2 Chainz dropped his latest album, "Rap or Go to the League" on Friday. His latest album has a track titled "NCAA," which advocates for the NCAA to pay players.
The album was executive produced by LeBron James, which the rapper announced in a video promoting the album. A full interview between the two stars will be released on Apple Music in the near future, but in the brief clip, 2 Chainz said James worked closely on the project.
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"Don't nobody know but the people in the room," 2 Chainz said about James' presence during the making of the album. "I think it'd be shocking to people to know how much input you had on (the album)."
What's not clear is how much, or if any, input James had on the track "NCAA." But James has been a vocal critic, calling the NCAA "corrupt" in 2018.
"I'm not a fan of the NCAA," James said in February 2018. "I love watching March Madness. I think that's incredible. I'm not a fan of how the kids don't benefit from none of this, so it's kind of a fine line and I've got a couple boys that could be headed in that direction, so there's going to be some decisions that we as a family have to make. But I know, as the NBA, we have to figure out a way that we can shore up our farm league, and if kids feel like they don't want to be a part of that NCAA program, then we have something here for them to be able to jump back on and not have to worry about going overseas all the time, I guess.
"We have to figure that out, but kids getting paid is nothing new under the sun. You all seen 'Blue Chips'? It's a real movie, seriously. ... The NCAA is corrupt, we know that. Sorry, it's going to make headlines, but it's corrupt."
As for 2 Chainz, he made similar comments on the "NCAA" track, which can be heard below.
(Warning: The below track includes explicit lyrics).
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The chorus of the song goes:
NCAA, yeah, we the young and dangerous, yeah/
We be ballin' hard, yeah, I just want some paper, yeah
It wasn't until the second verse that 2 Chainz started dropping bars about college athletics, but once he did, he went in hard. He made several references to actual athletes, and also touched on young athletes and the system in general.
For instance, at the very start of his second verse 2 Chainz rapped, "Let me get this straight, if I drop 40 today/ You don't care if I eat, you don't care if I ate."
Shortly after that, 2 Chainz name-dropped former Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston, former Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o and former Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett.
I have more crab legs than Jameis/
You fake like you got a girlfriend, Manti Te'o/
Maurice Clarett with bangers/
This could drive a college kid crazy
At the end of that verse, he rapped about former Heisman-winning Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel and even briefly mentioned James.
Manziel had the highest sellin' jersey/
Bron moved back to Cleveland/
Drake made a song 'bout him/
Man, he ain't even workin'
2 Chainz himself, real name Tauheed Epps, has some experience in the NCAA. He attended Alabama State University on a scholarship and played on the basketball team from 1995-97. He averaged 2.4 points per game in his first season and 3.0 points in his second season.
