Despite coming hard out of the gate with violence-fueled street anthems, 18-year-old Memphis rapper NLE Choppa recently turned over a new leaf and seems to be pursuing wellness over profit or cultivating a tough-guy image. He’s promoted plant-based diets and meditation, started rapping about socially conscious subjects and made it a point to provide a more positive role model for his fans to imitate. To that end, Choppa is trying to expand his list of collaborators to include other rappers who share this outlook.
Posting a snippet of one of his new, positive-minded songs to Instagram, Choppa reached out to J. Cole, writing, “Protect the mind and soul, protect the body too. Ain’t dropping new music til y’all wake up,” and adding, “Want @realcoleworld on this.” It certainly wouldn’t be unprecedented for Cole to work with artists outside of his label and trademark content. In 2019, he went on a tear, dropping guest verses with the likes of 21 Savage, Jay Rock, Moneybagg Yo, and Young Thug — all artists you might not have expected to see him collaborate with under normal circumstances.
Unfortunately for Choppa, Cole also vowed that his verse for Gang Starr’s “Family And Loyalty” — a return to form, to be sure — was his last for a while. And while rappers change their minds about this sort of thing all the time, Cole seems like he’ll be busy churning out sneakers and (apparently) trying out for the NBA. Maybe Choppa, who was a high school basketball star himself, can play him for it.
NLE Choppa is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.