Clean Cut: NLE Choppa Is Crushing Every Rapper Stereotype In His Path

An hour before his conversation with Cassius, NLE Choppa had one of his young career’s best bits of validation. The Memphis rapper was enjoying a vegan meal in an upscale Los Angeles eatery, getting a moment of downtime after a busy few months. His new single “Slut Me Out Pt. 2” has netted more than 7 million views since the video hit YouTube in April, and he had just performed a string of spot shows in California, Arkansas and Missouri.

He’s also preparing to travel to San Diego to celebrate his daughter’s fourth birthday at a Sesame Street amusement park before he hits the road on tour with A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie this summer. But all those things are either in the past or the future: just an hour ago, mid-bite, he saw Jay-Z walking out the back of the restaurant.

“I was like, no fucking way. I just looked at him, because I didn’t want to bombard his space,” he recalls, his voice rising with excitement at the fresh memory. “But the man actually seen me, and went out of his way and came over to shake my hand and tell me that he loved what I was doing. That’s confirmation to let you know that you’re on the right path.” Choppa says he spoke to his father shortly after the encounter and laughs while referencing the classic meme that took over social media in 2021. “I cracked a joke with him, ‘well, I guess I had dinner with Jay-Z!’”

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It’s only right that Hov would take notice of Choppa’s work. The 21-year-old has become one of rap’s brightest, savviest young artists. He’s a charismatic, dynamic performer whose missions outside of music are just as intentional as his work in the booth and on stage. 

While such terminology is usually reserved for celebrities like Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake, NLE Choppa was essentially a child star. He discovered music in his early teenage years, inspired by rappers like YoungBoy Never Broke Again, 2Pac and Lil Wayne, and he had earned millions of views from his own music by the time he was 15 years old. “The entity we’re stepping into isn’t really reflective of a kid, in terms of what’s being promoted,” Choppa admits. “We’re rapping about adulthood, because that’s pretty much what we’re exposed to at a young age. Being able to survive as an adult, even though you’re not even an adult yet.”

NLE Choppa Lyrics

He recorded his own verses in limited doses early on, and got his first major attention from the music video for “No Chorus Pt. 3,” by his crew Shotta Fam, shortly after its December 2018 release. The video has five rappers, but Choppa is the clear standout with his opening verse: he raps with a melodic delivery comparable to YoungBoy Never Broke Again, brandishes guns and buoyantly dances as his crew mobs behind him. He released the video for his solo cut “Shotta Flow” the following month, using similar visual cues but eschewing the melodic rhymes for blunt, high-energy Memphis street raps. Choppa says that rapping helped him work through communication issues that stemmed from his childhood.

“It was tough for me to express how I felt to other people in a one-on-one conversation. Talking to the mic helped me get through certain hardships and it became therapeutic for me,” he says. “I fell in love with music before I even was able to bless other people’s ears with it.”

 

With his stylistic versatility and dance moves that showed him as light on his feet, NLE Choppa had earned a rep by age 15 as one of rap’s most energetic, boundlessly charismatic young stars. He released a sequel to “Shotta Flow” and launched a series behind the song, signed with distribution company United Masters, dropped his debut album Top Shotta, and began to collaborate with stars like Chief Keef, Roddy Ricch, and his idol Lil Wayne. He also earned a reputation for showing his respect for his rap predecessors by slyly flipping samples from the ’90s and 2000s: future songs like “It’s Gettin Hot” and “Picture Me Grapin” interpolate hits by Nelly and 2Pac, respectively.

NLE Choppa Embraces The Vegan Lifestyle

But during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, he realized that he “desperately” needed a change in his life. His first child was on the way, and he wanted to put himself in the best position to be a good father. He began making major shifts in his health: he stopped using drugs and alcohol, cut out meat and dairy to adopt a plant-based diet, and began to use meditation as a tool for his mental health.

“I did a lot of self-reflecting. Changed my personality, stopped hanging around certain people,” Choppa said. “That’s why I say the pandemic was one of the most important parts of my life. … Just knowing that I had a daughter conceiving at the moment, it really made me grow up.”

