A Review of 2 Chainz's "Rap Or Go To The League"

Looking to build off the success of his 2017 project, “Pretty Girls Like Trap Music,” Atlanta rapper 2 Chainz comes back in 2019 with his new project, “Rap Or Go To The League.” The big story behind this project for 2 Chainz is LeBron James being the A&R for it. What an A&R does is essentially help put together a project by suggesting which songs should have features, who those features should be, which songs should be on the project, etc… Picking LeBron as the A&R for this project is an interesting fit to the concept Chainz suggests the project is about in the title. With the title “Rap Or Go To The League,” 2 Chainz brings to attention the idea that the only two ways out of the hood for young black men are to become a rapper or an athlete. Obviously, 2 Chainz is already a rapper so bringing in LeBron James who is arguably the greatest basketball player ever, brings in the opposing direction for the project. Now, let’s look at the tracklist! On “Rap Or Go To The League,” 2 Chainz gives us 14 songs amounting to 54 minutes of music. Amongst eight of these fourteen songs are features from Marsha Ambrosius, Young Thug, Travis Scott, Kendrick Lamar, Ariana Grande, Ty Dolla $ign, E-40, Lil Wayne, Chance the Rapper and Kodak Black. All these features are great individual artists in their own right so hearing them paired with 2 Chainz will be interesting. Without further ado, let’s get to the review!

Categories

The songs on this album divided into three lanes that are prevalent throughout the project

Reflective Lyricism

“Forgiven” ft. Marsha Ambrosius (1), “Threat 2 Society” (1), “Rule the World” ft. Ariana Grande (1.5), “I Said Me” (1), “I’m Not Crazy, Life Is” ft. Chance the Rapper & Kodak Black(1.5), “Sam” (.5)

Songs that reflect on the experiences of 2 Chainz and the features with verses on the songs through lyricism as the beats take a back seat.

Upbeat Lyricism

“Money in the Way” (1), “Statute of Limitations” (1), “Momma I Hit A Lick” ft. Kendrick Lamar (.5), “Girl’s Best Friend” ft. Ty Dolla $ign (.5), “2 Dollar Bill” ft. Lil Wayne & E-40 (1)

Songs with the lyricism still the focus of the song, however, the beats play a more prevalent role in the flows and cadences used.

Turn Up

“High Top Versace” ft. Young Thug (1), “Whip” ft. Travis Scott (1), “NCAA” (.5)

Beats are at the forefront of these songs as 2 Chainz tries to create a turn-up atmosphere.

Must Listen Songs

The concept of Must Listen songs are the songs that would give the best overview of the album as a whole. Songs that stand out for reasons to be described in the pending descriptions of the songs.

“NCAA”

On this song, two things stand out to me, the first being the beat and the second being the lyrical content. On the seventh song on this project, this beat produced by Da Honorable C.N.O.T.E. is an overpowering beat. The loud bass and guitar rifts can overpower the lyrics from 2 Chainz at times where 2 Chainz can appear to be fighting with the beat for attention. This conflicts with the content of 2 Chainz’s second verse where he talks about life as a college athlete under the rules of the NCAA. 2 Chainz raps, “Let me get this straight, if I drop 40 today | you don’t care if I eat, you don’t care if I ate.” This verse highlights is the strict rules 2 Chainz endured when he was playing college basketball that prevents athletes from profiting off of their likeness. In other words, the NCAA can profit off 2 Chainz’s labor but 2 Chainz can not. The message in this song is well received, however, it can be drowned out by the beat that is louder than the lyrics at times.

“Rule the World” ft. Ariana Grande

The ninth song on this project starts off with a beautiful soft bass and high hat driven beat with violin strings in the background created by Hitmaka, Cardiak, Paul Cabbin, and Rob Holladay. Ariana Grande’s presence on the hook adds to the beauty of the song as her vocals over the beat set up for the solid verses performed by 2 Chainz. The flows 2 Chainz uses on his verses both work with this open concept beat that leaves room for him to do as he pleases with his cadence and flow.

“2 Dollar Bill” ft. Lil Wayne & E-40

Legendary rappers Lil Wayne and E-40 make an appearance on the eleventh song of this project. The beat created by Mustard with help from GYLTTRYP and Terrance Martin gives the west coast rap feel with the tempo of the bass, and clapping sound that has become synonymous with a Mustard beat. The 2 Chainz verse is a solid one which is followed up by Lil Wayne who speeds up the flow on the song, which sets the song up for E-40 to finish the song with his awkward fast flow. The progression in speeds from 2 Chainz to Lil Wayne and finally E-40 directly compliments the beat.

“I’m Not Crazy, Life Is” ft. Chance the Rapper & Kodak Black

The penultimate song on “Rap Or Go To The League” has great lyrical content from all three artists who reflect on events in their lives in each of their verses. Over this slow jam beat made by FKi 1st and Mike Dean with a loud high hat, a soft bass that each hit on a consistent flow. All three rappers put forth good verses with 2 Chainz rapping about a few stories from when he was growing up, Chance the Rapper rapping about his now fiancé, along with the experience of winning the best new artist award at the Grammys and finally Kodak Black rapping about the compliments and comparisons he has gotten from other rappers. The outro at the end is a bit too long, however, the song is one of the best songs on the project.

Final Review

2 Chainz’s “Rap Or Go To The League” is a solid project, that can be underwhelming at certain points. On songs like “NCAA” and “Momma I Hit A Lick” featuring Kendrick Lamar, I didn’t think the cadences matched the bass-heavy beats selected. On other songs towards the beginning of the project, some flows didn’t have me impressed and the delivery throughout the project was awkward at times. However, on many songs the content being delivered was great, however, the message was lost in the various bad beats and awkward flows and deliveries. The use of the features on most songs could only be described as masterful. Overall, this is still a solid project put forth by 2 Chainz, however, I’m curious to see what he does on his next project to elevate himself.

Scoring

Raw Score: The number of good songs on a project versus the overall amount. Songs must have a +1 or above to be counted.

Quality Score: The total amount of points accumulated over the total amount of songs.

Playback value: The resonance an album is perceived to have if played again in full. Scale out of 5.

Raw Score: 10/14

Quality Score: 13/14

Playback Value: 3/5

Go out and listen to 2 Chainz’s “Rap Or Go To The League” wherever you listen to your music. Also, don’t forget to check out OLDMLK’s Instagram page (@OLDMLK) and Twitter (@OLDMLKDOTCOM) for updates on OLDMLK.COM: The Most Essential Hip Hop Blog, The OLDMLK.Com Playlist, The OLDMLK Radar and more!