Pretty Girls Love Trap Music is more than just another album, it’s a movement. 2 Chainz’s latest work has become an overnight sensation, debuting at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 album chart after the first week of sales.

2 Chainz’s project has already moved a total of 106,000 units with more than half of those being traditional album sales. Album streams have reached upwards of 60 million.

2 Chainz has the #1 rap album in the country

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Besides releasing one of the most poppin’ albums of the summer, 2 Chainz has also managed to bring the Pretty Girls Love Trap Music album art to life. The Necklace Don rented a house in ATL and turned it into a replica of the all pink house depicted on the album cover.

Chainz’s pink trap house has become a social landmark.

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Hundreds of people have pulled up to take pictures and videos in front and inside ATL’s new tourist attraction.

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@thepinktraphouse Tag @hairweavekiller 😭🔥 New video w/ @mr_hotspot @kingkumo_ @kingcinco @richhomiekey @shmateo_ @therealhasani 📽: @jakeafee #ayoandteo #thakrew #reversebrothers

A post shared by Ayo 🐯🐲 (@ogleloo) on Jul 4, 2017 at 12:55pm PDT

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The Pink House even made the news

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But it is more than just a spot to post up at and take pictures. Last Sunday, Chainz turned it into a “Trap Church.”

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Then on Independence Day the all pink trap house went from church to HIV clinic

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The pink landmark also serves as a place for people to express themselves through their art and music

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Is 2 Chainz on to something? Some don’t see it that way.

The word “TRAP” has a very negative connotation for many Atlanta residents. TRAPPING is directly associated with drug dealers as they use these run down houses (“traps”) to flip their drugs.

Greenforest Community Baptist Church Youth Pastor, Al Hollie Jr. spoke out against the new landmark. The pastor is concerned with the damaging effects trap houses have on communities and families.

In an interview with Fox 5, Hollie Jr. let us know about how damaging these drug dens can be,

“The last place you’d want relatives at is inside a trap house. The last place you’d want your children at is inside a trap house… because the damage it does is generational.”

Even though Hollie fucks with Chainz’s movement, he warns against the lasting effects trap houses have on the community,

“Much love to 2 Chainz, his movement and the culture, but if you’re taking photos in front of a trap house you haven’t seen the damage it can do to a community.”

Hollie added,

“The damage I’m talking about is broken homes, taking family members from each other, kids being taken away, fathers going to prison, and children being born addicted to drugs.”

While some see 2 Chainz as making light of something that can be so damaging, he’s also changing what the word itself means, giving something back to his community through the trap church and HIV testing center.

It’s a fine line.

Let us know what you think about Chainz’s movement.

2 Chainz, in his current form, burst onto the scene in 2011 with T.R.U. REALigion, an absolute powerhouse of a mixtape that reintroduced 2 Chainz, previously Tity Boi of Playaz Circle, to the hip-hop world.

Ever since REALigion, 2 Chainz has permeated the relevant hip-hop releases, becoming a needed feature on chart-toppers like Kanye’s “Mercy,” A$AP Rocky’s “F*ckin Problems,” and Nicki Minaj’s “Beez in the Trap.”

In 2012 and 2013, 2 Chanz, real name Tauheed Epps, released two more albums, Based on a T.R.U. Story and B.O.A.T.S. II: Me Time.

While both releases displayed a love for acronyms, they felt like extensions of REALigion, mixtapes that were released and marketed like albums with a little more production value.

Story and B.O.A.T.S. both had the requisite bangers, but ultimately there were too many throwaway tracks on either album to consider 2 Chainz as anything more than a great feature who could make a couple hits.

This is often the case after an artist blows up and signs a new record deal. Obviously Epps was a veteran of the industry, but he was still honing his sound as an independent artist with a newly-realized moniker.

After the success of REALigion, 2 Chainz wanted to recreate that vibe of a sort of wildcard trapstar with punchlines and puns for days.

2 Chainz became a sort of cult-like figure. His verses were full of hilarious imagery and references(“might valet park a Brinks truck”) and it seemed as though he was more of a fun dude to throw on a feature as opposed to a serious solo artist.

Any of these concerns were put to rest with 2016’s ColleGrove, a joint album with Lil Wayne, and Daniel Son; Necklace Don were among the best releases of the year.

With the release of Pretty Girls Like Trap Music last Friday, 2 Chainz has solidified himself at the top of the ATL scene.

2 Chainz found his lane, combining elements of trap with a more laid back delivery, differentiating himself from the others in his lane all trying to yell over each other.

Pretty Girls is devoid of the frills and gimmicks of some of the more popular trap releases of late. It is a record grounded in the mid-2000’s trap sound.

2 Chainz is much more Jeezy than Carti or Yachty, which makes sense because of how long Epps has been in the game and the fact that he turns 40 in September.

