← The Person Who Believed In Me
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- [00:00]
2 Chainz
I got into a little trouble my senior year. You know, we all make mistakes. And at that moment when that happened, I thought my world was crashing down on me. That situation, when I look at it, I don't want to change. Not one thing. And I'm going to tell you, bro, it made me stronger. What up? It's your player partner, 2 Chainz checking in. A multi platinum artist, a Grammy award winning hitmaker, hip hop superstar, two chains. I never forget this school. And I never forget Ms. Love either.
- [00:30]
David Begnaud
Ms. Love wrote to the school board urging, quote, don't throw this child's life away. Give him a second chance.
- [00:36]
2 Chainz
So many years from that, that's just. That's just tough. That's admirable. I appreciate her.
- [00:42]
David Begnaud
Can I put you on the spot and can we call her now?
- [00:44]
2 Chainz
I didn't know this was going to happen. Let me see.
- [00:46]
Ms. Love
Hey, baby.
- [00:47]
2 Chainz
Hey, that sugar. How you doing?
- [00:49]
David Begnaud
That was a powerful moment.
- [00:51]
2 Chainz
I didn't know you were going to ask me to do that.
- [00:52]
David Begnaud
2 Chainz. It's not success that connects us as human beings. It's struggle.
- [00:57]
2 Chainz
That's a cool one too.
- [00:58]
David Begnaud
Notice I hadn't asked you about your Grammy or your pocketbook or rolling with famous.
- [01:04]
2 Chainz
I feel that. I feel it to anybody that's watching this that's going through something right now that's in the middle of a storm. You have to.
- [01:15]
David Begnaud
Before we start, allow me to thank my friends at Canva. This podcast is possible because they believed in us. Canva has a two step plan. Go build the world's most valuable company and then do the most good it can. They give their product free of charge to schools and nonprofits because they are on a mission to create equal opportunities that empower people all over the world. Welcome to the person who believed in me. I'm David Begnaud. Today I am joined by two chains. Rapper, entrepreneur, author and hip hop icon. The world celebrates the wins, but behind the spotlight is a man in transition. Learning to trust his intuition, leaning into faith, and redefining what success means in his next chapter. This conversation is about growth and stepping in to the legacy phase of one's life. Please welcome to the show two Chains.
- [02:09]
2 Chainz
That was good.
- [02:10]
David Begnaud
Thank you, man. Thank you. How does. Well, before we. Before we do that, allow me to do this. We start the show the same way each time.
- [02:24]
2 Chainz
Throw this child away. Give him a second chance. Oh, yeah, I know. This is my. This is my high school alma mater, North Clayton High School on the south side and of Atlanta. Of Atlanta College park. And give this. Give Him a second chance is. I got into a little trouble my senior year. And so my math teacher by the name of Ms. Love, she wrote a letter on my behalf to the board to, you know, tell them to give me a second chance, that, you know, we all make mistakes. And so, yeah, I never forget this school. And I never forget Ms. Love either.
- [03:07]
David Begnaud
Ms. Love. Was that her nickname or her real name?
- [03:10]
2 Chainz
No, that's her real last name.
- [03:11]
David Begnaud
Has a real last name.
- [03:12]
2 Chainz
That's a cool last name.
- [03:13]
David Begnaud
It's a cool last name. So you were 15 years old. Take me back to then. 15 years old. You had been. What. What happen?
- [03:20]
2 Chainz
So I got into trouble two times in high school. So when I was 15, I got into some trouble away from school with my mom. And I'm not sure if we should go into details, but I got into some trouble with my mom, and they essentially, our house got busted by the police for whatever was going on at the house. So When I was 15, I ended up staying with a friend that I went to school with, and I was supposed to attend court for whatever happened at the house. I did not know that they came to school and I got in trouble then.
- [04:00]
David Begnaud
And then I got a. I just was doing research. It was like drug possession.
- [04:03]
2 Chainz
Yeah.
- [04:03]
David Begnaud
Cocaine or something.
- [04:04]
2 Chainz
So that was when I was 15, the drug possession thing. And then when I was 17, I started pedaling like a little marijuana. And, you know, Nick, $5 sacks. Just something. Just something to. I don't know, man. Well, I don't even know the reason, But I figured, like, I need it. And I come from a community where this was widely accepted. You know, before I go on, I don't want to sound like I'm bragging about this hustling or whatever, but I'm from a neighborhood where everybody was doing the same thing. Much like in California, which you might see with gang banging or even in Hawaii, what you see with surfers. And, you know, if I was from. I tell people, if I was from Denver, I would know how to ski. I feel like that's what I would do. But I'm from Atlanta, and we just trapped. So my senior year, I got into
- [04:56]
David Begnaud
trap meeting because a lot of people listening to this may not understand what that means.
- [04:59]
2 Chainz
Hustling or pedaling. Hustling, you just. You just hustling. You just, you know, trapping whatever you can get.
- [05:06]
David Begnaud
Selling. Selling drugs.
- [05:07]
2 Chainz
Selling drugs is the. Is the gotcha. And I'm. I'm hustling. I sell something to a kid who he gets caught with it tails on Me. And then I get into trouble my senior year. But my senior year, I'm getting scholarship offers, I'm playing basketball. I'm about to just try to chase my dream as being a, you know, a basketball player. And, you know, this. It just. It just was a curve. It just hit me, and I end up getting in tr. I end up getting locked up at school. And it was not a good look. And so the school being that this has happened twice, they was just trying to get me to go to a whole nother school. But as a senior, if I'd have went to a whole nother school, I wouldn't have been able to play basketball that same year. I would have had to forfeit it. And who knows what. What would have happened? But essentially I can say that I do not want to change anything about my past because all of those things put me right here in front of you today. Oh, I feel that I was supposed to go to one college. I was supposed to go to University of Memphis. I ended up going to Alabama State University because they. And they said, I heard you got into some trouble. We'd love to have you down here. Full ride, scholarship. So I still went to school for free because I already had the grades.
- [06:19]
David Begnaud
But let me pause for a moment, so I want to make it clear to the audience, the person who believed in you, who you selected, was Ms. Love.
- [06:25]
2 Chainz
I think Ms. Love is very important because at this point right here and this young, I don't have the wisdom that I have now.
- [06:32]
David Begnaud
Exactly.
- [06:33]
2 Chainz
So when this happens at me at such a young age, I do think my life is over. I can talk now because I can look back and I can smile and be like, look, you know, whatever. But at that moment when that happened, I thought my world was crashing down on me.
- [06:48]
David Begnaud
So put me in that moment. You're 15 years old. You've been arrested. It's not pot. You know, in the south, they demonize pot. You know, I grew up in the south, too.
- [06:56]
2 Chainz
It was cocaine.
- [06:57]
David Begnaud
It was some hard stuff. But what were you facing? Like, walk me through that moment where Ms. Love stepped in.
