Surely, the alchemy of “griming” (grinding x timing) referenced on his second debut, could have been a reference to the rampage 2 Chainz has been on for the last three years. However an EP boasting over half a million hits in just four days, bolstered by a feature on the number three song in America surely exceeds any expectations that any hybrid word could summarize.
On top of having a professional career that has been a teeter-totter seeming to be tipped in his favor after failing to remain relevant as a Duffle Bag Boy, the 36 year-old endured a rollercoaster of a childhood that is nowhere near is fun as it seems. Compounded, his experiences, including his most recent as one of the world’s hottest rappers, make up the seven tracks of dope that is “Freebase.”
While the technicality of 2 Chainz is commonly suspect, if existent at all, the prolix-like delivery found on “They Know” and “Trap Back,” where this tweaked flow is fortified, begs for a mention. “This is from Drizzy, he got it from Migos, they got it from Three Six,” 2 Chainz obliges over instrumentals that hover right around 60 BPM that suit both his flows well.
With the most lavish, name dropping bars we might get until his next LP drops comes quotes and anthems. Enlisting the model/rapper A$AP Rocky and Rick Ross, the master of the luxurious alias, for “Crib in my Closet” make it a more difficult feat.
And though 2 Chainz, fed up with being the carrier of his children, wishes he wore condoms as confessed on the EP, plenty other pieces of his personal life seep through his karat-filled grill to give us his most introspective piece of work yet. From seeing his first crackpipe in his parents home to living down from the street of the neighborhood crackhouse, the title track “FREEBASE” outlines just how he came from nothing and the “pain and suff’rin’”.
While “T.R.U. REALigion”, irrespective of its completeness, and galvanization of a fanbase is still considered a mixtape, “Freebase,” the complimentary download is knighted as the much more prestigious “EP” due to the Hairweave Killa’s newfound officialness. So, for the all of the time he’s been overlooked as purely ignorant, the talk can be put to rest with one close listen to the very free and completely legal “Freebase” EP.
RECOMMENDED: “Freebase” is well worth the free download for 2 Chainz’s fanbase.
