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GREENSBORO — Two voices, two parallel lives.

Gucci Mane is 6 feet above ground. He’s 29, a hard-core rapper capitalizing on his hard-knuckle upbringing in east Atlanta.

He raps about dealing crack, packing guns and running with the street gang known as the Bloods.

Bhilial Hykein Lasco is 6 feet below ground. He tried to be thug-tough as he hung with the street gang known as the Crips.

He was gunned down one summer afternoon two years ago in a parking lot in northeast Greensboro.

He now lies in Greensboro’s Piedmont Cemetery.

He doesn’t have a tombstone.

Bhilial was only 18.

They’re both so similar, Gucci Mane and Bhilial. They came from broken homes and tried to escape a life of few choices, of many dead ends. Their escape led to violence.

Listen to Gucci Mane’s music, and you hear a street poet you can barely understand. You have to really listen, and over a beat that feels like a soundtrack to a haunted house, you begin to get a grip.

Live large. Flash money. Give props to the trap star (a dope dealer). And always tote a gun, be tough, be a “banga.’’

That’s “straight Gucci.’’

Watch his videos, and you’ll see it. He’s grinning, showing off his gold grill and wearing his diamond-encrusted Bart Simpson necklace when he’ll hold out his arm, TV-cop- show straight, and shout “Pow.’’

On his right wrist is a red bandanna, the telltale sign of the Bloods.

It’s easy to see why N.C. A&T backpedaled from one of the university’s biggest events of the year — its annual homecoming show Saturday — when Gucci Mane got on the bill after a questionable student vote on Facebook.

A&T has now removed its name and financial support from the concert. Still, the show will go on. It’s new name: “Da Swag City Tour.’’ And it’ll draw a crowd.

At least 11,000 hip-hop fans are expected. They’ll come for a bill that includes nine hip-hop acts. One of them is Gucci Mane.

He spent a year in jail and once was charged with murder — charges that were eventually dropped. He’s now the folk hero of Atlanta’s hip-hop revival, touting his stepfather’s street hustler nickname and going worldwide.

It’s a long way from his days as Radric Davis in East Atlanta Zone Six. He’s on his way to becoming a millionaire — if he’s not one already — by rapping tunes with titles such as “I’m A Gangsta,’’ and “Dope Man.’’

Yes, Gucci Mane loves rap. Bhilial did, too. Andy and Kathy Moncla, husband and wife, know that.

They had known Bhilial since he was 8, ever since he rolled into their driveway in Rocky Mount and yelled from his bike, “Do you have kids at that house?’’
The Monclas have five children. Bhilial, unofficially, became their sixth.

When the Monclas moved to Greensboro, Bhilial followed a few years later with his aunt. She came for a better job; Bhilial came to be closer to the Monclas.
The Monclas were white; he was black. They were like family.

During his teenage years, Bhilial broke bad. He got expelled from Page High for fighting, and there was talk that he was leading a gang of teenagers who beat up kids. He wasn’t known as Bhilial. He was called Reece.

But the Monclas never knew about all that. All they saw was their chunky-faced Bhilial withdrawing into the world he heard in his headphones, the world of hard-core rap.
“Bhilial,’’ Kathy told him, “it’s garbage in, garbage out.’’

“It helps me work through my anger,’’ he told her.

“It’s going to make you angrier,’’ Kathy replied.

Bhilial was killed Aug. 24, 2007, a Friday, just before 5 p.m. No one has been arrested.

The Monclas feel so naïve. They never knew about Bhilial’s gang affiliation. A few weeks before his death, when Kathy offered to finish Bhilial’s load of laundry, she found in his baggy jeans the symbol of the Crips: a blue bandanna.

After his death, Kathy and Andy looked on Bhilial’s Facebook page and saw him flashing gang signs, wearing a blue bandanna and acting all tough, all gangsta, all Gucci Mane.

Today, two years after his death, the Monclas are reminded of Bhilial every time they see someone in baggy jeans walking down Lawndale or hear someone at a traffic light with their windows down, blaring rap. “One more going down the tubes,’’ Andy Moncla thinks.

But on Nov. 28, the Monclas won’t think about that. They’ll go to Piedmont Cemetery, stand around Bhilial’s plot and sing “Happy Birthday.’’

Bhilial would’ve been 21.

Contact Jeri Rowe at 373-7374 or jeri.rowe@news-record.com