- [07:05]
2 Chainz
I go to juvenile and I stay there for close to two weeks, not a long time, but I don't know, during this time, I figure I'm suspended, but I don't know I'm suspended, but they're really trying to expel me, which is ultimately telling me not to come back to the school. Now, the teachers, anybody that I even. And this is from a higher place, right? The teachers, that's on ground level. With me, they showed me a lot of love and appreciation because I was someone that was very adamant about my grades. I didn't make a C until I went to college. And I like to tell people that I made a C on purpose because I wanted to feel normal. I wanted to feel average. But I've never had. Never made a C in college. So I always had A's, couple of B's. So I was always. And I was always into, like, dressing and just being fly. But being intelligent was, like, a part of something that I wanted to be growing up. I wanted to be a smart black man, intelligent Black man.
- [08:05]
David Begnaud
Where did that desire come from? Who did you see that you wanted to be?
- [08:11]
2 Chainz
I feel like my mom and my dad. My mom finished college, my dad. My whole dad's side are like doctors and architects and engineers. And I just feel like ultimately in my family, it was shunned upon. If you right now, we can say broken English. But in my household, my mom would correct that on the spot. I have about 30 nicknames right now, but on my. Like, my grandmother on my dad's side, she didn't believe in nicknames. They were just like, this little strict community. My dad's dad was a mason in the fact that he built. He worked with bricks. He built. Helped build Tuskegee and different places in Detroit and all this. So they were really good with their hands, but they were very intelligent. As far as my immediate family was the ones that I think installed education in me at a very early age.
- [09:10]
David Begnaud
Let me take you back to Ms. Love.
- [09:11]
2 Chainz
Okay?
- [09:12]
David Begnaud
So you're at juvenile. You think you might be suspended. The school's like, nope, we're gonna expel you. Ms. Love steps in. Tell me about that exact moment. Walk me through it.
- [09:22]
2 Chainz
At this point, I don't know that she has done anything for me. I have to go to some meeting or some type of engagement with me, my mom and a few people from the Board of education to see if they will allow me to go back into school and finish my senior year playing basketball. The basketball season has started. I haven't played a game because I haven't been in school. It's six letters that come through. It's six letters from six different teachers and people at the school. It was six. I'll never forget that. But the one letter that stood out to me was the one that Ms. Love wrote. And me and her are still cool to this day.
- [09:55]
David Begnaud
What did Ms. Love say, basically, in
- [09:58]
2 Chainz
a letter that I can remember, because it was, you know, over 20 years ago, she basically said, give this child a second chance. In a nutshell, that's how it ended. The first part was merely saying that we all make mistakes. She can attest that I'm someone that really, you know, cares about getting my work done. And, you know, at this point, I wasn't someone that was skipping school. I was having perfect attendance and all of that. So it was just like. It was more like a good character letter.
- [10:22]
David Begnaud
Let me give the audience a little sense of Ms. Love's background. Ms. Love was a college prep geometry teacher.
- [10:29]
2 Chainz
Okay.
- [10:29]
David Begnaud
At North Clayton High School.
- [10:30]
2 Chainz
I was taking college prep classes. I mean, how could I forget? Yeah, exactly. How could I forget?
- [10:35]
David Begnaud
And she had this incredible impact on senior name. Now, I don't want to pronounce your birth name. How do you pronounce it?
- [10:42]
2 Chainz
My name is Taheed Epps.
- [10:43]
David Begnaud
Tahid Epps. When he faced expulsion under the school's zero tolerance drug policy, threatening his basketball eligibility and college prospects, Ms. Love wrote to the school board urging, quote, don't throw this child's life away. Give him a second chance. She was one of the few teachers who understood his circumstances. She saw a high achieving student trying to survive rather than a lost cause.
- [11:09]
2 Chainz
That's so good.
- [11:10]
David Begnaud
Chose compassion when others withdrew.
- [11:16]
2 Chainz
Wow, that's tough. Even so many years from that, that's just, that's just tough. That's admirable. I appreciate her. So I'm gonna have to give her a call later on today.
- [11:29]
David Begnaud
Two chains. I just want you to understand that's why this show exists, is so people like you, who are icons to many, can come and tell us about somebody who believed in them before they were famous.
- [11:42]
2 Chainz
Yeah, that's, that's. And you know, I think the cliche thing would be to say my parents are right. My wife or somebody close to me. Because, yeah, they're supposed. I feel like they should. They're supposed to believe me. Agree. Your partner should believe me. So, yeah, the cliche thing would have been like, you know, my pops, he was tough on me. Or my mom, she always believed in me and supported me. Or my wife, you know, she knew me when I, you know, was trying to sell CDs out my trunk. But essentially somebody from the outside looking in, it just hits differently. Right? Because they're not. They only know you from the experiences that they share with you. And they form their opinion based on, you know, that relationship. So, you know, just, just when you read that, it just took me back to me feeling like. Cause I don't have a brother. Or sister, you know, it's just been me and my mom for a long time, so, you know, used to feel alone sometime. You know what I mean? Used. I used my smile as, like, a defense mechanism when I was going through. Through stuff. So somebody that God puts in your life, like, a Ms. Love, who can just say these things so eloquently about, like, you know, surviving over it being a more trendy thing. Like, I wasn't doing what I was doing to, like, be cool at the time, so to speak. Like, you know, I'm from an era where it was, like. It's supposed to be, like, a secret. I wasn't, like, something I would talk about or brag about or something. It wasn't cool. Yeah, it wasn't cool. It wasn't cool.
- [13:15]
David Begnaud
Have you ever thanked her and told her, thank you for believing in me?
- [13:18]
2 Chainz
I think I have many times, but I'm gonna call after this. But I think I have. We still have a relationship. If she calls me, I'll answer. She has my phone number, so. Yeah.
- [13:26]
David Begnaud
Can I put you on the spot? And can we call her now just to see how she responds?
- [13:32]
2 Chainz
We could try.
- [13:33]
David Begnaud
Cause I'd love to celebrate her in real time if she answers.
- [13:36]
2 Chainz
Let's try, man. Ms. Love should answer. Let me look up right quick. This is. I didn't know this was gonna happen. Let me see.
- [13:42]
David Begnaud
I think it's so damn cool that somebody like you would celebrate somebody like her.
- [13:46]
2 Chainz
Let me see. Ms. Love.
- [13:53]
Ms. Love
Come on, baby.
- [13:55]
2 Chainz
Hey, baby, what you doing? You won't believe this. Okay, so I have to tell you, I'm doing a podcast in California, and they asked about somebody that I felt, like, believed in me before I became. And I told them about you, and so they dared me to call you because I told them I still have a rapport with you and I still love you.
- [14:13]
Ms. Love
I thought about you last week and I think I text you to see how you were doing.
- [14:17]
2 Chainz
You ain't text me.
- [14:19]
Ms. Love
Well, I must have texted the wrong number, but that was my intention to text you to see how you were doing.
