Christopher Michel
After rave reviews in Atlanta's frenetic underground scene as part of the duo Playaz Circle, 2 Chainz burst onto the national scene with 2012′s Billboard-topping Based on a T.R.U. Story. The follow-up album, B.O.A.T.S. II: Me Time, which also comes with a "cookbooklet" called Meal Time, dropped today. Though he missed the dinner party we'd planned to throw him last month, due to his getting arrested in Oklahoma, he did make us this awesome playlist for when we're cooking. It's been tiding us over until we can hear the new album. In the meantime, 2 Chainz told us a bit about his day.
I usually don't go to sleep until about 7 a.m., so I tend to wake up about noon. I go through my normal morning activities as far as washing up. I never drink a drop of coffee. I also don't eat beef or pork. I rarely eat fried foods, though I do indulge once in a while.
The position I'm in, being up all night, doing live shows -- it's a lot of cardio. You basically have to be built. You need the mind of an athelete to be part of this game. So it's very important to me to have a chef around. I suffer from acid reflux along with ulcers. It's a double-whammy, so for me, I'm not about getting too full, or getting too hungry. I need to have healthy snacks around, whether it's nuts or fruit. I also try to drink plenty of water. I cannot lay down without a bottle of water next to me. When I wake up I'm parched, so I need it right by my bed.
I don't have any kind of regular routines when it comes to exercise or anything, I might do some push-ups, but that's it. Then I'll eat. I've been posting a lot of what I eat on my Instagram. I call it brunch, but that's because I go to bed when everyone else is waking up. It's really my breakfast, but my Instagram fans can be, well, very particular about language, so I tell them that it's brunch.
My chef, Chef Aleem, once or twice he's made me homemade pancakes, and it was a big deal on my Instagram, but for the most part he makes me turkey bacon, oatmeal, maybe some egg whites, some kind of fruit, or avocado -- that type of thing.
If I'm not on the road, I go to the studio. I don't write, so I head in and try to vibe out, record something so I can get my thoughts out. I listen to different instrumentals and when one inspires me I try to go in and feel the song from there.
Remembering the verses, not writing anything down, those are like my mind pull-ups. That and I also remember all the phone numbers of family and friends, all the closest people around me. I exercise my mind in that fashion. I do have, uh, habits that are not so good of course, that burn up some brain cells, but I try to challenge them by remembering the numbers that I should remember, and also storing the verses in my head.
No one can remember phone numbers anymore. People can't remember their mom's numbers. That shit is crazy. It used to be a situation where you had to remember all that stuff. But I still got it. It has to be that way with me. If there was a situation where my phone got lost, I don't even want to worry about it.
And of course I pray to thank God every morning that I made this album [B.O.A.T.S. II: Me Time] , and I try to be positive and to take it to the next level. I'm having a huge party in Atlanta [to launch it] on September 10, right before my birthday. It's going to be crazy.