“The Polo belt, boot, chino khakis, socks, jacket, and then that’s for the winter,” Jackson chuckled. Jackson, who has been friends with Epps since playing alongside him for two years on the North Clayton varsity team and two seasons at Alabama State, took how much Polo they wore a step further. If someone walked into Epps’ and Robert Jackson’s college dorm room, they might mistake it for a Polo Ralph Lauren store. Off the court, McGriff said, Epps was known for his propensity to call nearly everyone “Shawty” with that oh-so-recognizable Atlanta drawl, and for his casket-sharp wardrobe. On the court, he was known for his lanky frame, mesmerizing ball-handling skills, ability to play all five positions (if need be) and for his wet jump shot. “I didn’t want to rough him up, so we just shot some 3s.”īefore Epps was a 19-time BET Award nominee, five-time BET Award winner, six-time Grammy-nominated artist and 2012 winner of the Soul Train Music Awards‘ best hip-hop song of the year, he won a Class AA state championship as the sophomore sixth man on the North Clayton High School basketball team in 1993. You know, I didn’t want to go to his house and do that to him. “I guess I’ll say it on the record,” the 43-year-old McGriff mused, “I kind of let him win. It started off friendly, but then a wager got placed here and there and it became more than just fun and games. The old Hornets teammates decided to put up a few shots, and then it took a competitive turn, becoming a game of H-O-R-S-E. It must have been August, as it was sweltering that day in Atlanta. “Tauheed said, ‘You know what, Beaumont? You still got it in you: Still can’t walk by a basketball without picking it up,’ ” McGriff, a Beaumont, Texas, native recalled. One thing led to another, and McGriff, the leading scorer for Alabama State his junior year when Epps joined the basketball team as a freshman in 1995, found himself shooting around. He knew Epps, more famously known as rapper 2 Chainz, had a basketball court outside. As he made his way through the house, McGriff saw a basketball. It’s a masterclass from a veteran in his pocket.Darrick McGriff went over to Tauheed Epps’ home to check out something that may have needed repair. During the first verse, 2 Chainz goes on a tear rhyming the words: tummy tuck, double up, double cup, the letter “W,” phobia and coroner. There are lyrical non-sequiturs (“Put her on the saddle with a paddle and an Adderall) and nonsensical flexing (“Rockin’ reptile, talkin’ alligate'”). The Buddah Bless and Jabz beat is built on a simple loop of The Three Degrees‘ “Can’t You See What You’re Doing to Me” and, even with the cinematic horn sample, the production remains open enough to thrust Chainz’s bars to the forefront. Instead, “Money In The Way” soars because it brings 2 Chainz’s best qualities - propulsive flow, deceptively complex punchlines and hilarious lyrics - to the forefront. LeBron James, the project’s A&R, doesn’t extend his media beef with the Lakers’ young core on wax or claim Klutch Sports is taking over for the ’.
“Money In The Way” doesn’t have any features or super producers, which the album has in spades. The best song on the 2 Chainz’s Rap or Go to the League isn’t the album’s flashiest.
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