LeBron James’ debut as a music producer is, at the very least, a commercial success right out of the gates.
After releasing at midnight Friday, the 2 Chainz album, ‘Rap or Go To The League,’ A/R’d by LeBron James, is at the top of the hip-hop charts on iTunes and ranks No. 4 among all albums on iTunes. While 2 Chainz and several of the amazing featured artists and producers made the album amazing, Chainz remains thankful of the effort LeBron made to finish the album amid his busy schedule to help the successful album come to life.
2 Chainz told The Ringer’s Rembert Browne how appreciative he was of LeBron to make the time that he did, given the many things that James has on his plate, like trying to make the playoffs.
Q: You both got something out of it, so it wasn’t like he did you a favor.
Nah, nah, nah—he did. Don’t get it twisted. He did me a favor and I’m very appreciative of it. He didn’t have to do that, that’s the best basketball player in the world. You know what I’m saying? He’s the best basketball player in the world, he has to try to make the playoffs, it’s a thousand things he could be damn doing so I am very appreciative that he took the time to do it.
But I’m acknowledging him, I’m giving him his roses while he’s smelling them. He’s gonna get real credit on the album, it’s gonna be something that he can put on a résumé. This is legit. Like, say basketball don’t work or something, right? [Laughter.] Let’s say it doesn’t work, he can do music.
LeBron’s resume is already extensive and you can read the laughter in the quote, but you can also sense that this was serious to James. Although his work on the album may have been put in an awkward light given James’ rhetorical questions to unnamed teammates about whether basketball is the most important thing in their lives, James delivered as he usually does.
