The latest rap sensation out of the South, 2 Chainz, is known for hard beats and clever lines. But what many fans don’t know about him is that he’s an automotive fanatic.
Complex caught up with 2 Chainz as he rode around Atlanta before one of his many shows. The former DTP member shared his opinions on rap clichés, touring, BMF’s influence, and his upcoming Def Jam debut album.
When you’re not on the road touring, what do you drive?
I just literally got home. I’m in my Porsche [Panamera] now.
Did you customize it?
Yeah, you know, we from the South. We gotta put them Forgiato’s on there, [I spent] $8,000 for some 22s. I made Forgiato paint mine himself, so ain’t nobody paint it at no paint shop. When I say leave the dealership and head to the rim shop, I been doing that since a little dude.
Do you test out your music in your cars?
Never. I had a meeting with Def Jam, and I had no music to play for them to get the budget open. Not that I was waiting for them to get the budget open. [My attitude] is just trust me, I got some more shit.
Instead of me riding around listening to myself, I listen to a beat CD and work on my next song. I don’t write down lyrics. I’m confident in what I laid down in the studio.
Speaking of your new label, when will your Def Jam debut be dropping?
Def Jam has the last week in June, and I have the first week in August so between there. We’ve been doing good as far as communicating and coming to an agreement. So you can expect it in that time frame going into beginning of college school year time.
You have a line where you say, “This is not a Boxster/This a Panamera.” Has anyone really been silly enough to mistake your Panamera for a Boxster?
You gotta know I was the first person in Georgia with this car. I ordered it from home with my American Express card. [At the time], there weren’t any commercials out for this car or anything. Like when I say, when they gon’ make a Bentley truck, that was something I was looking for that was new. I ordered it, and I was getting all of these pamphlets and these books, and people were like, “you are gonna be too tall for that mufucka.” They not knowing that they designed the car behind somebody that was like 6’ 5” sitting in the backseat.
When I got it, [people] were like, “what the hell is that? I’ve never seen a four-door Porsche.” To me, it’s old. It’s dirty right now and everything. [The line] you’re talking about was from Codeine Cowboy. That was, like, February 2011, and I got the car in 2010. You know how you can pay a little more to get it early?
Speaking of the truck, Bentley recently released specs and images of the EXP 9 F. Have you seen it?
Yeah, I seen it!
I have to ask. You know a lot of these rap dudes talk about it but they don’t really know what’s going on.
A lot of these niggas are just rap niggas. That’s the difference between me and a lot of these other niggas—I live it. I’m actually at a gas station in the hood putting gas in my dirty Porsche on the way to the salon. Niggas don’t do that, and I been doing it before I got my deal with Def Jam. A lot of shit that irritates people about rappers, it irritates me too.
What do you think of the Bentley truck?
Well this is what happened. This year, 2012, I told myself I wasn’t gonna drive no more. I don’t want to drive no more, and I don’t want to roll my own blunts no more. I’m cool. I work too hard for that.
I was gonna get a Maybach. I think Tip got a Maybach, but he ain’t got, like, a long one. I was gonna get the 62. So I was telling Nelly that I was thinking about getting me a Maybach or something. He said, “They finna stop making Maybach’s. Shit, we don’t collect cars, we get them cuz they cool. If it was an old school I could see it, but you need to get you a tour bus.”
He told me how he charges certain artists a certain amount to rent buses he owns. The next week, I got online and used that money I was going to use for a Maybach or a Bentley truck and put it into the tour bus.
What kind of bus did you buy?
It’s a regular tour bus. It’s the inside that makes it special to me. I have the amenities of a condo. I bought a stove, a real toilet. A lot of buses have the baby toilet, but I bought a real toilet, even though you can’t use it. I have a real recording booth. I’ve done some stuff for Nicki [Minaj]. I’ve done some stuff for albums. I had a studio I could take from hotel to hotel that was really only good for doing drops and maybe laying something down to be re-recorded. Now with what I have, what I lay is final.
Although you are done driving, is there anything in particular that you have your eye on to put in the stash?
No, man, I got the studio bus. I’m good. I can get a hitch and pull my other cars if I want to go somewhere else. I’ve put on a different thinking cap and a different mentality. You know a lot of that stuff that you get is for other people, even though it satisfies your personal ego. I grew out of all that.
I been riding foreign cars since the BMF era, thanks to Big Meech. And before that, I was still doing my thing with rims and music and all that. I’ve been blessed to even go through high school with cars—plural—and things like that. I’ve bought them and fixed them up from scratch. If I felt like a Maybach or a Phantom or a Ghost or whatever the hell everybody rapping about now could take me to the next level, I would do it. The reality is, I’m not in town enough to even [drive]. I don’t know when the last time I drove this car was. In a nutshell, I’m not considering nothing. I bought the bus as a Christmas present to myself.