To that end, “Trap Check” samples “Get Ya Mind Right,” off Jeezy’s Let’s Get It: Thug Motivation 101 and T.I.’s “ASAP,” off Urban Legend, both considered to be seminal records in the formation of the trap sound.

On “Realize,” alongside Nicki Minaj, 2 Chainz shows his opinion of some the younger members of his medium, rapping, “man fuck all that humble shit/fuck all that mumble shit.”

But 2 Chainz is hardly a cranky old man. If anything is clear, on Pretty Girls he’s having as much fun as anyone.

The endless fun and opulence 2 Chainz is surrounded by are perhaps made all the better in contrast with the struggle that he came from, on “4 AM,” he raps, “If it wasn’t for the struggle then I wouldn’t be me.”

2 Chainz was arrested at 15 years old for felony cocaine possession as he’ll tell you on “Door Swangin” he, “had a felony before you knew what a felony was.”

Stylistically, the transition from tracks about Epps’ past struggles to those celebrating his massive success, is a fascinating examination of an artist reckoning with both an unruly past and a moneyed present.

On “Riverdale Rd” 2 Chainz raps over menacing Mike Dean horror movie strings about his upbringing, “You wasn’t there when mama was struggling/You wasn’t there when mama was fussing.”

“Riverdale Rd” leads into “Good Drink,” the lead single off the album, with features from Quavo and Gucci Mane. “Good Drink” chronicles 2 Chainz’s rise out of the trap, “We sit in the kitchen late, we tryna to make an escape/Trying to make me a mil’, so I’ma keep me a plate.”

2 Chainz has made that mil’ so he’s going to enjoy it. On “4 Am,” accompanied by Travis Scott, 2 is getting lit, “4 AM, I’m just gettin’ started/For my birthday I threw me a surprise party.”

Pretty Girls goes from the trap, to the club at 4 am, to what 2 Chainz describes as “yacht music” with perfect expertise.

The yacht music in question is “Bailan” with Pharrell Williams, the requisite Caribbean-influenced track every hip-hop release apparently needs now.

“Bailan” feels like the only moment that Pretty Girls is not pulling all its punches, but then is followed by “Burglar Bars,” which opens with Louis Farrakhan saying of meeting 2 Chainz,

“As I met 2 Chainz a few minutes ago, as I gazed into his face, I felt that I was in the presence of royalty. There’s a certain power presence that he gives off.”

2 Chainz follows up this praise to go on to rap “See my mom was an addict and my dad was the dealer.” The juxtaposition feels intended.

Coming from the struggle to sit-downs with Farrakhan, 2 Chainz is hip-hop, and American, royalty.

The summer is rolling along and the music releases are coming hot and heavy.

Let’s sift through the bullshit and give you what you need to be listening to, and looking out for.

2 Chainz – Pretty Girls Like Trap Music

After dropping numerous singles over the last weeks and months, 2 Chainz comes through with the highly-anticipated Pretty Girls Like Trap Music and it lives up to the hype.

I mean, we knew 2 Chainz wasn’t about to let us down, but with production from the top tastemakers in hop-hop, as well as A-List features, Pretty Girls is a certified contender for hip-hop album of the summer.

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Young Thug – Beautiful Thugger Girls

So Young Thug put out a country/folk/hip-hop album and it’s pretty wild.

Intended to be a “singing album,” the beats may be a little too hard to qualify as soft rock, but there’s definitely a lot of acoustic guitar and Thug is certainly singing.

Thugga really keeps pushing the envelope and changing what it means to be a modern hip-hop artist. Eternal shouts out to Thugga.

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Lorde – Melodrama

Lorde released her second album on Friday and it confirms her as a pop powerhouse.

Her songwriting is complex, sarcastic, funny, poignant, and often perfectly describes the emotions of being a young person in 2017, and beyond.

Any skepticism about the young New Zealander’s place within the pop lexicon will surely be squashed with this latest release, it is rather astounding from such a young artist.

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Big Boi – Boomiverse

One half of the best duo in hip-hop history has dropped his fourth major project as a solo artist, one of which was a collaborative effort with indie electro rock band Phantogram.

Boomiverse shows Big Boi continue to find a diverse sound, with Big Boi executive producing the album himself. There’s some great features on Boomiverse and Big Boi still has the punchlines on deckington.

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Calvin Harris – “Feels”

After dropping a video earlier this week with brief snippets of the songs on his new album, Calvin Harris dropped a new single off Funk Wav Bounces Vol 1, featuring Pharrell, Katy Perry, and Big Sean.

It’s hardly the most interesting song I’ve ever heard, but this song, as well as Harris’ whole damn album (slated for June 30th), will surely be bumping all summer.

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DJ Khaled & Rihanna

The lineup to this song seemed a little too extra, and there is ample thirst on this track (PARTYNEXTDOOR did in fact co-write it), but the Carlos Santana sample plus Rihanna is just too groovy to resist.