- [14:23]
David Begnaud
Ms. Love, my name is David Begno, and I would love to ask you a question. How does it feel to hear 2chain say that you are the person who believed in him at a time when it mattered so much, when he was a child.
- [14:39]
Ms. Love
I feel wonderful because he was one of my favorite people, and I always knew he was going to be successful because he had work ethics. And when I didn't feel good in the classroom, he took over and would control the Classroom like he was a teacher. I knew he had leadership skills and abilities, and I put a lot into him because I just believed that he was going to be successful. As a matter of fact, he told me one day, he and I were talking. I was giving him a lecture about how to dress and do this and stuff. And he just basically told me, I'm gonna have my own business, and I'm gonna. I'm not gonna work for anybody but myself, and I'm gonna just be successful. And I said, you sure are, and I'll never forget that conversation. And I feel like he taught me some stuff as well, because in my generation, we were taught all the time that we were gonna. You know, we had to work for people. You know, we never taught entrepreneurship. And he opened my eyes. There's a different way. And because of his success, I became a better teacher.
- [15:57]
David Begnaud
How does it feel to hear that, man?
- [15:59]
2 Chainz
I know.
- [16:01]
Ms. Love
He taught me. He taught me how to think different about career choices.
- [16:11]
David Begnaud
I'd like to take you back, Ms. Love, to that time when he was 15 years old. He had been arrested for cocaine possession. He had gone to juvie, and he was going to be expelled. And you wrote a letter to the school board, basically asking them to save this child. Do you remember that?
- [16:30]
Ms. Love
Yes.
- [16:30]
David Begnaud
Why did you do that? What was on your mind and your heart when you did that?
- [16:35]
Ms. Love
You'd have to know what kind of teacher I was. I loved all my children as if they were my own and whatever it took to save him, because I knew he had greater things to do than go to jail. And I wasn't the only teacher. It was a group of us. He impacted all of his teachers, had an impact on all of his teachers. We truly believed in him because, like I said, he was teaching us too
- [17:05]
David Begnaud
well. Ms. Love, I. First of all, I can't believe Your name is Ms. Love. That's pretty amazing. And, you know, I just want to thank you for being an example of what good teachers can be and what it means to be a good teacher.
- [17:23]
Ms. Love
Yep. I tried to. I tried to impact teachers before I left education. I became an instructional facilitator. And my. And my goal was to teach them how to love. I could teach you how to teach, but I can't teach you how to love.
- [17:41]
2 Chainz
Oh.
- [17:42]
David Begnaud
So I say that again.
- [17:43]
Ms. Love
Talk to the PR all the time. If they learn how to love their students, they have less discipline problems.
- [17:51]
2 Chainz
Wow.
- [17:51]
David Begnaud
Well, Ms. Love, you are still teaching today, Ms. Love. And we. We thank you. We thank you for that, Ms. Love.
- [17:57]
2 Chainz
I love you. I'm gonna finish up. I'm gonna wrap up this pod with him, and I'll give you a call when I get done with this. I appreciate you answering the phone, which I knew. I knew you was. Anyway.
- [18:07]
David Begnaud
Thank you, Ms. Love.
- [18:08]
Ms. Love
I love you.
- [18:09]
2 Chainz
Love you. Bye.
- [18:10]
Ms. Love
Bye.
- [18:11]
David Begnaud
That was a powerful moment.
- [18:13]
2 Chainz
I didn't know you were gonna ask me to do that.
- [18:15]
David Begnaud
Well, I didn't know I was gonna ask it either. It just felt.
- [18:17]
2 Chainz
What made you ask me to do that?
- [18:19]
David Begnaud
It was on my heart.
- [18:20]
2 Chainz
Now let me see if you lying right quick.
- [18:23]
David Begnaud
No, it was on my heart.
- [18:24]
2 Chainz
For real. It's like. And I know we're gonna get to this part, but my book is all about what you just did. That something told me that something just out the blue, it's just on a whim. Just that like that inner monologue. And you like, I didn't even know I was gonna tell you to do that. But it was just something told you to do it. So that's kind of like. You know, the book I have coming out called the Voice in My Head is God. So it's like. It's just. Everything is kind of intertwining right now.
- [18:51]
David Begnaud
It's just in the book. In the book, you use the word intuition.
- [18:56]
2 Chainz
Yeah.
- [18:56]
David Begnaud
And I love that word. I also call it just sort of the gut instinct in us.
- [19:01]
2 Chainz
All right. What you just did just happened.
- [19:04]
David Begnaud
When did you first tap into your intuition?
- [19:08]
2 Chainz
So I'm an only child and I've been accused of having a couple imaginary friends because I think I used to just be like, you know how we just be rambling to ourselves sometimes? And my mama used to be like, little crazy, crazy ass boy, you know? So this is early on, but I don't know anything about the. The intuition thing. I don't. You have to learn this stuff, right? You do not born. You just.
- [19:31]
David Begnaud
You don't born, you know? Right, right.
- [19:33]
2 Chainz
You're not born knowing what intuition is, bro. You know, you have to. Then you have to put it with how you've been feeling once you learn it.
- [19:40]
David Begnaud
Right.
- [19:40]
2 Chainz
And it's just like this whole. You have to live long enough, basically. You have to live long enough.
- [19:46]
David Begnaud
You need life experience.
- [19:47]
2 Chainz
Yeah. You have to live long enough to. To these ideas that I'm expressing in my. In my. My book.
- [19:54]
David Begnaud
Yep.
- [19:54]
2 Chainz
And the voice in my head is God. Basically came from a place that when I have listened to that voice in a clear space quietly, the voice which I listen to every single day, it has led me in the right direction. Huh. So I go Back to when the real idea and the title came from. I found some letters. My pops was incarcerated for a few years, OK? So I find some letters from like 2003, around Thanksgiving. And all these letters that he used to write me from when I was a child had God is love written on the back of the envelope. God is love. God is love. I just. I see it. I tear it open. I read the letter. I just pay it notice. God is love. I see it. God is love. And then recently, a few years ago, for some reason, I took the ears out and I put an equal sign, and it said, like, God, in my mind, like, God and love are the same thing. Like, they. You. You got to have love and something for it to be, you know, whole, so to speak. And so when I did this book, it's like when I listen to this voice, this voice is coming from, like, a place of love. It's coming from a place where it's saying, you know, you should go. You should do that. You should go out on a whim. And then we also have a voice that tells us the. The effort voice that tell us to do something crazy, right? But if you can distinguish between those two, it's just like, I'm just trying to give the world something. I didn't want to do an autobiographical book as a rapper because I feel like it's just cliche. All rappers talk about struggling Section 8 projects, stuff like that. So I want to find an eloquent way to talk about maybe some of my journeys, but talk about how the voice in my head led me to. To either do the right thing when this happened or do the wrong thing when.
- [21:46]
David Begnaud
Was there a time when you didn't listen to the intuition we all have?
- [21:51]
2 Chainz
We all have.
- [21:51]
David Begnaud
Give me an example.
