2 Chainz American Rapper With 12.2M Instagram Followers

Early life

2 Chainz was born Tauheed Epps on 12 September 1977 in College Park, Georgia, a city just south of Atlanta. He attended North Clayton High School, where he played basketball, and continued the sport at Alabama State University, joining the Hornets men's basketball team in the mid-1990s. His education also included time at Virginia State University.

Career

In 1997 Epps formed the duo Playaz Circle with his friend Earl Conyers, known as Dolla Boy, performing at that stage under the name Tity Boi. After an independent album in 2002, the pair were noticed by Ludacris, who signed them to his label Disturbing tha Peace. Their debut album Supply & Demand came out on 30 October 2007, led by "Duffle Bag Boy" featuring Lil Wayne, and a second album, Flight 360: The Takeoff, followed in 2009.

In 2011 he began performing as 2 Chainz and released the mixtape T.R.U. REALigion, his first project to appear on the charts. Guest verses on tracks by Kanye West and Nicki Minaj raised his profile; "Mercy" gave him his first solo entry on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 13. In February 2012 he signed a solo contract with Def Jam Recordings. His debut album, Based on a T.R.U. Story, was released on 14 August 2012 and entered the Billboard 200 at number one. That year he also appeared in the film Cruel Summer.

B.O.A.T.S. II: Me Time followed on 10 September 2013, and in 2014 he released the free EP FreeBase. In 2015 he launched his own label, The Real University. He then issued a run of projects in quick succession: the collaborative album ColleGrove with Lil Wayne in 2016, the mixtapes Daniel Son; Necklace Don and Hibachi for Lunch in the same year, and the studio album Pretty Girls Like Trap Music on 16 June 2017. Singles from this period include "No Problem" (2016), "Good Drank" and "It's a Vibe" (both 2017) and "Big Bank" (2018). Rap or Go to the League arrived on 1 March 2019, So Help Me God! on 13 November 2020 and Dope Don't Sell Itself in 2022.

Television became a second strand of his work. From November 2017 he hosted Most Expensivest, a series in which he visited and reviewed luxury goods and services; it ran for four seasons. In October 2022 he began hosting the concert series Amazon Music Live. In 2019 he bought a minority ownership stake in the College Park Skyhawks, the NBA G League affiliate of the Atlanta Hawks.

He reunited with Lil Wayne for Welcome 2 Collegrove, released on 17 November 2023. In October 2024 he announced that he had left Def Jam after choosing not to re-sign, and on 7 February 2025 he released Life Is Beautiful, a collaborative album with Larry June and the Alchemist.

Recognition

The records list one award win and ten nominations. The win was the BET Award for Best Collaboration in 2013, for "Fuckin' Problems". In 2012 he received two Grammy Award nominations, for Best Rap Album (Based on a T.R.U. Story) and Best Rap Song ("Mercy"). That year he was also nominated for the MTV Europe Music Award for Best US Act and for two MTV Video Music Awards, Best Hip-Hop Video and Best Editing. Further MTV Video Music Award nominations came in 2014 for Best Choreography and Best Pop Video. At the 2013 BET Awards he was additionally nominated for Video of the Year and the Viewer's Choice award.

Personal life

2 Chainz has three children.