 

Choppa also made a hard turn musically, with From Dark To Light. The fall 2020 mixtape saw him continuing his hard-edged street style for some songs, while other records embraced the changes in his life with lyrics about vegetarianism (“you are what you eat, I’m countin’ green, eatin’ celery,” Choppa quips on the song of his namesake, “Bryson”), meditation and appreciation for nature. Future albums like Me vs. Me and Cottonwood 2 would continue to offer the gangsta rap that made fans fall in love with him, but he also has positive songs like “Good Day” and “Forever.”

Slut Me Out 2

His rap career has been so successful that in April of this year, he released Certified, a project that compiled all of his songs that had earned gold or platinum plaques for sales and streams. He says the 17-track record doesn’t even include guest verses and other songs that have reached the mark but haven’t been certified by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) yet. “Slut Me Out 2” will likely earn a platinum plaque of its own with its lewd, hilarious lyrics, chintzy disco production and its eccentric, Rick James-inspired video. 

“The best part about it is just knowing how much legroom I have to become the greatest at this sh-t. I feel like I already know I’m the greatest when I look in the mirror. My head is on right, I got enough accolades, and I’m not going anywhere anytime soon,” Choppa says while reflecting on his career. But he admits that he finds challenges in balancing his aspiration for more with the appropriate appreciation for what he already has — whether that’s the loads of success as a musician, or his fatherhood of an 8-month-old boy and 3-year-old girl who he has made songs about that he “can’t wait” to release.

Booked, Busy And Blessed

“I want to really embody appreciation and embody gratitude and just have it going through my bones and veins,” Choppa said. “It’s a blessing what I’m doing, and sometimes we get off the path and feel like we’re not where we’re supposed to be and have our doubts. It kind of messes with your mental. But I just really want to stay grateful, because the things I’ve done in my age, no one has done.”

 

The key to maintaining that appreciation, he says, is staying present as much as possible. That’s easier said than done, he admits, since he’s on the road so much. “It’s easy to say thank you, but it’s hard to deeply just stay in that emotion,” he explains. “I could be somewhere one minute, and somewhere else the next. So it’s hard to stay in that space of what I was just thankful for.” 

 

Choppa finds additional purpose outside of his music. He became a partner in Eat Virgin, a vegan snack company founded by Miami couple L.A. Rice and Natasha, and he kickstarted the NLE Reading Challenge, an initiative with area middle schools that he says has helped students to read 40 million words per year. 

Faith Led

Choppa is also serious about his faith. He mentions God more than a half dozen times during our interview when answering questions about gratitude, purpose, showmanship and turning his life around. When remembering his decision to use the isolation of the pandemic to his advantage, he says that he wanted to “stay consistent with the blessings God gave me.” When he’s asked about maintaining gratitude, he says he tries to “keep a steady mind and stay rooted in prayer. Just acknowledging God’s work, and acknowledging God’s doing.” When I ask him about the craftsmanship he brings to his music videos and live performances, he attributes it as “what God instilled in me.” He speaks proudly and candidly when speaking about what he sees as God’s impact on his life, but when asked specifically about whether his relationship with God has always been there or if it’s a recent development, he responds in a way that’s both cryptic and telling.

“You got a connection with Him in the womb, whether you know it or not,” he muses. “Even when I didn’t know I had a connection with Him, I had one.”

It checks out lyrically, at least: as early as his first viral look on “No Chorus Pt. 3,” he raps, “I keep me a Bible, it stay on my right / I keep me a .30, it stay on my left.”

The lyric is nearly six years old now, but it’s indicative of the balance that NLE Choppa says that he’s striving for with his music and his image. Whether it’s his personal embrace of religion or his intention behind exposing his fans to healthier lifestyles, he wants to make art and business that are just as dynamic as his own life.

A Walking Testimony

“A lot of people go through the same things I go through, but some people just withhold certain images that they just want to keep a hold of. Which is cool, I just don’t want to cut nobody short of who I can help,” Choppa said. “…At least be a balance. I’m not perfect, I promote certain sh-t sometimes. But there’s a lot of good that people can take away about me as well.”