- [21:53]
2 Chainz
So in the book, also, I talk about women being superheroes. Cause I feel like women are naturally born with intuition. They just know. They just have this gut feeling. And I'm raised around all these women. And so the night that this happened, I'm gonna tie all this together with Ms. Love and me. The night before I went to school and got in trouble for selling this stuff. And what Ms. Love wrote about, my mom saw me sacking up this stuff. And she said, you gonna take all that to school?
- [22:19]
David Begnaud
She.
- [22:20]
2 Chainz
So in my book, I'm thinking, you're
- [22:22]
David Begnaud
gonna take all of what to school.
- [22:24]
2 Chainz
So the cocaine thing and the weed thing are two different incidents, okay? So she saw me sacking the weed up, take it to school to take it to school. So I'm Sacking it.
- [22:32]
David Begnaud
Sell it at school.
- [22:33]
2 Chainz
I'm sacking this weed up.
- [22:34]
David Begnaud
Got it.
- [22:34]
2 Chainz
And me and my mom are like best friends. So she knew I was already hustling. It was not a surprise.
- [22:40]
David Begnaud
Gotcha.
- [22:41]
2 Chainz
My mom smoked. We smoked. We smoked together. Now it's been going on for years.
- [22:44]
David Begnaud
Yep.
- [22:45]
2 Chainz
Probably not your normal household. It's just. I'm sorry, but it's also legal in
- [22:50]
David Begnaud
California where you live now, so.
- [22:51]
2 Chainz
Yeah, I'm not sorry. And so my mom comes in and she says, you sure you're gonna take all that weed to school? Now it looks like a lot of weed, but there's only these little sacks of nicks, these little five dollar sacks. So it just looks like a lot, but it's really not that much. It's probably not even $100 worth of weed. But they like, they $5 worth. So my mom, I think that something was telling her I could not register at the time. I'm too young to understand what intuition is.
- [23:16]
David Begnaud
Right.
- [23:17]
2 Chainz
My mom is a woman that's been through so much. So she has that voice and has already had. Has had this voice forever. So during this incident, my mom is trying to. I feel like at the time when I reflect back, she's trying to tell me not to do what I'm about to do. Like, I can't say that she felt on Thursday night that I was gonna get locked up that Friday, Ms. My SAT on Saturday, blow my scholarships for whatever future I was about to have. But she said to me when she called, came in the room, which is. She never does when I'm sacking up this stuff. Wow, Ty, that's a lot. You sure you wanna bring all that to school, Mom? This ain't it. I tell her I remember like it's yesterday. I say, tomorrow, Friday they gonna buy all this stuff. She said, you sure? I said, yeah, man.
- [24:03]
David Begnaud
That was the voice saying.
- [24:05]
2 Chainz
And see, at that point, I can't hear. No, I don't know. I just hear. You know what I mean? But she heard it. And so in the book, I have this superhero. This women are superheroes chapter where I talk about the women in my life that I've been around that has heard this voice and I couldn't hear it.
- [24:24]
David Begnaud
You say the voice in your head is not the same thing as coincidence. Right? That's different. And you say it's like being connected. WI fi. Connected to a higher power.
- [24:32]
2 Chainz
That's it, Starling. I mean, whatever's startling, you know?
- [24:36]
David Begnaud
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you listen to that voice daily? Is it A daily practice.
- [24:41]
2 Chainz
This morning.
- [24:41]
David Begnaud
This morning. What happened this morning?
- [24:43]
2 Chainz
This morning. I mean, it's just my routine. What I'm aware. My voice is telling me all of that. I don't. I'm sure my voice tells me what I'm aware when I. What I'm gonna be doing all day. What. What car to take. Should we ride with a drive? Should we drive our own car? All this, it's really. It probably will ignore some. It probably will annoy most people, but I'm so tuned in that every single thing I'm. I'm doing is. Is just coming from my head.
- [25:11]
David Begnaud
I need to take a moment just to thank Canva for backing this podcast. Their support is what makes these conversations possible. Canva is guided by a clear idea. Build something incredibly valuable and then use it to do real good in the world. That's why they provide their tools free of charge to schools and non profits, helping to create equal access and opportunity for people all over the world. What would you say to somebody listening to this? Who says, why would you listen to that voice? Like, how do you know that that voice is telling you the right thing?
- [25:42]
2 Chainz
Because it's coming from a place of love, and God and love are the same thing. And so when I have listened to it, I have had a positive outcome. So I have data that when I have listened to this voice, when I go home from the studio, I can go home two or three different ways. Literally every night I go home from the studio, it might be a different way. And then I'm talking to myself because I'm saying, oh, man, this is. Then, you know, I'm talking back to my, oh, this is stupid. Just go straight. And then some says, but what if you hit a deer? Or what if you run into a roadblock? You know, you're here. You know what I mean? And so I said, okay, I'll just make this right. And I just. And this is me. This is me five, six in the morning, going back to my house, leaving my studio. This is how I'm talking.
- [26:28]
David Begnaud
How old were you when you started listening to that voice?
- [26:33]
2 Chainz
That's a great question, bro. So when you listen to this voice, you, You. You may ask other people's opinions, but you make your own decisions based off that gut feeling. So I feel like, when did you
- [26:50]
David Begnaud
start honoring it as. I recognize it and I'm gonna act on it.
- [26:53]
2 Chainz
I think when I became a musician. Right, because you don't know. And it's a. It's your opinions. They start from your. Your peer group. Your friends, so to speak, right? Your friends, they say, yeah, man, that's pretty. And they're comparing that to what they hear out in the market. So for me, I think when I started making music, and I would be like, what you think about that? But at the same time, I would know, like, this makes me feel good. This is it. So I think my music journey was a part of some of the things that helped me lock in and know that this voice was coming from a positive place. And it made me believe in myself during my developmental stage.
- [27:30]
David Begnaud
The women in your life, the mother, the grandmother, the wife, are you portray them as these superheroes, right, who model wisdom and restraint and foresight. Mom warned you about the people you kept around you, right? Even the cars you drove at asu. How often did her intuition prove right to you?
- [27:55]
2 Chainz
Moms are always. They're always right. Mom's always right. I have kids now, and they think they always. Right. It's just a cycle, right? They just think, we don't know anything. Parents don't. And that's how, when you're growing up. I grew up in a fast lane, so I would think that I knew more than my mom at times when clearly she had been on this earth long enough to know, you know, the outcomes of certain situations. So, you know, with that. With that being said, I still listen to her during this day now. Sometimes I still try to brush it off. Cause that's what kids do, right? It's like everything keeps changing, right? But a lot of the times with the parents, they are still thinking the same. They still believe in whatever they believed in initially. So my mom comes from that. So I might have some pushback with saying, mom, they don't do that. It's not like that anymore. But my mom is stuck on what she's stuck on. And what she's stuck on has just been right the whole time.
- [28:48]
David Begnaud
You call your mistakes your superpower.
