷客音乐大师Lil Jon合作。2006年，他为大热电影《Hustle & Flow》录制了插曲“Full Time”，并随即推出了个人第五张专辑《Back 2 da Basics》。

by Alex Henderson

Yo Gotti is among the many hardcore rappers who came out of hip-hop's Dirty South school in the late '90s. He is also one of the hip-hoppers who derives part of his stage name from the late New York mafioso John Gotti; others have included Big Gotti, Don Gotti, Juan Gotti, Bazooka Joe Gotti, and Irv Gotti. Not all Dirty South recordings are gangsta rap, but Yo Gotti has favored the thugged-out gangsta side of the Dirty South; and he gets his inspiration from both Southern and non-Southern rappers. Master P and his New Orleans-based No Limit posse are an influence; so are N.W.A., Dr. Dre, and the late Tupac Shakur. Gotti's more sexually explicit lyrics also owe something to Oakland native Too Short, who was never a gangsta rapper but did a lot to popularize X-rated rap lyrics. Yo Gotti, however, isn't from the West Coast any more than he is from New Orleans; his stomping ground is Memphis, the city that gave us the Three 6 Mafia, Gangsta Blac, Eightball & MJG, Kingpin Skinny Pimp, and quite a few other Dirty South artists. When Gotti boasts that he is "straight from the North," he doesn't mean the northern part of the United States; he means the northern part of Memphis, where he lived in the infamous, crime-ridden Ridge Crest housing projects. And Memphis' more dangerous neighborhoods have inspired many of Gotti's lyrics, which often describe the dangers of life in the 'hood. Gotti, however, doesn't always rap about crime and inner-city thug life; he also raps about sex quite a bit. After performing around Memphis in the '90s, Gotti started building a catalog in the early 2000s. His first album, From da Dope Game 2 da Rap Game, came out on the Inevitable label in 2000; Gotti's subsequent Inevitable releases included 2001's Self Explanatory and 2002's Block Burnin', Vol. 1. After that, Gotti signed with TVT and recorded Life, which came out in 2003. TVT released "Dirty South Soldiers" (a duet with Atlanta crunk star Lil' Jon) as Life's first single. After having his track "Full Time" featured in the film Hustle & Flow, he released Back 2 da Basics in 2006.