Bryson Tiller should probably chill out a little bit, but this track is pretty great. Asahd Khaled truly blessed another one.

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Queens of the Stone Age – “The Way You Used To”

Queens of the Stone Age have just been making good-as-shit rock music for over 20 years. Josh Homme et al. dropped “The Way You Used To Do” earlier this week, with a promo trailer for their new album, Villains (due August 25th), produced by super-producer Mark Ronson.

I’m sure Villains will give us more of the same Queens of the Stone Age-style driving rock music that we’ve been waiting for since 2013’s Like Clockwork.

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Action Bronson – “Let Me Breathe”

Action Bronson dropped a new track and announced a new album, Blue Chips 7000, executive produced by Harry Fraud. “Let Me Breathe” is a Fat Boys sampling romp in typical Action fashion, “white Range Rover blowin’ trees all in it.”

Shoutout the Fat Boys, though, Harry Fraud must’ve dug deep into the vinyl collection for that sample.

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Majid Jordan – “One I Want” ft. PARTYNEXTDOOR

Drake’s favorite OVO proteges teamed up for this latest release and it’s pretty much what you would expect from both.

The bounciness of the production suggests these dudes have been spending some time in Miami away from the Toronto cold.

The Majid and PARTY combination seems pretty natural, here’s hoping to some more collaborative work from these dudes.

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Aminé – “Turf”

Fresh off a week that saw an XXL Freshman list spot and news that his hit song “Caroline” went three times platinum, Aminé comes through with his new song “Turf,” showing the Portland native at his contemplative best.

“Turf” is representative of why Aminé is so highly thought of within hip-hop circles, surely there’s a lot more to come from Aminé.

Ayy, it’s June. It’s getting hotter and whatnot out here, so inevitably you need some new shit to listen to.

Whether you’re stuck on the M train, turning up at a cookout, or trying to forget about the trash state of the world, we got you covered.

A lot of different cool (and uncool) stuff dropped this week, so let’s run through some of the more notable releases from the music world.

Major Lazer – Know No Better

Diplo, Walshy Fire, and Jillionaire are back to give you some watered down dancehall music with features from some of the biggest names in music.

This album isn’t particularly notable, but will most likely be inescapable this summer. Sean Paul is on it, so that’s fire.

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Swet Shop Boys – Sufi La

Heems (Das Racist) and Riz MC (The Night Of) have teamed up to make Swet Shop Boys, a hip-hop duo that raps about the Middle-Eastern diaspora, birding, and Backwoods.

Sufi La isn’t going to be the best hip-hop album you’ll hear this year, but it’ll make you think, it’ll make you laugh, and it’ll make you sad.

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A.Chal – On Gaz

From Queens by way of Peru, A.Chal’s mixtape On Gaz is 11 tracks of hard beats and singing about pill-popping, smoking weed, and past relationships.

Heavily influenced by The Weeknd, A.Chal is another dude in a long line of this brand of R&B. We’re surely set to see more of A.Chal. The songs in Spanish are the most fun.

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PARTYNEXTDOOR – Colours 2

Speaking of r&b with hard beats, PARTYNEXTDOOR made a return with the suddenly-released Colours 2 EP.

It’s been a little while since we heard from the Toronto crooner. Colours 2 is four songs of basically what you’ve come to expect from PARTY, some dope production and singing about general thirst.

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Amber Coffman – City of No Reply

Dirty Projectors member Amber Coffman has released a solo album that’s a clear departure from the band itself, Coffman’s album is very poppy and very feel-good.

City of No Reply is basically like a more indie version of Carly Rae Jepsen’s latest stuff. If you’re looking for something to hide your anxieties about the world around you crumbling, maybe check out City of No Reply.

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Dan Auerbach – Waiting on a Song

Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach’s second full-length solo album is some pleasant folky rock music.

There isn’t too much ambition or risk going on with Waiting on a Song.

Waiting basically sounds like a really popular record from the early 70s, which is to say it’s niche indie rock now.

Check out our review here.

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21 Savage – “All The Smoke” (Video)

On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, 21 Savage released a new video for “All The Smoke” and it’s completely fucking terrifying.

The song is pretty much exactly what you’ve come to love out of 21 (if you love 21), but the video is some wild Jason Voorhees shit.

If you are squeamish, don’t watch this video. We’re hype for 21’s new project Issa Album, which should be dropping anytime now.

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2 Chainz – “4 AM” ft. Travis Scott

After “It’s a Vibe” and “Good Drank”, “4 AM” is the next single off 2 Chainz’s project Pretty Girls Like Trap Music.

“4 AM” shows Daniel Son Necklace Don back to his old tricks over a fire Murda Beatz and Cubeatz production.