- [28:51]
2 Chainz
I mean, yeah, you can learn from. Yeah, you got to. If you can. If you can fight, if you can make it through mistakes and then be a better person through them. On the other side, it has to have.
- [29:01]
David Begnaud
Give me a mistake you made that ended up being something that made you a better man.
- [29:07]
2 Chainz
Let's talk about me getting locked up in school. I got in trouble. I was not able to go to the school that I plan on going to a school. And a coaching staff called me, invited me to a school. So I now think my life is, you know, peaches and cream again. I get to that school, that coaching staff gets Fired. A new coach comes in, brings in his own players, own. And from that point on, I lose my real, pure love for something that I had been doing since I was 7 years old. I loved basketball when I went here because I couldn't go here, and then another person came in and replaced somebody. I thought, like, I just felt like, why me? I really thought all this stuff was just happening to me. Like, I wasn't thinking about who else it could have affected. But when I go to this school, I meet the person that I'm with now that I called my wife. I have three beautiful kids. I have businesses, foundations, everything with people I went to school with or my significant other. So that situation, although I felt like I was in a very dark place under a very dark cloud, when I look at it, I'm so happy it went. I would not want to do, like a butterfly if I can just change. I don't want to change, not one thing. And I'm gonna tell you, bro, you know, I was sad. My father was already incarcerated, so all I had was my mom. At the time when I was going through all this stuff, When I tell you, man, it made me stronger. That's what I'm saying. A superhero. Like, I became strong to the point where I've had friends who. Kids have gone through some stuff, and I could tell them, hey, man, he gonna be all right. I can tell you from experience, it's gonna be all right.
- [30:44]
David Begnaud
You know what I love to say with the car analogy? My favorite thing in the car is the rear view mirror. You know why? Because the rear view mirror shows you where you've come from.
- [30:53]
2 Chainz
Okay?
- [30:53]
David Begnaud
And that's what helps you keep driving forward.
- [30:57]
2 Chainz
That's good.
- [30:57]
David Begnaud
You get that?
- [30:58]
2 Chainz
That's good.
- [30:58]
David Begnaud
You get that. Let me give you another thing I think will resonate with you. We are not defined by our biggest mistakes.
- [31:05]
Ms. Love
Yeah.
- [31:06]
David Begnaud
No, we are not defined by our biggest mistakes.
- [31:09]
2 Chainz
This stuff is. Is much easier said than a person having to go through it. Right?
- [31:18]
David Begnaud
Sure.
- [31:18]
2 Chainz
Like, we can say, that's a good point. You know, we watch things play out on. We watch things play out all kind of ways. And we can be like, you know, man, trust me, it's going to be all right. But no one wants to hear that when they're in the middle of the storm. I'm here to tell you. I'm here to tell you, bro, no one can see next week. No one can see. So it's this outside looking in kind of lens when you're like, hey, man, I'm telling You it's going to be all right in there. But, you know, the stuff that I'm practicing and the stuff that I've been going through, I have gained the ability to have faith and to trust in something that I can't even see that's not even topical. Hey, eighth grade. Eighth grade.
- [32:05]
David Begnaud
Tell that kid something the younger you who still lives with you, what would you tell him today?
- [32:14]
2 Chainz
I should see. This is a handsome kid. This is my eighth grade. This is my eighth grade picture.
- [32:19]
David Begnaud
That is a pretty fly pick.
- [32:20]
2 Chainz
This is eighth grade. I went to Magna Junior High in Decatur. This is my eighth grade pick. And this is actually the proof pick. Cause I couldn't afford the picks at the time. So they give you these little proof picks to send home to your parents. And they see if you want to get the pick, then you have to pay for the package. Well, I just kept this pick, ended up making it an album cover. And thank you guys. But one thing that stood out for me is that in the eighth grade, at the tender age of the eighth grade, I was already very stylish, very chic. I had on these two little chains right here. I had these two chains on that I got from the flea market. Now, as you heard, Ms. Love on the phone, she said, I spoke about being an entrepreneur because I did not rap in high school. I was not like a rapper. That music wasn't on my. Like, I was gonna be a big rapper. I just knew I wasn't gonna be like a fireman or police, you know. She's from the era where it was just like this, what she said, being boxed in. So here earlier, you could just see the hustle in his eyes, the ambition in his eyes. If I had to tell this kid right here on this picture, I would just tell him, keep going. This was a confident and still is a very confident black kid around. Many in a space where I didn't have like. Like I say, the big bro or somebody to look out. And I was able to navigate. I was able to navigate a little muddy terrain. Like where I was, where I was in this life, it was. It was dirty. It was dirty outside. But this kid, this kid is right here. Now. This kid is. Still has some more growing to do, but. And some more learning to do. But this kid from the 8th grade is sitting right here with you. Now.
- [33:55]
David Begnaud
Where'd the name two chains come from?
- [33:58]
2 Chainz
So my mom and my close friends and family members, they called me Titty boy, right? Titty Boy, Titty boy.
- [34:07]
David Begnaud
Where'd that come from?
- [34:08]
2 Chainz
I'M telling you now. And titty boy came from. It's like a Southern back road kind of turn term that means like an. Only a spoiled brat, Somebody that's close to the titty. Somebody that's always. So people used to say I was like a titty baby because I was always under my mom. Like, my mom could be smoking a cigarette, playing cards, I'd be right handed, just in the way. Just you know what I mean? And they like, get this, titty boy. This is titty. You know what I mean? And so my friends heard it. They thought it was kind of like, funny when your mom calling you titty and they used to call me like, tit or titty. It's just like this crazy thing. So when I started doing music, I did not have, like, a name. I didn't have, like, MC this. I didn't have, like, lil this. I didn't have big this. I didn't have a name at all. I was just like, I'll be just, you know, titty boy. The first couple of interviews I did and I said the name, they looked at me crazy, just like you just looked at me crazy. So I said, I need to figure out something else because I have to explain to people that I didn't get this name winning some weird contest or nothing like that. This is just a real term of endearment in the family. And so 2 Chainz was something that literally, I felt like fell from the grace of God. I showed you that picture like I had on 2Chainz then I was not going by 2 chains. I'm in the industry. I'm doing. I'm doing music, I'm doing features. And I think I say something like, titty Two chains in a song, in a verse. And I just said, I'm gonna stick with that. And I made it have a little bit more substance, a little bit more meaning. Meaning, like, the first chain is who I already am, and the second chain is who I ultimately, like, want to be. You know what I'm saying? Or something like that. I have ambitions on being. And. And two changes. It just. It was. It's more family friendly. It took me further and it stuck. And I'm. I'm glad God gave me that. He gave that. That came from the voice in my head, too, actually.
- [36:03]
David Begnaud
I want to go back to the book. You have said that if you were born somewhere else, you might have gotten good at surfing or snowboarding, but you grew up in basketball and the hustling, right?
- [36:15]
2 Chainz
I just said it.
- [36:16]
David Begnaud
I. No, no, no. So how much of success is environment versus choice?
- [36:24]
2 Chainz
Nature versus nurture?
