2 CHAINZ’S “DOPE DON’T SELL ITSELF” REVIEW

2 Chainz has produced an album that captures his voracious ambition and demonstrates how much he has developed as an artist, ten years after his commercial peak and captivating breakout run at the beginning of the 2010s. “How many niggas you know, with that hustle?” In the last seconds of “Outstanding,” the fourth song on his recently released album Dope Don’t Sell Itself, 2 Chainz throws the question to the audience.

With a title like that, one might imagine the seasoned Atlanta rapper’s most recent album is thematically focused on hustling in the sense of selling drugs, but on his seventh studio album, 2 Chainz is much more concerned with upholding a hustler’s mentality than dissecting the semantics of drug-dealing. The former member of Playaz Circle and G.O.O.D. Music has a resume that many young rappers would kill for, yet he’s only 44 years old.

Only that Jay-Z feature he’s been vying for remains on 2 Chainz’s Hip-Hop bucket list after having a Billboard 200 chart-topping album, a top 5 entry on the Billboard Hot 100, 15 platinum-certified singles, a Grammy for Best Rap Performance, countless iconic verses, and his own record label. Many musicians in Chainz’s position have grown complacent and abandoned their profession, but, in Chainz’s opinion, the hustle that has steered him through his life and career is ingrained in his genes.

“Shit gotta be in you, not on you,” On the “Outstanding” outro, which features Roddy Ricch, he continues. “I’ll tell you that lazy shit gon’ get you nowhere really fast, though/You can’t buy motivation.” Dope Don’t Sell Itself, an album that comes out the same year that 2 Chainz’s solo debut, Based on a T.R.U. Story, marks its tenth anniversary, may have it as one of its most important lessons.

Two Chainz has produced an album that captures his voracious ambition and demonstrates how much he has developed as an artist, ten years after his commercial peak and captivating breakout run at the beginning of the 2010s. Dope Don’t Sell Itself is a worthwhile and fascinating addition to 2 Chainz’s impressive discography, albeit with some somewhat odd artistic choices.

First off, with only 12 tracks and a duration of 32 and a half minutes, Dope Don’t Sell Itself is by far the College Park native’s smallest album to date. While the album’s streamlined style is undoubtedly preferable to the usual bloated tracklists and hour-long playbacks, its pace and sequencing give the impression that it is lacking something.

As one of rap’s elder statesmen, 2 Chainz manages to maintain his sophisticated style of Southern Hip-Hop without straying from the modern trends that he helped to pioneer on albums like Pretty Girls Like Trap Music, Rap Or Go To The League, and So Help Me God.

A youthful energy is undoubtedly added to Dope Don’t Sell Itself by the long list of features, which also includes Moneybagg Yo, Lil Baby, YoungBoy Never Broke Again, Roddy Ricch, Sleepy Rose, 42 Dugg, Symba, Stove God Cook$, and Major Myjah, but 2 Chainz deserves credit for holding his own when rapping alongside the new wave of Hip-Hop artists.

In addition to working hard on raucous collaborations like “Pop It” and “Million Dollars Worth of Game” with 42 Dugg and Moneybagg Yo, 2 Chainz also brings that same energy to the solo effort “Neighbors Know My Name,” which is a spiritual successor to Trey Songz’s sensual 2009 track of the same name that was built upon a nostalgic sample of D4L’s 2005 hit single “Laffy Taffy.”

Beyond those lighthearted moments, 2 Chainz balances out his most recent album by bringing his years of experience to songs like the Swae Lee-assisted “Caymans” and the stacked Stove God Cooks, Symba, and Major Myjah collaboration “Vlad TV,” dropping game about the competitive nature of the streets, living within your means, self-snitching, and more.

Also worth noticing is the choice of beats on Dope Don’t Sell Itself. The new album from 2 Chainz features beats from producers like Mannie Fresh, Buddah Bless, Hit-Boy, FKi 1st, LilJuMadeDaBeat, LordQuest, BeatKing, Caston Grigsby, WomaticTracks, Corey Swimmer, and a few others, ranging from the glitchy, speaker-rattling production on “Bet It Back” to the dramatic instrumental on “Vlad TV.”

No production on Dope Don’t Sell Itself feels out of place, with the exception of Buddah Bless’ wonky flute-driven production on the NBA YoungBoy-assisted “10 Bracelets,” which is both a creative accomplishment in and of itself and a testament to 2 Chainz’s ability to flow on any beat put in front of him.

Dope Don’t Sell Itself as a whole, however, sounds less like an album and more like a loosely narrated playlist that could be played on shuffle despite all of the outstanding collaborations, veteran insights, quotable bars, and hard-hitting beats. The aforementioned hunger and intensity, which 2 Chainz writes about on “Outstanding” and exhibits throughout the remainder of the album, are what make it a step in the right direction. Dope Don’t Sell Itself hits far more often than it fails because the hustler’s energy and mentality are still strong