Before 2 Chainz made it big with singles like “Riot” and the Drake-assisted “No Lie,” he was a member of the Disturbing Tha Peace duo Playaz Circle. Now, in a recent interview with Hot 97’s Funkmaster Flex, the Southern rapper discusses his origins in the rap game alongside partner Dolla Boi and DTP head Ludacris.

2 Chainz explained that Playaz Circle first came about in the late 1990s when he and a few other hopeful emcees pooled their money together to cut an independent LP. He said that the project was actually the first time he ever stepped in a recording booth and that the positive he received pushed him to continue making music. He also added that the project actually helped him first link up with Luda, who was working as a radio DJ at the time. 

“[Playaz Circle] was originally like a compilation [in] the late ’90s…it was my first time recording, my first song ever recorded was on this compilation,” he said. “At this point in time, it was really a group, it was like maybe five or six emcees that put in their little trap money to put together a CD…[we were] trying to sell it out the trunk, the whole Master P-thing. Off that, I kinda got feedback…people were saying I was dope, and it was my first time ever recording, so it kinda gave me confidence to pursue it a little bit.”

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He continued, “Luda was working in radio in Atlanta, Georgia, and with us having an independent album, we had to cross paths, and it was almost like…he went to the rival high school [because] he was from the south side of town…we stayed in [the same] apartment complexes, which is now the runway at the Atlanta airport…and then he started popping using commercials to start rapping, got his own label, and we figured it was the kind of situation where whoever got on first would pull the other one up, and he pulled me up and I pulled Dolla [Boi] up and we did Playaz Circle [as] a DTP thing.”

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