“Fell off, came up. Fell off, came back up,”- Tity Boi
2016 has been a year dominated by hip hop’s heavyweights and has been a banner year for the genre. Whether it was DJ Khaled dominating snapchat and crossing over into pop culture’s consciousness, Kendrick Lamar dominating the Grammys and releasing Untitled Unmastered or Gucci Mane returning home from prison, hip hop has had it’s fair share of notable moments this year. Artist such as Chance The Rapper, Isaiah Rashad, and Travis Scott even proved they had staying power with the release of projects, taking their stardom to new heights. But the most consistent rapper this year who has consistently put out great work has been none other than the “hair weave killer,” himself. Yes, 2 Chainz.
2 Chainz didn’t drop an album that moved a million copies first week (Drake), or host a public album listening party disguised as a fashion show (Kanye). But what he has done is drop quality music and body prominent features consistently from January to now.
It all started for Chainz back in January when he dropped the excellent EP Felt Like Cappin. This project kicked off his monster year with production laced by producers such as Mike Will, Cardo, and TM88 with the infectious track “Not Invited,” which featured the smooth interpolation of Stevie Wonder’s classic “All I Do.” This was just the beginning as he would follow it up with the collaborative homage album Collegrove to idol and peer Lil Wayne in March. One could argue that the presence of 2 Chainz inspired Wayne to produce some of his most inspired rapping in years on the album, taking turns dominating tracks bigging up one another while also effortlessly blending their styles to give hip hop fans a pleasant surprise with this album. Finally in August he released his third project of the year with Daniel Son; Necklace Don, probably his best project of the three and featuring the club anthem “Big Amount.”
On top of dropping three full projects this year, 2 Chainz also bodied tracks he got on with his peers and had the best verse. 2 Chainz even got a placement on the Birth of a Nation soundtrack. He left a blazing trail on Chance The Rapper’s “No Problem,” and absolutely put Drake and Future in the spin cycle on “100it Racks.” But his standout verse of 2016 and one of the best of the year from anybody, the one where he separated the men from the boys, was his verse on G.O.O.D. Music collaboration “Champions (Round and Round)”. He rhymed about everything from napping in the pulpit to his new girl pulling another girl and so on for him, basically the greatest snowball effect there is.
What makes this 2 Chainz run in 2016 so impressive is that it came out of nowhere. Much like Future’s run from late 2014 through 2015. He had put out music consistently since his career rebirth in 2011 but hadn’t quite made it back to his peak popularity of his dominant 2012. He has still maintained his place as the coolest rapper in the game but now people are starting to pay attention again and realize that we absolutely have to protect 2 Chainz at all costs. It’s as if he was being taken for granted and he reminded everybody this year that he still is a rapper’s rapper and still is better than 90% of his peers at this shit. He’s out rapped just about anybody who has got on a track with him this year and reestablished himself as one of the premier rappers in hip hop. Keep cappin 2 Chainz, keep cappin.
Kameron Hay 