Why 2 Chainz left Ludacris’ label: “No such thing as loyalty”
2 Chainz was once signed to Ludacris, but got to a point where he wanted out of the label. The rapper, formerly known as Tity Boy, initially signed to Disturbing Tha Peace as Playaz Circle alongside Dolla Boy. The rap duo released two albums on the label, Supply and Demand and Flight 360: The Takeoff, in 2007 and 2009.
Luda launched DTP in 1998 alongside his manager, Chaka Zulu, and his brother, Jeff Dixon. The likes of Bobby V and Chingy were signed to the Def Jam label, which also released Luda’s solo albums like Back for the First Time, Word of Mouf, Chicken-n-Beer, and The Red Light District.
Eventually, Chainz felt like he had outgrown the label and wanted to explore a new path. “I just started growing as an artist, I started growing as an individual,” he told Drink Champs. “It was amicable, you know what I’m saying?”
The Atlanta rapper went into detail about the conversations that took place that allowed him to be released from Disturbing Tha Peace. Although Luda and the rest of the team initially helped Chainz’s career, he realised he could do things on his own. However, he was forced to pay his way out of the deal.
“I woke up and called [Ludacris] and said, ‘I don’t want to be on the label anymore,'” he recalled. “Then they said, ‘You can’t do that. You can’t just get off a label like that.’ They thought I was about to go sign with Cash Money because I had a strong relationship with [Lil Wayne] at the time.
“I been around ’Cris, I been around Wayne, and then I’m learning I can really do this on my own. I paid [Ludacris] to get out, they get a point on my first three albums. I paid Luda the 100 grand and I gave him a point on each of the three albums. I just dropped my seventh album. I’m on my eighth album that I’m ’bout to drop now—and the $100,000, I mean very humbly, I got it on me now.”
2 Chainz previously told Everyday Struggle, “I had to pay [Luda] $100,000 per album, and I think, some other little. I’ve made $100K so many times, [so] it was a pretty good deal to get out of it.” Despite wanting to part ways with Luda, he has no hard feelings towards him. In fact, he credits him as the person who got his finances in order.
“I learned a lot from the previous situation I was in,” he said. “It is what it is. I learned it a long time ago when dealing with that situation that there’s really no such thing as loyalty out here. For me, I don’t have anything negative to say. Actually, [Ludacris] was the first person to give me a bank account. I didn’t even have a bank account. I just had shoeboxes of money.”
Chainz ended up signing a deal with Def Jam separate from Disturbing Tha Peace, releasing his first three albums, Based on a T.R.U. Story, B.O.A.T.S. II: Me Time, and ColleGrove, on the label. To this day, he’s still signed to them, dropping his Dope Don’t Sell Itself project in 2022.