When 2 Chainz calls from a tour bus somewhere in California, the Atlanta rapper born Tauheed Epps is in a good mood. “I’m out here enjoying the perks of smoking legally,” he says. “West Coast livin’, baby—surfboard swag!” If it rhymed a little better, that couplet could fit into one of Chainz’s signature verses.
The six-foot-five giant with the strange look and the twisted humor (Money talk, you ain’t got none / End of discussion) is hip-hop’s most in-demand MC, thanks to his tawdry, spit-take-funny two-beat punch lines. “There’s nothing new under the sun,” Chainz says about the lyrics for his second album, out this summer. “Everyone’s sold dope, fucked bitches, popped champagne, shot guns. I’ll take the extra minutes to do it a new way.”