2 Chainz Is a Dedicated Father With a Competitive Streak (Published 2022) (2024)

The Atlanta rapper 2 Chainz has lived a lot of life.

A one-time college athlete born Tauheed Epps, he scored his first major hit as a rapper with the Lil Wayne-assisted “Duffle Bag Boy” in 2007, when he was still known as Tity Boi, one half of Playaz Circle. By 2011, Epps had rebranded himself 2 Chainz, releasing a series of solo mixtapes considered regional classics and eventually signing with Def Jam.

In the decade since, the rapper, now 44, has fashioned himself into one of the premiere hip-hop emissaries across culture with his roguish magnetism and whimsical boasts, outlasting countless peers as he diversified into a television host (starring in Viceland’s luxury goods show “Most Expensivest”) and brand pitchman (appearing in a Super Bowl commercial and recently partnering with Krystal for “creative marketing”).

His seventh album as 2 Chainz, “Dope Don’t Sell Itself,” out Friday, is a nod to the rapper’s enduring subject matter — his past as a drug dealer — but has been billed as his “last trap album.” Featuring a new generation of hustlers-turned-artists like Lil Baby, Moneybagg Yo and Lil Durk, the release will likely be “the last time you’ll hear all of this type of stuff in one space,” 2 Chainz clarified in a recent phone interview, as he explores “other types of music that I enjoy doing — sample-based, digging in the crates, the more lyrical side of 2 Chainz.”

“Music, for the most part, is a young man’s game, but I’m just as energetic and passionate as I was when I first got on,” he said. “I was a late bloomer anyway.”

Calling from a luxury vehicle, 2 Chainz shared 10 of his beloved necessities, most of which revolve around his ultimate reinvention: becoming a family man.

Here are edited excerpts from the conversation.

1. A Higher Power Off top, we gotta give praise to God. My beautiful kids keep me going — having an extension of myself, it just brings on new responsibilities, new challenges. I have three kids: A 13-year-old who’s really into volleyball, a 9-year-old who’s very into art and expression. My youngest is my only son — he’s 6 years old and he’s really into basketball. I can honestly say he completes me. I thank God also for my wife and my mom. My wife, obviously, for procreating with me and being such a good life partner. And my mom, for birthing a millionaire, a genius, a guy who still has some of the best ideas and marketing rollouts in the game.

2. Atlanta Hawks Basketball is my primary joy in life. We like to go watch the Hawks games. I’m also a minority owner of a byproduct of the Hawks, the College Park Skyhawks. We get a lot of perks, and the kids like to go in there and run around, let their hair down. It’s about me trying to find a way to not just use my money but use my time to be a part of their lives, whether it’s picking them up from practice or just going over homework. My jump shot is still super wet, and I teach them. We go out on the court and do drills together, so they honor my game and they respect it.

3. ESPN You know I’m into my sports, so I can’t live without ESPN — period. That’s all I watch. I go to sleep maybe 6 a.m., get up maybe noon, hit the gym. I start working late at night and it stays on in my studio. It’s probably on six, seven hours a day. It’s wall-to-wall with me, man. I’m watching “SportsCenter” and my wife just goes to her iPad and watches Netflix.

4. Raw Rolling Papers My guy Josh laces me with all the up-to-date and newest Raw releases — whatever product comes out. The type of papers I use come in rolls, that’s why my joints be longer than a lot of people’s. Think of a tissue roll, except it’s raw paper.

5. Me Time Every other week — every 10 to 14 days — I get a manicure and pedicure. I call it “me time.” I just really go sit down, I’m checking emails, might order a drink from next door and watch ESPN. Just let somebody pamper me — massage my feet, massage my hands. I feel like I put in enough work to get those types of perks. I care about myself and the temple that God blessed me with.

6. “Scarface” One of the original stories of nothing to something. I come from that. I wasn’t a dishwasher, I wasn’t necessarily from Cuba or anything like that. But, man, I ain’t have nothing. Now I’m talking to you in my Maybach truck, smoking one of these long joints.

7. Craps It may be funny, but I recently taught my kids how to shoot craps. Craps helped me triple my re-up. Craps also hurt me. But there was an era when I couldn’t lose. I remember going to get my first gold teeth from shooting dice. The reason I put it on the kids wasn’t because they would have to go get gold teeth, it was so they could see something, math-wise. That’s a byproduct of being from Atlanta, really knowing how to gamble and shoot dice. My nine-year-old got a little upset when she lost her money. But I’m making them feel all that!

8. Trappy Goyard My dog Trappy, the original Frenchie — you can look him up on IG. I would call him the godfather: a lot of Frenchies came after him but none could match that blue fawn coat and big ol’ pretty head and smile, muscular toned body. My wife’s got a dog that’s 18-year-old. I might look it up in the Guinness Book. Gucci’s a girl Chihuahua. She barks and she bites people. Amazon Prime — bit. Instacart — bit. Little cousins — bit. I need to clone her. She’s older than my kids! I think it’s $25,000 for cats, $50,000 for dogs.

9. Quiet Storm Radio If you’re talking about a Sunday when I’m just getting up from a long Saturday night where I’ve been smoking my gas, drinking a little Casamigos, micro-dosing a little shrooms, I might want to hear something soothing and player. I eat pancakes on Sundays — I don’t eat stuff like that during the week — so my wife might be walking around making my turkey bacon and pancakes. I put on 104.1 [WALR-FM, Kiss FM in Atlanta] and I listen to whatever they’ve got in rotation. Everything from Frankie Beverly to old Michael Jackson. Quiet storm is a perfect way to describe what I want on Sundays.

10. Grown-Up Toys Family time, we get in the yard a little bit. We will pull the ATVs out. I have 100 acres at the house, so all of my kids know how to ride four-wheelers. I have a few different grown-up toys, I like to call them. The Can-Am side-by-side, the Polaris. I got a Sherp — Ye bought like 10 or 20 of them. That’s the biggest toy and if somebody sees it, they want to get lost in the woods. I got some fast [expletive], I got some [expletive] I done flipped. But I’m still here.