LOS ANGELES – As a part of the College of Business Administration’s “Prolific Speaker” series on April 7, Grammy Award winning rapper 2 Chainz spoke to students and faculty in the Life Sciences auditorium. The event was co-sponsored by A-LIST, Student Affairs, Black Students in Business, Marketing Society, and the Music Industry Student Organization. During the event, 2 Chainz provided students and faculty with insight into navigating the ever changing music industry.
The rapper spoke to students about his recently released biography, “The Voice in my Head is God,” which chronicled his career. 2 Chainz spoke candidly with the audience about his upbringing in Atlanta. Explaining how commonplace drug dealing was where he grew up. He said, “But in Atlanta, this is not like me exaggerating, every apartment complex when I came up was known as a trap. But travel is a place where people come to actually buy drugs, and then they take it to wherever they’re going.”
He attributed his development to the challenges he faced in this environment, explaining how he developed his entrepreneurial spirit and self confidence through hanging out with the “hustlers” who lived in his apartment complex. “I used to get rims and tires, and I didn’t even have a car, because I just knew I would get a car,” he said.
He also spoke about his experience navigating the business end of the music industry early in his career. “I was literally going into these offices, like, what’s your international presence? Like, I want to be an international, known artist.”
As 2 Chainz has evolved over the years his sights have broadened, as he has ventured deeper into the business world through ventures like restaurants, a cannabis company, stake in an NBA G-League franchise, and a clothing company. He provided the audience insight into his business philosophy, saying “Every business that I’m involved in, I try to not just do it because like we got money and influence– I’m trying to see why.”
The Grammy winner took time at the end to answer audience questions, including one about his experience working on a collaborative project with the Alchemist and Larry June, titled “Life is Good.” “We started working on this project, and I think after about two or three songs, we felt like we had something special,” he said.
2 Chainz’ visit provided students with valuable insight into how to navigate the business side of music.
