Boy, that aint never your Zoom picture!
his manager Jessie Jay Boogie Green jokes.
His trademark locs are gone.
Parrish Lewis*
Instead, hes rocking a small Afro.
How I feel about Love Sosa going Diamond?
I dont even know, he ponders.
Its just crazy because my mouth dropped when I seen that come past my mentions.
I was like, What the hell?
I was too happy.
We was in the studio on some cool stuff that day, he says of Love Sosas creation.
He just had one verse to the song.
Hes like, Yeah, we going to finish it later on.
But days later, when Keef heard French sought to buy the song, He said, Hell nah.
Man, pull that shit up.
Im finna put another verse on it.
And he finished strong.
Its why some people give Chop titles like the King or Godfather of Drill.
Its a good name because I really crafted that in my mamas room, he says.
I wasnt getting no sleep like that.
By 2012, the Chicagoan had graduated from high school into rap stardom.
His return to music feels like a triumph from where he was several years ago.
During an April 2020 Instagram Live session, Chop streamed himself looking for 21 Savage in Atlanta.
A week later, he was arrested on aggravated cruelty to animal charges after allegedly starving his dog.
Soon after, surveillance footage leaked of him on his porch shooting a gun.
Yeah, probably, he quickly says before turning skeptical, surmising, I dont know.
I dont think that was that.
No, that aint really have nothing to do with that.
One thing hes resolute about is regret for his actions during 2020.
I dont know what the hell that shit was, bro.
I cant even tell you in words how that [happened].
I dont really think about it like that.
[I] try not to think about that shit.
During his time in Gwinnett County Jail, Chop says he spent a week in a mental-health pod.
He also says he got into a lot of fights.
Chop says that after retaliating and beating the man bloody, he pondered the aggressors mental health.
What the hell just made that man slap me like that, he thought.
The moment was illuminating but not isolated.
Last June, surveillance footage of Chop fighting a man in jail leaked.
But his carceral experience wasnt strictly comprised of conflict; there was some creativity.
I was loud as fuck.
I didnt give no fucks, he jokes.
I told him we got to do a project.
Hes like, All right, Chop shares.
When I get to California, we gonna be working on it.
In the meantime, Chop is working on his music and honing his video-directing skills.
He recently bought a green screen and says he wants to make music videos for himself and others.
Watch, he promises, Ima get good with that shit.
As far as his current musical approach goes, he promises freshness.
New money, just new everything, he says.
On some cool, laid-back shit.
Not some crazy, rah-rah shit, you know?
