2 Chainz has a new album on the way and in a candid discussion with Genius’ Rob Markman, revealed that Rap Or Go To The League includes a surprising special guest. When he was asked about how his appearance on Ariana Grande’s viral single “7 Rings” came about, Chainz revealed that not only did he manage to avoid the drama that swirled around the song’s provenance when it dropped, but the pair built such great chemistry that she’s going to appear on his album.
https://twitter.com/ArianaGrande/status/1101191623902281728/
Although “7 Rings” drew criticism for its obvious influences from the realm of trap music, Chainz said he was unfazed by it because, in his eyes, everybody is pretty much always taking inspiration from his work. “I’ve thought that somebody has taken a little something out of my DNA before,” he admits. He says that a certain relationship helped salvage the situation, though: “I’ve known her manager for a very f*cking long time… they set it up so we could actually meet and talk face to face. I think that kind of changed everything because I started getting what was going on, having a clear understanding of what was going on.”
He says that what was meant to be a tribute was mistaken for appropriation, but once they hashed things out, their working relationship flourished. The song “Rule The World” appeared on the tracklist of Chainz’ upcoming album, featuring none other than Ariana Grande, who turns out to be a big fan.
She was more or less saying that, “Well, yeah, I thought people knew I took it from you.” And I said, “Well, how would people know that? You know what I’m saying?” It was just one of those things where I didn’t even know you were a fan of mine, and we built a rapport. And I obviously did the- she did a song for me first, actually, while I was there. And she opened up her mouth and a damn angel came out and I was like, “Yo, this little girl can sing!” And then I obviously did the remix for them while I was there. And she just was super excited about trying to put it out, clear the space or whatever. We shot a dope video and I actually have videos on the album that I’ve been trying to shoot with people and I can’t get things together but it wasn’t actually hard shooting the video with her so that’s kinda- it’s crazy how stuff works, so.
Rap Or Go To The League is out Friday, March 1 via Def Jam.
