Gunna Artistfacts

June 14, 1993
Gunna is an Atlanta rapper who's unhurried, melody-soaked "sing-rap" turned designer-label brags into some of the smoothest trap of the late 2010s. Raised in College Park, Georgia, he rose from Young Thug's YSL circle to become a Grammy-nominated hitmaker.
Born Sergio Giavanni Kitchens, Gunna was the youngest of five brothers in College Park. His mother worked in the cafeteria at his elementary school, and watching her taught him the value of hard work. "We weren't impoverished, but we certainly weren't affluent," Gunna told Billboard. "All I understood was hardship."
Gunna's earliest musical heroes came from New Orleans: Lil Wayne, the Hot Boys, and Master P's No Limit Records - a long way from the Atlanta trap sound he later helped define.
Gunna did not invent the word "drip," but his Drip Season mixtapes, which began in 2016, made him its best-known face. Offering his own definition of the word, he told Billboard, "Drip is your attire, the clothes you wear." He then described his outfit that day: a Saint Laurent hoodie, Balmain jeans, and Chanel shoes, "because it's Friday," adding that he might wear a $10,000 outfit on a weekend, "no cap."
The Drip Season run grew quickly. Drip Season came out in October 2016, followed by Drip Season 2 in May 2017. The EP Drip or Drown arrived in November 2017, produced entirely by Wheezy, leading into Drip Season 3 in 2018. "Drip Too Hard," a 2018 collaboration with Lil Baby, reached #4 on the Hot 100 and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Rap/Sung Performance.
Gunna took an Alford plea in the YSL racketeering case and was released from an Atlanta jail on December 14, 2022, after spending seven months locked up. He pleaded guilty to a racketeering conspiracy charge while maintaining his innocence and was sentenced to five years, with one year commuted to time served and the other four suspended. The deal also carried 500 hours of community service and no contact with co-defendants.
Although Gunna and his attorneys maintained he had "NOT cooperated" and had "NOT agreed to testify" for or against anyone, many in hip-hop labeled him a "snitch."

The plea cost Gunna his closest relationship in music. Young Thug stated on the Perspektives With Bank podcast in 2025 that the plea hurt his defense 100 percent, adding, "I wish he had done something less severe so I could forgive him."

Gunna answered his critics in the 2023 song "Bread & Butter," pointing out that he never gave a statement while acknowledging that the fallout cost him friends and money.
In October 2026, Gunna left YSL and launched his own label. As CEO of SB The Label, a partnership with Atlantic Music Group, he signed three initial Atlanta-area artists. The label's debut release was the single "Pop It" on October 9, 2026.

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