2 Chainz – Feds Watching [feat. Pharrell Williams]

2 Chainz is the best shitty rapper working today. Shitty in the sense that he has almost zero technical ability. His rhymes, though comprehensible, don’t so much as lean towards anything more than a competent delivery. Oddly enough, though, it’s his generally boring technique that makes him a great collaborator. Mr. Chainz has worked with some of the best and on “Feds Watching” we find him flowing over a typically reliable beat from Pharrell, punctuated by electric guitar squeals and drum kicks placed perfectly between its feature MC’s line breaks.

Where 2 Chainz does shine, however, are his oddball lyrics. Over the course of his relatively quick rise from obscurity, 2 Chainz has made me laugh out loud more than any other figure in music. Consider the lyrics from “Feds Watching.”

I be somewhere settling, somewhere that you have never been
To the top you never been, you might need a respirator
Money on the rise like I’m counting on a elevator
You gon’ need a detonator swimming with them barracudas
Close the docket on that ma’fucka prosecutor
This Armani, this Givenchy, I parachute you
I’m so fly I jumped out the air wearing Gucci (Tell ‘em!)
I’m raw, talking California Rolls

Or, consider the video for “Birthday Song,” which takes poor taste to a near-savant level.

Birthday Song — [NSFW]

Most of what Mr. Chainz is doing would be wildly offensive to me if I could take it all seriously. I’m not laughing with him—usually. But it seems like he might have turned a corner with “Feds Watching.” He references Yomsemite Sam, ferchrissake. The album is subtitled hastag METIME. Me. Time. His whole persona is absurd.

Sometimes you just need a laugh. It’s the weekend. You deserve it.

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