“Toni” falters in storytelling, and “Money Maker” featuring Lil Wayne doesn’t utilize both 2 Chainz and Wayne’s full skill sets, nor does it feel like an organic track despite the success of their collaborative album “Collegrove.” There are still some tracks that make this album fall flat, which could’ve been cut down to at least 14 or 13 tracks. On “Save Me,” which features Baton Rouge superstar YoungBoy NBA, 2 Chainz opens up about his past trauma in the first verse “I got that PTSD syndrome so all I hear is sirens/Smile in your face and when you turn your back, they stab your spine.” However, the album doesn’t solely rely on the braggadocious approach that listeners are accustomed to from 2 Chainz’s biggest hits. On the LilJuMadeDaBeat produced intro “Lambo Wrist,” 2 Chainz menacingly spits about his status as rap’s elite over the banging bass, “I’m on a warpath I go homicidal on a beat/Lil' b-h you ain't nothing to me, my partner spin your block like Uber Eats.” Overall, this is a solid album and 2 Chainz starts strong with “Lambo Wrist,” “Grey Area” and the YoungBoy NBA-assisted “Save Me.” If there was any track that encapsulates Chainz’s greatness, it’s “Lambo Wrist.” Throughout the project, 2 Chainz stays true to himself by mixing vivid storytelling of his past while still flexing his infinite amount of jewelry and women over 15 bass-pounding tracks, which include guest verses from Kanye West, Lil Uzi Vert, Chief Keef and more.
“So Help Me God!” features some of 2 Chainz’s best skills and adds to his legacy as one of the best rappers to ever come out of Atlanta. The 2017 trap classic catapulted 2 Chainz from underappreciated veteran to adored icon in the trap genre with heavy hitting bangers such as “Good Drank,” “4 AM” and “Rolls Royce B-h.”įast forward three years and the artist formerly known as Tity Boi has put together three very good projects, “Rap or Go to the League,” “No Face No Case” and 2020’s “So Help Me God!” Over the course of his career, 2 Chainz has built up one of the most consistent discographies over the past decade, but he hasn’t gotten the proper respect until his 2017 release “Pretty Girls Like Trap Music.” Then he cribs from Das Racist: “I’m just joking/ I’m just serious.” It’s the perfect foil for a guy who brags about black diamonds then tashtags “apartheid.” His ridiculous caricature of T&A-obsessed manliness even gives Drake a vehicle to flirt with chilling Chris Brown-ism: “If she had a Grammy/ I’d still treat her ass like a nominee,” a big favor to those of us who want everyone to know what an asshole Drake is beneath that transparently (in)sensitive veneer.Arts & Entertainment, CommRadio by Matthew McLaughlin His macabre humor is weird as shit and highly un-2012, in the hilarious highlight “Birthday Song”: “When I die/ bury me with 2 bitches,” or a line about his friends asking him how he comes up with his shit, followed by the most generic rap demand possible: “All I want for my birthday is a big booty ho.” When he tags in Kanye, the villainy is hilarious, chanting “Bad bitch contest/ You win first place” and being an asshole about previous gifts (“Last birthday/ She got you a new sweater/ Put it on, give her a kiss / And tell her ‘Do better’”). This is the game itself, being traded from labels like teams-Ludacris wasn’t working out, so here’s Kanye.Ĭhainz is rap’s current man of the hour, his Cheech Marin-like flow on 2012 hits like Nicki Minaj’s “Beez in the Trap” and his own Drake team-up “No Lie,” only makes those desolate, airport lounge space-beats even weirder to hear the opposite of space on them-pure terra firma, dirty and regional. Apparently a dude mostly associated with drug money and boobs changed his name for something more “family-friendly.” He just shed skins and kept moving upward, longer than rappers are allowed Playaz Circle might as well have been Philly’s Most Wanted. But that didn’t stop me from asking who 2 Chainz was when he started appearing out of “nowhere” on high-profile singles this year. 2 Chainz used to be Tity Boi, an affront to the mainstream if a moniker ever was one. I loved a song by him-Playaz Circle’s “Duffle Bag Boy”-before I or much of his current audience knew who he was.
This guy’s a big story in beating rap’s merciless turnover rate.