- [36:26]
David Begnaud
Right.
- [36:27]
2 Chainz
That's a good one.
- [36:28]
David Begnaud
Your choice versus what the world throws at you. How much of success is dependent.
- [36:35]
2 Chainz
You answered it. What's your thoughts on that?
- [36:38]
David Begnaud
So my thought is a lot of success is choice because the choice is, are you going to stop when the fifth door is closed in your face, or will you keep going to the 6th and 7th and 8th and 9th and 10th? Right. I think the environment. Life puts you in an environment where you have opportunity. But the choice is yours to decide. How many times are you going to keep trying? That's my answer.
- [37:09]
2 Chainz
And that's your choice on if you want to keep trying.
- [37:10]
David Begnaud
Correct. And most people after door six being throw, you know, closing their face would be like, all right, I'm done. I tried. But the guy who still tries 51 times is the guy who ends up getting it. Right.
- [37:25]
2 Chainz
That's. That's deep. That's true. It's. But you know what I find out a lot with.
- [37:36]
David Begnaud
So is success more environment or choice, in your opinion, your experience, is it.
- [37:43]
2 Chainz
In my experience, it was choice because I think I was more resilient. Right. But I can tell you now that it has a lot to do with the environment because I'm putting my kids in the right environment to be successful. Fair. Fair, right?
- [37:54]
David Begnaud
Yes.
- [37:55]
2 Chainz
Okay. I lived in, you know, some apartments, and we. One on top of another. And, you know, you have to ask somebody to use their electricity. Sometimes it gets that deep, you need an extension cord like you. I come from that. I come from cold showers. I got a song I can in my head to take a cold shower. Like I. I've been trained to do this. My kids will never have to experience this.
- [38:17]
David Begnaud
Never.
- [38:18]
2 Chainz
So that's why I was torn between that, because I know I'm putting my son right now in the right environment to be successful and possibly become an NBA player. Because I just got them all in the right place. Sure.
- [38:28]
David Begnaud
But I think 2 Chainz, it's the same thing, just differently said because your son is in a bucket where he's exposed to a whole lot more, but he's still got to make that choice.
- [38:38]
2 Chainz
Well, not at this age. The parents are really the ones that should make. I was a little loose. I could really do what I wanted to do. The parents. My son is 10 years old. He needs to do.
- [38:48]
David Begnaud
Oh, yeah.
- [38:49]
2 Chainz
He needs to do what his parents tell him to do. And at 10 years old, whether he has a choice or not, he can't take himself to Practice. He can't do a lot of things right whether he wants to go or not. So it has to be the parent that steps up, takes the time, no matter if they got a podcast or show, a video shoot or whatever, takes the time make sure that the kid is getting their homework done. Keeping the right GPA and also balancing that with a skill set that can ultimately maybe have him get up and do something that he can never call a job and get paid for.
- [39:19]
David Begnaud
Do you see the hustle in him?
- [39:20]
2 Chainz
Yes.
- [39:21]
David Begnaud
At 10? Yeah.
- [39:22]
2 Chainz
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. That's that. It makes me think hustling could be, you know, hereditary. When I just think about my bloodline.
- [39:28]
David Begnaud
Absolutely. It can be.
- [39:30]
2 Chainz
Be. Huh.
- [39:30]
David Begnaud
Absolutely. It can be.
- [39:31]
2 Chainz
It can be. Huh.
- [39:32]
David Begnaud
And hustling doesn't always have to be associated with bad.
- [39:34]
2 Chainz
No, no, no, no. I'm just talking about.
- [39:36]
David Begnaud
Just got that energy just like it's the fire. What your parents do.
- [39:40]
2 Chainz
What did your parents do?
- [39:41]
David Begnaud
My dad was a realtor and my mother was a nurse. And they would have been happy if I'd have taught history. But I am one of the most competitive hustlers you will ever meet in your life.
- [39:50]
2 Chainz
Okay.
- [39:51]
David Begnaud
And. And. And I wasn't born with a famous last name. I didn't grow up with the wealth that you have. I didn't grow up with the name recognition that your kids are growing up with. But I'm sitting in front of you today because I hustled like a mofo.
- [40:03]
2 Chainz
Yeah. I love that.
- [40:04]
David Begnaud
Yeah. Looking back, which street lessons still guide how you move in the music industry? What lessons from the street?
- [40:17]
2 Chainz
Trust. You know, the lack of trust or trust issues. Intuition is big, though. You gotta. Intuition would be the lead answer for that question because you gotta know when to leave, when to go, when not to go. So you could.
- [40:36]
David Begnaud
You know when to hold them. Know when to fold. Em.
- [40:38]
2 Chainz
You gotta know. You gotta know when to you know. So negotiating. Know when to you know. So my street lessons that I. Has made me more. And I think you should be paranoid and everything, but it just. It just keeps me on my toes, keeps me paranoid.
- [40:54]
David Begnaud
Let me ask you this. What is one survival instinct people should unlearn once they level up?
- [41:02]
2 Chainz
When you're from where I'm from and you're successful in your eye, in your own eyes, you're doing. You're being successful of doing some illegal activity.
- [41:13]
David Begnaud
Okay.
- [41:13]
2 Chainz
You know, so early on, you don't really care about building credit or anything like that. You're just trying to acquire things and you're Putting in somebody that you know, let you love. You'll put. You put it in your mom's name. You put it in your. In your. In your lady's name. Oh, so you do this for a few years. You got four or five cars, a few properties, a few businesses, zero credit, nothing in your name. But you're saying. So coming from the streets, I have to unlearn that. I can. I can use my own name, right? I can put this stuff in my LLC or whatever it is. So it's. That's something that I know that me and I'm sure a few hustlers, if they catch wind of what we're talking about, they can relate of how many things they. They put in their mom's name. Because, you know, mom we can always go to, you know, And I can truly say to you, before I got my record deal, I bought my mom her house first. I said, anything happened to me, man, I can always go back to mom. You know what I mean? Before I even bought my house that I'm in, my mom is on her second house. But before I got my deal, I had some money from whatever. I bought her house. I bought it. It was a foreclosed property. That's another thing I had to unlearn. You don't have to use all your liquidity to do this stuff.
- [42:40]
David Begnaud
Correct.
- [42:41]
2 Chainz
I had to unlearn that from hustling, too. Oh, no, I ain't doing no lease. I ain't doing, man. I'm gonna pay that. I'm gonna pay that. You know, And I had learned that early on, the house did not man the house. I literally signed my record deal because I used all the money I had to get the house that I just. I just put all the money that I had. I bought it cash.
- [43:00]
David Begnaud
You only build credit by not paying it off. That's how you build credit, bro.
- [43:05]
2 Chainz
So that lets you know this whole thing is just intertwined. Everything's intertwined, right?
- [43:09]
David Begnaud
Yeah. Yeah.