Add Travis Scott to the hook and you have a jam. Pretty Girls Like Trap Music is due on June 16th.

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SZA – “Broken Clocks”

SZA dropped her third single off her upcoming studio album debut Ctrl, following “Love Galore” (also featuring Travis Scott) and “Drew Barrymore”.

On “Broken Clocks” SZA declares “I’ve had enough of petty dudes, I’ve had enough of shitty news”. Fair enough. Ctrl, initially slated to come out in February, is due June 9th.

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Meek Mill – “Whatever You Need” ft. Ty Dolla $ign and Chris Brown

Meek Milly back with a little bit of a love ballad and a rework of Tony! Toni! Toné!’s “Whatever You Want”.

DJ Mustard provides the beat and Chris Brown and Ty Dolla $ign take turns on the hook.

Back in May, Meek announced a tour in the late summer with Yo Gotti and dropped a mixtape Meekend Music. Meek is definitely one to watch this summer.

In the words of Drake on “Thank Me Now” there’s always been mutual appreciation, perhaps envy, between ball players and rappers, “Damn, I swear sports and music are so synonymous/’cause we wanna be them and they wanna be us.”

True words for your headtop from Drizzy, god knows he’s tried to ride the wave of multiple sports teams, both collegiate and professional. But this article is not about Drake’s wave-riding and its discontents.

This article is about the rappers out there who made a decision to go from playing ball to spitting bars. While not every one of these dudes could’ve necessarily made it in the league, they all played at a pretty high level, but fell off for various reasons.

We’re glad all these dudes chose to get off the court and into the booth, but we can’t help but think what might have been…

Cam’ron

Cam’ron recently posted on his Instagram that he gave the business to multiple-ex NBA players who grew up in New York, including Stephon Marbury. He added a postscript that the only dude that got the best of him was the infamous New York City playground legend Shamgod.

During Cam’ron’s sophomore year of high school at Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics, a trio of Cam, Mase, and Richie Parker (who got a scholarship to Seton Hall revoked for sex assault charges) led their high school to the state championship game, defeating Marbury’s Lincoln team on the way.

In the final, Cam bricked a three with his team down 55-53 and that one shot determined his future. Cam claims to have offers from Miami, Georgetown, Syracuse, et al., but after missing the shot, he immediately bought two ounces, never went back to school, and the rest is history.

Cam recently challenged Stephon Marbury to a game of one-on-one in MSG with the proceeds going to charity. We’ll have to wait to see if that ever pans out, in the meantime you can watch clips of Cam balling back in the day. But could he have gone pro?

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Mase

As the second-half of the backcourt on that Manhattan Science and Mathematics game, Mase also is a legend of the New York City high school basketball scene. His story isn’t quite as intense or dramatic as Cam’s, but still perhaps left him thinking what could have been.

Mase was recruited out of Harlem to play at SUNY-Purchase, and was the starting point guard as a freshman. His plan for his entire life was always to play in the NBA, but after a couple semesters at Purchase, Mase moved home back to Harlem, determined to make it as a rapper.

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The Game

The Game, as his moniker suggests, could ball. Coming from the same Compton High School as Tayshaun Prince, Baron Davis (Game’s best friend), Tyson Chandler, and Gilbert Arenas, Game was virtually surrounded by elite basketball talent.

Game claims to have enrolled at Washington State University only to be expelled for drugs possession. For what it’s worth, WSU denies he was ever enrolled at the University, but Baron Davis has vouched for Game’s game, especially his dunks.

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2 Chainz

2 Chainz, real name Tauheed Epps, was a college ballplayer, and he was apparently pretty good. Coming out of College Park, Georgia, 2 Chainz was recruited to Alabama State, where his college coach hailed his versatility. According to Complex, Alabama State’s coach Clayton Harris was so impressed with Chainz’s

“ability to play the point guard, shooting guard, and small forward position and amazed by his family background and focus on scholastics that Alabama State felt compelled to extend him a scholarship offer.”

That’s some pretty high praise coming from the coach. It makes sense the Daniel Son Necklace Don artist could play, given his lanky 6’5” frame.

In 35 games with Alabama State, 2Chainz scored 2.8 ppg in 11 minutes. It’s safe to say, we’re glad to have him in the hip-hop world, no lie.

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Master P

The only guy on this list that actually made a roster in The Association, Master P could ball.

Coming out of Booker T. Washington High School in New Orleans, Master P got an athletic scholarship to the University of Houston but had to drop out after a couple of months due to a knee injury and would go on to start No Limit Records.

But P’s dream was never dead. In both 1998 and 1999 Master P had pre-season contracts with both the Charlotte Hornets and Toronto Raptors, respectively.

He actually played pretty well, averaging 8 points in pre-season, but he never got a shot at the big time. He can proudly say he wore an NBA jersey, though.