- [43:09]
2 Chainz
But being from. And I know somebody looking at me like, are you serious? But I'm dead serious, man.
- [43:15]
David Begnaud
I'm so glad you brought those up.
- [43:16]
2 Chainz
Yeah.
- [43:17]
David Begnaud
How did adversity refine your instincts?
- [43:22]
2 Chainz
It just makes you paranoid. When you go through adversity and your instincts, you're all. You're consciously you. You just. You. Let's go back to the rearview mirror. You're constantly in your rearview mirror, and it's not particularly about where you're going and where you're coming from. It's about who could be following me. So And I'm from a place where, you know, your friend, your friend take this cup and then they'll tear this room up helping you look for this cup. And a lot of people that are watching or even trying to judge me or how I move, they will not understand coming up in an environment like that. And that's true. I. They'll break in this house, then they'll come back and say, who the broken this house? And let's go, let's go right now. And you won't have this whole equipment be at one of your friends house. And they'll start down. And the only thing you'll know is like, bro, under that mic. I know that's my mic. You'll be like, I just know that's my mic, bro. I just know they took my stuff. And so I'm kind of like, I've been surrounded around that, you know, forever.
- [44:42]
David Begnaud
Let's talk about who follows you in a positive sense. Do you think today about the kids who look up to you? Does that matter to you?
- [44:49]
2 Chainz
Yeah. I try to make myself super accessible. When I like, I say my son is in the AAU circuit. I go to youth sports, sporting events, and I know I have to sign autographs and take pictures and just be someone that they can look. So it's important for me to be someone that they can look at, touch, feel, and know that this is possible. This can be like. I see kids that be like, yo, yo, two chains, you know what I mean? I'm like, yo, what's. Yeah, I touch him. What's up, man? You good, man? What's up, man? You know, like, whatever. So, you know, I take away, you know, and it's important for artists to have mystique. It's important. But when I'm around kids, I'll try to unveil some of the mystique. I'll try to take the mystique away. I try to just be very relatable.
- [45:32]
David Begnaud
I know you've given back a lot. I mean, at the high school where you went, I think you rebuilt the gym, right?
- [45:38]
2 Chainz
Yeah.
- [45:39]
David Begnaud
Sponsored graduations.
- [45:41]
2 Chainz
Who's keeping up with this stuff, bro?
- [45:44]
David Begnaud
I don't know, but I mean, I think it's pretty cool.
- [45:47]
2 Chainz
Yeah, I literally forget what I do for people. That's crazy. I literally forget what I do for people.
- [45:52]
David Begnaud
Wow.
- [45:53]
2 Chainz
I don't like. I treat my mind like it's gigabytes.
- [45:57]
David Begnaud
Does it give you joy to give back?
- [46:00]
2 Chainz
Yeah, I like giving back. It makes me happy. Okay. Okay. Yeah. I like to help people. If I'm able to help people. I would like. I like to help people. Okay.
- [46:07]
David Begnaud
What failure are you most grateful for?
- [46:13]
2 Chainz
Barrier.
- [46:14]
David Begnaud
Which one are you most grateful for?
- [46:22]
2 Chainz
I don't know. That's the first one. You stun me on a fade that I'm grateful for. I'm a reverse it so you can help me out. What was your. You helped me out. What's your fade that you would be.
- [46:34]
David Begnaud
Man, I'm supposed to be asking the questions. That's a good one.
- [46:37]
2 Chainz
That's how it goes. This is what I do. I don't ask anybody to do anything that I wouldn't do. Anybody that works with me, around me.
- [46:43]
David Begnaud
What failure am I most grateful for?
- [46:45]
2 Chainz
Because you've helped me out with my examples. What failure?
- [46:49]
David Begnaud
Most grateful for? Let me think on this.
- [46:59]
2 Chainz
That's a hard one.
- [47:00]
David Begnaud
That's a hard one.
- [47:04]
2 Chainz
That should be a question to everybody that comes on this show from here moving forward.
- [47:07]
David Begnaud
What failure am I most grateful for?
- [47:10]
2 Chainz
Failure that you're grateful for. I'm not that mature yet. I can't be happy for nothing. No, you aren't.
- [47:22]
David Begnaud
You're helping me realize that it takes a lot of time to think about a question that profound. What failure am I most thankful for? I'm trying to think of my failures in life. I think I stumped myself. All right, I'm gonna come back to it.
- [47:35]
2 Chainz
Okay. Okay.
- [47:37]
David Begnaud
In the book, you. You. You talk about identity and reinvention, and you said one. We talked about the chains representing who you are and who you want to be. You talk about breaking the generational chains. Right? And your family being generationally in the bootleg and the drug trade. What does it mean to you to have broke the cycle?
- [48:00]
2 Chainz
Well, I know that my kids won't. Won't have to hustle in that kind of light, but it just. My mom brought that to my attention. I didn't really realize it. She had. I have it on video, but she was just one day rambling off about, you know, her. Her grandparents, you know, so bootleg liquor. Back in the. You know, back in the earlier days, people would go. And even I remember this from my grandma, from her mom. People would go to my grandma's house and get a dollar shot or whatever it was. You know what I'm saying? It was like. It was like bootleg house. The bootlegs liquor house. You gotta remember in the south, in Atlanta, you couldn't even buy liquor on Sundays for I don't know how long. Now you can, but you can even buy liquor on Sundays. So These bootleg houses would be overcrowded on Sundays. You got football, you got all this stuff. This is how my mom explained it. Her grandparents sold bootleg. Her mother and her parents did bootleg. And then she said she married a drug dealer. And then they had me, and then I did the same stuff, but it stopped with me. So I thought it was pretty profound when she said it like that, because I'm praying that my kids won't have to see the light of the things that I used to have to do.
- [49:16]
David Begnaud
It's really profound when you think about you being the one that broke that.
- [49:20]
2 Chainz
Yeah. Just like, I don't even have those thoughts in my head anymore. It's insane. Like, I don't think about illegal anything anymore. I just don't. And it's. It's. It's something that. First is something like this to be on my mind so many years of my life about how you move and, you know, how I'm, you know, trying not to get pulled over. Now when I get pulled over, I'm literally cussing out the police about my tent. I'm like, yo, you could be doing anything, bro. I'm about to go to the gym. Where normally I would be, Ryan, at 10 and 2, I would be like, you know, just so paranoid and scared because I would be doing something illegal, have something illegal in my car. I don't. I no longer think like that. I no longer move like that. So my mind is just, like, clear from, you know, now I'm fist bumping. I see the police. I feel, hey, what's up, man? What? I don't. It doesn't. It doesn't affect me anymore.
- [50:13]
David Begnaud
How do you define resilience?
- [50:18]
2 Chainz
I'll go back to what we've been talking about in this. The. The person that. That goes to door number five, the door number six, the door number seven. It just keeps going. It's resilient.
- [50:26]
David Begnaud
You know what I define it as the person who bounces back.
- [50:29]
2 Chainz
Yeah.
- [50:29]
David Begnaud
Again.
- [50:30]
2 Chainz
Yeah. And again. Fall down. You get back up. You fall down. Now you get up. 10.
- [50:33]
David Begnaud
Right, right. I've been interviewing people for almost 25 years. I ask legacy questions to people who are, like, 70 and above. So when I heard. Heard you in the book talking about legacy, when I read about that, I was like, oh, that's interesting. Why do you think you're so mindful of legacy at a young age?
- [50:52]
2 Chainz
Because sometimes I think I've done more than some people that's 70 years old already in a short period of time.
- [50:56]
David Begnaud
That's Fair.
- [50:57]
2 Chainz
I'm on my third passport. This is why I can't even tell you how many chapters of my personal life. When you talk about very young, when I'm doing basketball and even this thing with Ms. Love Me affecting teachers and not even knowing it, just because I'm thinking outside the box at a very young age and doing stuff that they probably couldn't even believe I was doing. Because it's just that resilience come from just being in these certain situations and overcoming them. You know, it's just a part, it's a part of my DNA. It's a part of my. I don't think this is the thing, right. I don't think you have to be successful or rich to give advice. I listen to a homeless person if they had something to say. I listen to somebody ballet in my car. So with that, with all of that, I feel like you don't have to be a certain age until you're wise. You don't have to be, you know, I mean, I feel like legacy or something in that you can, you can develop that. You know, from the time you touch the ground and start moving around, you know, you can just develop. You just talk about the different phases. For me, it was, it was, it was sports, it was the streets, it was, you know, hustling and it's music and I'm in the cinema, I'm in the books now. You know what I mean? And so all of that, I feel like creates the word or creates what's under the umbrella of legacy.
- [52:24]
David Begnaud
Two chains. It's not success that connects us as human beings. It's struggle.
- [52:30]
2 Chainz
That's a good one, too.
- [52:31]
David Begnaud
It's struggle. Notice I hadn't asked you about your Grammy.
- [52:34]
2 Chainz
Oh, no.
- [52:34]
David Begnaud
Or your pocketbook or rolling with famous people. I hadn't asked you any about that. I, I just want to talk about the struggle in hopes that people can see themselves in you. By the way, let me go back to the question of what did you fail at that you're most.
- [52:52]
2 Chainz
Something just gave you.
- [52:53]
David Begnaud
I got something that I want to tell you about. Four years ago, I was up for the anchor job of CBS Mornings, which is the national morning show at CBS
- [53:03]
2 Chainz
News going to be on you.
- [53:05]
David Begnaud
Well, I'm on CBS News now, but I was going to be the anchor of the morning show with Gayle King. And at the time it was a man named Anthony, Anthony Mason. And I wanted the job and I did not get the job. And I considered myself to have failed in that moment. But something happened in that I was the lead national correspondent and I covered disasters. I've been to more mass shootings and school shootings and tornadoes and earthquakes and volcanoes.
- [53:33]
2 Chainz
Been to a school. You've been out there, like, covering it.
- [53:36]
David Begnaud
I've knocked on more doors of mothers who've had their kids, their. Their kids have had their heads blown off than I can remember.
- [53:41]
2 Chainz
Really.
- [53:42]
David Begnaud
I've lost count. But, but, but, but, but let me, but let me tell you where I'm grateful because that door closed and I didn't get the job. My friend Tony got it. I was able to create a lane for myself where I now tell stories that highlight the best of humanity, that find the everyday heroes, the local heroes, the people doing extraordinary things. I created a company where I had this podcast called the Person who Believed In Me. I'm not here talking to you today if I'm sitting up there anchoring the cbs.
- [54:16]
2 Chainz
So this came after, after that. This. Bingo.
- [54:19]
David Begnaud
That's what I'm telling you.
- [54:19]
2 Chainz
I could have helped you. I could have helped you. I could have helped you think of that a while back.
- [54:24]
David Begnaud
But do you understand. But my point of bringing it up is I felt like a failure in the moment. But the reality is, had that not failed, this wouldn't have happened.
- [54:32]
2 Chainz
My exact. That's why I got locked up in high school. I mean, that's not. But I'm just saying, you can't. You see what I'm saying? Like, yeah, I'm with you. I'm with you. I understand exactly what you're saying. See, I feel that. I feel it. I feel it. And that's what I'm saying. And let's go back to. This whole thing is intertwined. Let's go back to when it. And when you're, when you don't get it, you can't see today, when you don't get that job back then, you can't see this far ahead. You just feel like I'm a failure. How does Tony get it? I've been here. You know, you have all these things, and whether you share it with somebody or it's just an inner monologue that you have with your. Yourself, this is how you feel at the time. And so to anybody that's watching this, that's going through something right now that's in the middle of a storm, you have to. And this is so cliche, man, but believe, you know, be resilient, be tough, but you just have to know that another day is coming. It's another day coming. And for somebody that I, When I, When I have these kind of discussions and conversations with people and my community or my hood. I tell them two things that you have to do. It's easy, but it's not easy. I tell them, kids, all you have to do is stay out the graveyard and stay out of jail, and anything could be possible. Now, it's easier said than done when you're coming from certain communities, but those are the two things that I try to share with people to try to impact people around my community. The reason I use those two situations is because when you go through a troubling time or a dark time, you think. You don't think clearly. And you think sometimes of things like, say, for instance, you don't get a job. You'd be like, you know what? I'll come back in here. I'll let you, you know, whatever. You can't think like that because those instances can put you in the graveyard or put you in a jailhouse. So it's about really, I mean, it's so easy to say, but I've been through some very, very trying times and I've just kind of like rolled it out and, you know, not crashed out about it, not when I read about it. And I'm able to live to see another day.
- [56:51]
David Begnaud
The book is called the Voice In
- [56:53]
2 Chainz
My Head Is God by Me.
- [56:55]
David Begnaud
This was fantastic.
- [56:56]
2 Chainz
It was cool.
- [56:57]
David Begnaud
So thank you for opening up.
- [57:00]
2 Chainz
What up? What up is 2 Chainz, and the person that believed in me was my college Prep geometry teacher, Ms. Love. I love you, baby. Thank you for everything. True.
- [57:11]
David Begnaud
I thought you might want to know, but this podcast is at the heart of a company I founded called Do Good Crew. I've spent 25 years telling stories. It used to be the bad news news, and now I want to focus on the good news. The everyday heroes who are doing extraordinary things. You can join us. We do live events, but we also have a newsletter. It's free. You can sign up for it by going to www.thedogoodcrew.com. this show was created by me, David Begno. Our executive producers are Ellen Rockamora and Olivier Delfoss. Our associate producer is Griffin Hamilton. Our booker is Sully Block. Director of photography is Foster Parks. Our theme music was created by Slipstream, Post production and edit done by Longwave Digital. This podcast was brought to you by our friends at Canva. If you're interested in more stories about people doing good in this world, go sign up for our free newsletter at www.thedogoodcrew.